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In
Search of the Spirit
A
monthly letter from the Glenmary Vocation Office
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May 2005
Living in Transition
By Father Steve Pawelk
Life is a series of transitions. Certainly it is a time of transition for the Church as we have experienced the death of our beloved Pope John Paul II and now welcome our new shepherd, Pope Benedict XVI. For anyone under 30, this is the first time such a transition is being experienced. And this--like any transition--is a time for grief and for trust. We grieve what we are leaving behind and we trust that, wherever we are going, God will go with us.
I want to introduce to you three men who are in the midst of very personal transitions: They are all in the process of applying to become Glenmary Home Missioners.
Each of these men has taken a brave step, but one that brings its own worries and anxieties. Each of them will be giving up something that has become comfortable, has become home, to try something new and challenging and unknown. They must move forward with a great deal of trust in God. Once they finish their application, they must wait weeks for a decision by the Glenmary Admissions Committee to affirm or not affirm their discernment to leave behind one way of life in order to embrace a new way of life. I am proud of each of them.
Aaron, 23, and has been serving as a youth minister in his hometown. He is surrendering a job he loves to become a priest in the home missions of the rural United States. He does this without any guarantee that what he starts today will be where he finishes. Yet, as he told me shortly after the Pope's death, "I feel so honored and will be so privileged if I can serve as a priest in this Church."
Chris, 28, is comfortable in the seminary for the Diocese of San Juan de los Lagos, Jalisco, Mexico. A U.S. citizen, he was raised primarily in Mexico by his grandparents. The easy road would be to continue in the diocesan system, be ordained and work in Mexico. Yet he feels the Spirit stirring him to turn in a new direction--even though this changing of direction means his ordination will be delayed by at least two years. On his way for some of the testing required in the application process, Chris told me, "If I could take my First Oath today with Glenmary, I would."
Craig, 47, is successfully employed in a job he loves, has two adult children and has lived in the same house for most of his adult life. Yet he is choosing to leave this all behind to pursue an inner yearning to serve God full-time as a Glenmary brother. His years raising children, teaching CCD and RCIA, and his six years of taking Communion to the local nursing home have inspired him to do more. His two adult children are in full support of their Dad pursing this vocation. As the older one said, "It will be cool to tell my kids, 'Let's visit your granddad, the religious brother." Craig is taking a great leap of faith, yet the inner stirring of the Lord is moving him to answer the call to take up work that matters for the sake of the neglected ones in rural America.
There are still others who may apply this year, and we have a number of international students who, I hope, will be joining us in August. So the process is not yet complete. It is a time of transition.
I ask you, therefore, to pray for these men and for the Admissions Committee who will be making their decisions the end of May or in early June.
Also, my faithful reader, maybe you are finally ready to risk transition in your own life as you continue your search for the Spirit. Know that you are always in my prayers as you struggle toward the future.
