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My Vocation Prayer

Hi! I am Father Yvon Sheehy, SCJ

I was born in a small town near the Canadian Border in Northeastern Vermont. My father was a dairy farmer. I was born on Fathers Day, the fourth of five children. I spent my first three years of grade school in a classroom of 10 children for all three grades. Our town had one street which contained one multi business building with gas station, groceries and post office. Much of our life centered on the Parish for both spiritual and social outlets.

By the time I was three or four, my oldest brother entered the seminary of the Marianhill Missionaries. Our family was often around priests, brothers and sisters, some from my brothers Community, the local pastor and sisters who taught in the grade school.

In my fourth grade we moved off the farm to what was considered a big town 16 miles away with a population of 1,100. This was big in comparison to the 240 of the previous town. My dad became a day laborer in a factory. I began as an altar server. The local pastor often invited us to the rectory food and games.

Around the 3rd grade, I began to receive literature in the mail from the Priests of the Sacred Heart who had two houses in Western Massachusetts including a minor seminary. Thirty five miles meant a major trip in my life... Massachusetts some 200 miles away seemed at the end of the world. I did correspond with whoever was writing to me from the Priests of the Sacred Heart. Fr. Steve Wiese, SCJ was one of my first contacts.

In the fall of my 8th grade I received a letter asking if I wanted a visit from a Priest of the Sacred Heart. I promptly returned the card with an affirmative answer.

On a cold Friday afternoon on December 20th, my mother come running over to the Community Skating Rink where I was playing hockey to tell me about this priest who was on his way about 2 hours away. The first language in our home was French and both my parents spoke only a few words in English. My mother went to get a friend of hers to act as a translator. Fr. Dick Johnston, SCI, did arrive and in the evening talked with my parents, gave us a slide presentation and basically signed me up. Up to this point, I had never said anything to my folks nor had I indicated an interest. My parents were very supportive in either choice of going or not going.

In the fall of 1964, I entered the Minor seminary in Lenox, Massachusetts. In the Summer of 1968, I entered the Novitiate in Ste. Marie, Illinois. In the Fall of 1969, I went to our college seminary named Kilroe in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. After two years, we closed our college and moved to Chicago in our own residence while attending Loyola University where I graduated in 1973. 1 then taught in our High School seminary at Donaldson, Indiana for two years. In 1975, I began my theology at our school, Sacred Heart School Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. I was ordained a transitional Deacon in December of 1977 and Priest on June 17th, of 1978. I spent three months in a rural parish and three more months helping out in one of our Parishes in Southern Texas at Raymondville in 1978. There was always a kind of long armed network of support that reached out wherever I found myself either as a student or in ministry. This support has always felt good over the years. I came to South Dakota and took a semester at Black Hills State University taking courses in Indian Studies. Otherwise my ministry has been among the Lakota and Dakota Sioux. I served the people of South Dakota for the first ten years on the Cheyenne River Reservation and for the past 12 years on the Lower Brule Reservation. In between both assignment, I took a year sabbatical at Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In hindsight and retrospect, I see a few things that helped me in my journey. My family was religious but balanced as well. We liked a good time and fun. Our small town revolved around church with lots of activities.

I was born in June, the month of the Sacred Heart, after a hard pregnancy for my mom. My mother later told me she had given me to the Scared Heart to look after me. Being around priests and religious got me acquainted and helped ease me into developing an interest. Being independent and wanting to forge my own way, I was led to seek another community than my brothers Community. I always had an interest in foreign missions but grew to recognize Missions in our own country. There are lots of places for reaching out to people in need. I have learned much and been blessed by the people I minister to and those I minister with.

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