A Message From Glenmary's New Associate Vocation Director

Patrick McEntee

I am blessed to be a new member of the Glenmary family. I look forward to this new opportunity to connect with young men as they discern their future and the possibility that God might be calling them to serve the home missions as a priest or brother with Glenmary Home Missioners.

I grew up in Covington, Ky., and call Greater Cincinnati home as most of my family and closest friends live in Greater Cincinnati. My father, Tom, my sisters, Kathleen and Peggy, and my brother Tom all live in Northern Kentucky. My mother Dorothy passed away in 2006.

I am a graduate of Holy Cross High School in Covington, Ky., Northern Kentucky University (Journalism) and the University of Dayton (Pastoral Ministry). My hobbies include fantasy baseball and football, traveling and I also have quite a collection of baseball cards. I am an avid Xavier (Cincinnati) basketball, Cincinnati Reds and Bengals fan. I have a goal of getting to all Major League Baseball Stadiums and so far I have visited the stadiums of 19 different teams.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel to India and Belize on immersion/mission trips. During my six weeks in India, I met many people and traveled around a large portion of the southern part of the country. Near the end of the journey, I was able to spend a few days in Calcutta working with the Missionaries of Charity and I also visited Mother Teresa’s tomb. The journey wrapped up with a visit to Delhi and Agra. There I visited the Gandhi Memorial and museum and the Taj Mahal. In Belize, I was part of a group that built and repaired homes in a small village near the Mexican border and also visited ancient Mayan ruins at Lamanai.

All of these experiences have helped me see how God is involved in our lives well beyond my imagining. The experiences have helped me to see that there are many different people with different gifts to lend to the Body of Christ. Each of us has a vocation given to us through our baptism—a universal call to holiness. This general vocation means that in everything we do, we must strive to keep God at the center. Serious discernment will lead us to what God has in store for us.

As associate director of vocations for Glenmary, my responsibility is to seek out and encourage young men to consider where God is leading them. In a sense, I am a vehicle or a helper on the journey. Even though it is ultimately up to the individual to make an informed decision as to a particular vocation, we don’t live in a vacuum. Part of my vocation is to help discerners find their vocation.

My own vocational journey began in earnest about 10 years ago (although the seeds were planted before I ever knew it) when I made a career change from journalism to working in youth ministry at a Catholic parish. From that time on, I have served young people at the junior high, high school and college levels as a retreat leader, campus minister and/or religion teacher.

Without a doubt God has been at my side through my own discernment. I hope that my experiences of the search will be beneficial to others who are considering what God asks of them.

I look forward to walking with young men on their path to discerning God’s call. My life is an example that even though your vocation is set, it is not the end of discernment. With every vocation, we are called to make decisions that contribute to the joy of finding what God intends for us. Even though living out our vocation isn’t always easy, it’s when we find joy in the midst of struggle that we know that we are where God wants us to be.

I can be reached at pmcentee@glenmary.org or 513.881. 7411. I hope to talk to you soon!