Latest / Beyond The Beacon / 40: A vocation discernment retreat can offer the way forward

Transcript

40: A vocation discernment retreat can offer the way forward · Beyond The Beacon

0:07
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Beyond the Beacon with Bishop Kevin Sweeney, a podcast of the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: Join us for weekly conversations about our Catholic faith and submit questions for the Bishop today.
0:17
SPEAKER_01: I'm Jay Agnis, and with me is Bishop Kevin Sweeney.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: Bishop, how are you today?
0:22
SPEAKER_05: I'm doing well, Jay.
0:23
SPEAKER_05: How are you doing?
0:24
SPEAKER_01: Doing well, thanks.
0:25
SPEAKER_01: Feeling better?
0:26
SPEAKER_01: I am, yeah.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was a rough week.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was fun to see a new co-host join you at the table.
0:34
SPEAKER_01: Yes, she did.
0:35
SPEAKER_05: With our high school students and sister Christina, I think.
0:38
SPEAKER_05: Uh-huh.
0:39
SPEAKER_05: So yeah, she did well.
0:41
SPEAKER_05: It's good to have you back.
0:42
SPEAKER_05: Um, thanks.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was any, you know, anytime she uh wants to come on, she's more than welcome to join us or substitute for me.
0:50
SPEAKER_01: Uh I uh I do enjoy doing this with you.
0:53
SPEAKER_01: It's it's been a real pleasure, and it's exciting to see the podcast growing and more and more people are listening and watching every day.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: So that's so thanks so much for everyone for joining us.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: Um what what have you been up to?
1:03
SPEAKER_01: So you went down to the March for Life.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:06
SPEAKER_05: Um Thursday afternoon I headed down, and um the weather forecasts were not great, but heading down was no problem and beautiful experience of the vigil mass starting the National Prayer Vigil for Life, uh five o'clock mass, Bishop Burbitch, uh the Bishop of the Arch of the Diocese of Arlington, um but head of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities and hosts your one of your favorite podcasts, the Walk Humbly Podcast.
1:38
SPEAKER_05: Yep, and who um his diocese of Arlington had hosted um in the past a uh Life is very good event, uh a youth um rally the evening before in the morning of the March, and they revived it this year.
1:53
SPEAKER_05: And one of our high schools, the Paul High School, uh had a group that were attending the Life is Very Good um uh rally in Arlington.
2:04
SPEAKER_05: So after the Mass at the Basilica, the beautiful basilica, the national shrine of the Immaculate Conception, filled.
2:10
SPEAKER_05: Uh I think there were four cardinals or archbishops, the uh papal nuncio, archbishop uh now Cardinal Pierre was there.
2:18
SPEAKER_05: And so um a lot of priests um and uh filled with so many young people, wonderful to see.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: So he's still on talking terms with the U.S.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: bishops.
2:26
SPEAKER_05: Yes, he is, yes, he is.
2:27
SPEAKER_05: So we're gonna have ups and downs here and there, but no, it's a very collegial and uh um a lot more maybe unity than appears maybe in the media.
2:35
SPEAKER_05: Sure.
2:36
SPEAKER_05: So um actually in in in our prayer today, I wanted to pray a prayer that I learned or heard about for the first time.
2:43
SPEAKER_05: I think it's on the US C C B website.
2:44
SPEAKER_05: It's also on a Respect Life website, the prayer for um radical accompaniment, um radical solidarity, excuse me.
2:51
SPEAKER_05: But also um at the Life is Very Good event, um I had a chance to spend some time with the DePaul students and some excellent speakers and a um wonderful musician who gave a testimony, John Paul.
3:04
SPEAKER_05: I think it's Ox.
3:05
SPEAKER_05: We'll put it up afterwards, but beautiful song about his brother who has Down syndrome.
3:09
SPEAKER_05: The title of the song is He's Different, um, kind of country song, but um that he just wrote, I think, and came out this past of October.
3:17
SPEAKER_05: And um the the pictures and videos of him and his little brother.
3:21
SPEAKER_05: And he talked about his brother with Down syndrome as just being completely not judging anybody or you know, just being completely open to love and realize that he's how he realizes he's loved.
3:31
SPEAKER_05: And um that message that uh unfortunately our society and culture doesn't fully appreciate or understand that every person is a beautiful child of God, uh, no matter their circumstances, and and a responsibility that we have to to love with all our hearts.
3:46
SPEAKER_05: And so I'll I wanted to post it because uh I think it's worth the listen.
3:50
SPEAKER_05: Uh He's Different by John Paul Ox, I believe it is.
3:54
SPEAKER_05: Um so then uh did that uh after the uh the the Vigil Mass, then the rally, and then um uh got the little sleep and uh was up in the morning for a mass with the Order of Malta, and the snow started as predicted around I think six or seven on the morning of the March, and it snowed throughout the day, but it really didn't stop people.
4:15
SPEAKER_05: And apparently Washington, DC is a um well, it didn't stop those who were able to get to Washington, but uh Washington has a bad reputation apparently for um keeping the streets clean or dealing with snowstorms and uh the streets were in great shape.
4:31
SPEAKER_05: No, uh well, DC did a great job, and so um then I had uh scheduled to have mass for the pilgrims from the diocese, but um there was a state of New Jersey uh state of emergency here in our state of New Jersey.
4:43
SPEAKER_05: There wasn't much state snow, I don't think, up here, but in southern New Jersey apparently there was.
4:47
SPEAKER_05: And so we had three buses that many of them had high school students on them, uh, or planned to be on them, and you know, it was understandable uh better safe than sorry.
4:56
SPEAKER_05: So those buses didn't make it.
4:57
SPEAKER_05: One bus from Holy Rosary Parish in Passaic uh did make it down, and so uh we had mass.
5:03
SPEAKER_05: Uh the brother of one of our recently ordained priests, Father Christoph Tisko, was studying in Rome.
5:08
SPEAKER_05: His brother is a student at Catholic University and was there for the mass.
5:11
SPEAKER_05: And your brother, right?
5:13
SPEAKER_05: Yes, John Peter, our guest today.
5:14
SPEAKER_05: His brother is Father Christoph uh uh uh Michael, right?
5:17
SPEAKER_05: Is Father Christoph's brothers um and their roommates, is that right?
5:21
SPEAKER_05: They're roommates, yeah.
5:22
SPEAKER_03: They're roommates with my brother David.
5:23
SPEAKER_05: That's great, that's great.
5:24
SPEAKER_05: So they were there for the mess.
5:25
SPEAKER_05: And uh so then um the march was uh they use incredible energy and numbers of people and just really, really beautiful.
5:33
SPEAKER_05: Um then uh I um this weekend had a beautiful celebration for the feast of St.
5:38
SPEAKER_05: Agnes, which is always special to me because my mom's name was Agnes, and uh January 21st, St.
5:44
SPEAKER_05: Agnes Parish in uh Patterson, and then also uh January 21st, our sisters and brothers in the Dominican Republic celebrate Our Lady of Alta Gracia, the patroness of the Dominican Republic, and I had a mass for our Lady of Alta Gracia at um St.
5:59
SPEAKER_05: Anthony of Padua Parish in um in Paseo.
6:03
SPEAKER_05: Um but then um I guess it was um Tuesday, we um Tuesday I celebrated the funeral mass for one of our priests, Father Jack Klein, and was at a meeting in the afternoon, got a call from Monsignor Silva and heard the terrible news about um Chief Richard Bernick, um, our sheriff here in Paseo County, um, who um who whose life came to an end on on this um past on this Monday, and um we pray for his wife Monica and his children and grandchildren and all those in the Sheriff's Department, law enforcement.
6:37
SPEAKER_05: Um Sheriff Bardnick was a parishioner of St.
6:39
SPEAKER_05: Andrew's Parish, a Eucharistic minister, remember the Knights of Columbus, just a man of great, great goodness.
6:44
SPEAKER_05: And so we mourn his loss and we pray for the consolation of his family and for the repose of his soul.
6:49
SPEAKER_05: So we'll remember him as we pray also.
6:52
SPEAKER_05: Um and we're happy to have our one of our seminarians, John Peter and and uh Father Frank.
6:57
SPEAKER_05: Um, did you want to introduce them first?
7:00
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, why don't I introduce so uh John Peter Zapp is in his final year of minor seminary undergraduate studies at the College Seminary of the Immaculate Conception at St.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: Andrew's Hall.
7:10
SPEAKER_01: He is on it's a mouthful.
7:12
SPEAKER_01: He is on track to graduate in the spring and enter his first year of major seminary in the fall at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: Both schools are part of Seton Hall University in in South Orange and across the way is Father Frank Lenny, or I'm gonna give you his full name.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: This is pretty, pretty fascinating.
7:31
SPEAKER_01: Francis Hamilton Balfour Lenny IV.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and maybe you could tell us some stories about that later.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: But he was ordained a priest for the Diocese not too long ago by yourself, Bishop, in May of 2021.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: Uh Father Frank is a is the parochial vicar at St.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: Anthony in Hawthorne.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: He's also co-chaplain at DePaul Catholic High School in Wayne.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: And during the NFL season, he celebrates Mass for the away teams at MetLife Stadium, where the Jets and the Giants, your team, the Jets and my team, the Giants play.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: So pretty cool, pretty fascinating guests.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of interesting anecdotes.
8:05
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully we've got time to cram those all in.
8:08
SPEAKER_05: Season tickets for season Seton Hall?
8:10
SPEAKER_00: No, I gave them up, but uh I go there quite often.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: So season tickets.
8:15
SPEAKER_05: Frank and I were both at the St.
8:16
SPEAKER_05: John's Seaton Hall game this a week ago.
8:19
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
8:20
SPEAKER_05: The 16th, I think, and that was not a good result for the case.
8:22
SPEAKER_01: The one where you were rooting for both seasons, right?
8:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes, right, right.
8:25
SPEAKER_01: But so one of the hardest ones.
8:27
SPEAKER_05: I've been rooting for St.
8:28
SPEAKER_05: John's since the late 80s, so it's hard to uh break uh habits.
8:32
SPEAKER_05: But uh uh but St.
8:33
SPEAKER_05: John's had a great win last night against Villanova, uh my brother's uh law school alma mater, and uh uh and so um they're back on the winning track.
8:41
SPEAKER_05: And so uh I'm happy for my Johnny's there and we'll see.
8:44
SPEAKER_05: You didn't have Bettini back next time.
8:46
SPEAKER_05: That's right, that's right.
8:46
SPEAKER_05: Our the coach was out with COVID.
8:48
SPEAKER_05: So um that's why the other team was able to score 28 consecutive points, right?
8:53
SPEAKER_05: The Call is having a great year.
8:54
SPEAKER_05: So uh love way great Big East basketball is back, I think, and uh looking forward to the a few more weeks of the regular season and the biggest tournament and the um NCAA.
9:04
SPEAKER_05: So um that'll be exciting.
9:05
SPEAKER_01: Good, yeah.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: So um I'm gonna let you after we pray, I'll let you introduce the topic.
9:10
SPEAKER_05: Sure.
9:11
SPEAKER_05: And as we begin our prayer, just uh uh another podcast I love is uh conversations with Cardinal Dolan.
9:18
SPEAKER_05: He's been off for a while, but he's back now.
9:19
SPEAKER_05: And uh he was talking in his podcast yesterday, I think, uh Tuesday, about um the great saints that we celebrate in the end of January.
9:27
SPEAKER_05: So um since January 22nd, the anniversary of Roe v.
9:30
SPEAKER_05: Wade, um now a national day of of prayer for life um throughout our country here in the United States, uh the feast day of St.
9:39
SPEAKER_05: Vincent, Deacon and Martyr, uh we think of our sisters and brothers at St.
9:43
SPEAKER_05: Vincent's Parish in in Madison, um, that was moved from January 22nd to January 23rd, which is also the feast of St.
9:50
SPEAKER_05: Mary and Cope.
9:51
SPEAKER_05: If you don't know about St.
9:52
SPEAKER_05: Mary Ann Cope, learn about her, a co-worker of Damien with blessed now, I think St.
9:57
SPEAKER_05: Damien and Malachi, and um originally from upstate New York, Syracuse.
10:01
SPEAKER_05: Um, yesterday, um, the feast of St.
10:04
SPEAKER_05: Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor of the Church, um, praying for our Salesian sisters and brothers who have kind of two feast days and eight days.
10:12
SPEAKER_05: Uh today was we're filmed uh taping on Thursday the 25th, the great conversion of St.
10:18
SPEAKER_05: Paul.
10:18
SPEAKER_05: Um, wonderful, important feast in the church.
10:21
SPEAKER_05: Um tomorrow, uh excuse me, Friday.
10:24
SPEAKER_05: Um, tomorrow, Timothy and Titus, uh, two of the early bishops of the church and disciples of St.
10:29
SPEAKER_05: Paul.
10:30
SPEAKER_05: Um, Saturday, St.
10:31
SPEAKER_05: Angela Marici.
10:33
SPEAKER_05: Um, you can learn about St.
10:34
SPEAKER_05: Angela.
10:35
SPEAKER_01: And what is this book you're referencing?
10:36
SPEAKER_05: This is the what we call the Ordo, the uh uh I guess you call it Juchitsi, or maybe playbook uh for uh small card uh for uh there's a little book that's in each sacristy that tells the priest um uh where what page to be on in which book, the missile and uh and the lectionary and uh helps with other things in preparation for the mass and uh also talks about the the saints' feast day each day.
11:00
SPEAKER_05: So um just a couple of more.
11:02
SPEAKER_05: Um next Wednesday, the feast of Don Bosco, um St.
11:06
SPEAKER_05: John Bosco, founder of the Sleans, along with St.
11:09
SPEAKER_05: Mary Mazzarella, and then um Friday the second, uh the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Saturday the third, Saint Blaze, Bishop and Martyr, when we can get our needle get our throats blessed, right?
11:19
SPEAKER_05: So um keep the lives of the saints.
11:22
SPEAKER_05: Uh uh I I shared before, Franciscan Media has a great um um website.
11:29
SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, just Google Catholic Saint of the Day and you'll find it.
11:33
SPEAKER_05: So um asking the intercession of our blessed mother and all the angels and saints, we'll place ourselves in God's presence in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
11:42
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
11:43
SPEAKER_05: As we continue to pray for and work towards a greater respect for the dignity and value of every human life, we pray this prayer for radical solidarity.
11:53
SPEAKER_05: O Blessed Mother, at the angel's word, you went in haste to the aid of your cousin Elizabeth.
11:59
SPEAKER_05: Although pregnant yourself, you placed her needs before your own.
12:04
SPEAKER_05: By your example of radical solidarity, teach us to reserve, reverence, and protect those in need without conditions or expectations.
12:14
SPEAKER_05: Ask your son to give us unfailing determination to witness to the profound dignity of every person at every stage and in every circumstance.
12:23
SPEAKER_05: In that first Eucharistic procession, you carry Jesus to Elizabeth in her time of need.
12:29
SPEAKER_05: Obtain for us the grace to bring Christ to any expectant mother who is alone and afraid.
12:36
SPEAKER_05: May our support help them to find hope and strength in the Lord.
12:40
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
12:41
SPEAKER_05: We ask all these prayers in the name of Jesus who is Lord forever and ever.
12:45
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
12:45
SPEAKER_05: Name of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: So we want to, what are what are we what are we talking about today, Bishop?
12:55
SPEAKER_05: So we have an upcoming uh discernment retreat um the first weekend in March.
13:01
SPEAKER_05: And again, extending that invitation these past two Sundays.
13:05
SPEAKER_05: We've had vocation gospels uh in addition to the first reading from Samuel, that wonderful um the Lord calling the youth, and Samuel hearing the call and helping responding finally with the help of Eli.
13:17
SPEAKER_05: But um, as we think of God's call in our own lives, and again, we from baptism we believe we're all called to holiness, called to be saints, and we can live out that call in the single life, in marriage and family life, and we pray um for the young and not so young who are called to give their lives to to the service of the Lord and the church, um, in vocations as consecrated sisters of brothers, religious um brothers, sisters of priests, and um those called to the diocese and priesthood.
13:47
SPEAKER_05: And um, so we're gonna have this retreat for uh young men um 16 years and and older um who might be considering a vocation to priesthood.
13:58
SPEAKER_05: And um Jesus said that to his disciples that we need to go away for a time to a quiet place, and um he told us we should pray always, but he also taught us that there's a need for that kind of separation from the stresses and activities and busyness of life.
14:16
SPEAKER_05: And we God speaks sometimes the loudest in in in quiet.
14:20
SPEAKER_05: And so from a Friday evening until a Sunday uh midday, uh we'll be together, Father Ed Rama, our vocation director, um, and um some of our seminarians and I'm sure some of our priests will be helping out.
14:33
SPEAKER_05: But um, I think we already have close to ten young men registered, and there's still plenty of time, another month to go, um, so or five weeks even.
14:41
SPEAKER_05: Um, but I'm not sure everybody is aware of what a difference a retreat could make, um, and especially in the lives of young people.
14:50
SPEAKER_05: Um, and so I thought um one of our younger seminarians and one of our more recently ordained priests, a young priest uh like Father Frank and uh and John Peter is a seminarian, might be able to share a little bit about um discerning God's call and also how a retreat day or a retreat weekend could could help in that.
15:08
SPEAKER_05: So I hope you guys get up to that task.
15:11
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
15:13
SPEAKER_05: So maybe uh tell us a little bit about discerning God's call in your own life and and how a retreat might have helped in that process or after entering the seminary.
15:22
SPEAKER_05: Maybe Father Frank, you can lead off.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Um so it was actually on a retreat that I actually said out loud that I wanted to be a priest.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: I was on a search retreat.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh huh.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was my I guess my first time I publicly said to a group of people that I was discerning the priesthood.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: And uh so that's Do you remember how old you are?
15:38
SPEAKER_00: I guess I was a junior in high school, I guess.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Um but prior to that I really didn't publicly say to a group of at least my peers.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Um but retreats I think are excellent.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Um because you have so many voices that are trying to tell you what to do, yeah or what not to do.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: So you have like the old lady who says, Oh, you should be a priest, definitely, and then you have the people, oh, you don't want to throw your life away.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: But really, that's not God's voice.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: You need to go away to hear God's voice.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: And um uh through search retreats that I did or through uh covatis retreats or really now as a priest uh doing my annual retreat, which um you know, to get away and and to listen to God, um because we're so busy as humans, um, and I think we're getting busier by the by the day.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh so many things uh uh flood our mind and especially with our phones, we're we never really get to go away.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: So the fact that on these retreats, it's you usually are encouraged to to take don't have any outside uh uh really contact.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: You just give that time to reset and listen to that voice of God.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: And uh as Bishop said, and as scripture says, the Lord really speaks in the silence.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: And uh if you're not going into the silence, you can't really hear it.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And really, what did Jesus do?
16:49
SPEAKER_00: He always went off and prayed, so it really it's a model of him.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: So if we want to discern God's will, I think we have to model our discernment on the way Jesus would do it as well.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: So follow his lead, right?
17:00
SPEAKER_00: So if the Son of God needed to do, I think, right?
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: Are those um yearly retreats like required for priests?
17:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: And I I know you go on a yearly retreat.
17:11
SPEAKER_01: Yes, that was the first week of January, yeah.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
17:15
SPEAKER_05: John Peter, how a little bit of discerning and how retreats might have helped.
17:21
SPEAKER_03: So the first time that uh like like uh Father Frank said, like that I told people I was thinking about being a priest.
17:29
SPEAKER_03: Um it was a retreat, but it was more of a mission trip that we left.
17:33
SPEAKER_03: But it was like you're going away from retreat aspects, yeah.
17:36
SPEAKER_03: And um what was really helpful for me because I I was in high school at the time and I I I was raised in the faith very well, and but it wasn't really my own yet.
17:46
SPEAKER_03: I was just I just go to church because my family goes to church.
17:48
SPEAKER_03: And uh that week was it was a Catholic art work camp uh work uh retreat.
17:54
SPEAKER_03: And um what's good about it is it it gives you the joy of service, and like I'd never experienced something like that before.
18:01
SPEAKER_03: Where did you go?
18:02
SPEAKER_03: We went down to North Carolina um and then for for my first year.
18:07
SPEAKER_03: And how old are you?
18:08
SPEAKER_03: What are you starting?
18:09
SPEAKER_03: I was 17, then so it was a yeah, junior.
18:11
SPEAKER_03: Um and then um yeah, so that and then that was the first time I heard a vocation story.
18:17
SPEAKER_03: The priest gave his vocation story.
18:18
SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh, well that that's how people become priests.
18:21
SPEAKER_03: Okay, um and so that kind of started the gears rolling on that.
18:25
SPEAKER_03: I kind of thought about the priest before, um, and now it was I wanted to first make like become start living my faith more.
18:33
SPEAKER_03: And um, so after that year I for that lent of that year, I I I'm gonna go to daily mass more.
18:39
SPEAKER_03: Um and I'm gonna you know help out the parish more, uh, go to confession more.
18:43
SPEAKER_03: And um then the next time that retreat rolled around again, it was always in the summer, and um I made my intention to God, like, hey God, if you want me to become a priest, uh you know, let me know on this retreat.
18:55
SPEAKER_03: I I was just graduated high school and I didn't really know what to do for the you know, I was just going to community college.
19:02
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I was still trying to figure out what to do with my life.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: And uh on that retreat, um for the second time, it was uh the strange thing that happened was you know, you come, you're taken away from your hometown, you're put in like a new state.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: We were in upstate New York, and you have all these other and you're put in a work group with all these other people from across the country.
19:21
SPEAKER_03: So these people didn't know me.
19:23
SPEAKER_03: This is like the first time of them meeting me.
19:26
SPEAKER_03: And um all during that week from them and from like the people we helped, um, there's always, oh, have you thought about becoming a priest?
19:35
SPEAKER_03: And um, so that was one thing, but then also during Eucharistic Adoration, they have one night of that week where it's it's just all Eucharistic adoration, and it goes kind of late into the night of um of praying.
19:47
SPEAKER_03: And um during that, I that was the first time I felt at peace with the call of uh of the priesthood.
19:54
SPEAKER_03: And um so coming off of that retreat, I was kind of scared.
19:56
SPEAKER_03: I was like, okay.
19:58
SPEAKER_03: I I kind of be careful what you asked.
20:01
SPEAKER_03: And you kind of so I was like, uh this is something I gotta you know work on.
20:05
SPEAKER_03: Um and if I want to keep calling myself a Christian of following God, I gotta I gotta see where this leads.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: For discernment retreats, when you go on these things, you realize you're not the only one considering a call to the priesthood or whatever uh whatever d vocation that you're discerning.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a way to realize that you're not crazy or you're not like uh a weirdo that you're thinking like that God might be calling you.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: That that there is this uh spirit moving amongst uh younger people and and all people that um that's good that when you go on these retreats that you can see that.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: And then you don't feel like you're alone or you're you're not on an island community.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: So some community.
20:43
SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
20:43
SPEAKER_05: In my time as vocation director, um Bishop DeMarzio would do an um annual vocation retreat.
20:49
SPEAKER_05: And thank you for mentioning that, Father Frank, because um that experience of being with a group of guys, um ordinary, regular guys um uh you know similar ages, um who are serious about their faith first, um, and then open to God's call.
21:06
SPEAKER_05: Um that often is uh uh because there's that temptation when a guy feels called, if he hasn't been to a seminary or known others, um then um uh thank you, Jay.
21:16
SPEAKER_05: Uh he um he has that temptation to think, well, is it just me?
21:20
SPEAKER_05: Am I the only one?
21:20
SPEAKER_05: You know, am I crazy?
21:22
SPEAKER_05: Or um uh but when he's in that group, um he sees that there's a lot of others.
21:29
SPEAKER_05: So John, uh Peter, your some experience of retreats then when you were in the seminary?
21:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so in in the seminary for the retreats, um we do like a silent retreat where it's no talking at all.
21:42
SPEAKER_03: And I'd never done that ever before.
21:44
SPEAKER_03: Uh so it's uh first times you do it, you're like I remember like being a freshman on on those and just waiting to talk to someone again and like towards the end, you know, you you start like nodding at people and uh So it's a bit hard to keep the silence there.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: But um how long how many days or hours are you being silent for?
22:06
SPEAKER_03: Um usually a weekend.
22:08
SPEAKER_03: Uh two days.
22:10
SPEAKER_03: Um and um which was funny, at our for my first silent retreat, that they allowed talking at meals.
22:17
SPEAKER_03: And it was the longest lunch I've ever been at.
22:21
SPEAKER_03: But uh besides that one, you know, what was great about the silence, like in later years I would, you know, you could choose to sit by yourself and not uh talk.
22:30
SPEAKER_03: And um what I didn't realize about like the silence is that you you keep the prayer going, whatever prayer you're doing at mass, or you kind of take that with you um as you're you know eating eating your food.
22:42
SPEAKER_03: And uh and another thing, like with like eating on a silent or you never like think about eating all that much.
22:48
SPEAKER_03: And then like when you're not talking to anyone or just thinking, you're just you're really meditating on eating.
22:53
SPEAKER_03: It's kind of strange like that.
22:54
SPEAKER_03: And uh but yeah, like you know, just in class today, we were talking about spirituality, and we're talking about the uh uh desert fathers and uh St.
23:03
SPEAKER_03: Anthony.
23:04
SPEAKER_03: And um like why they would do that is like you confront the darkest part of yourself when you're away from everyone, and like that's where you know you can realize like, oh, this part of me is not totally following Christ here.
23:21
SPEAKER_03: Um and this is something I need to work on.
23:22
SPEAKER_05: So that I always found helpful about retreats, and uh um you know, as I said before, it's a great to just and the lives of the saints, um many of the mystics and those who lived a compl contemplative vocation, and some um uh that were active as well.
23:40
SPEAKER_05: I was thinking Padre Pio, but um uh there's that um experience in the spiritual life when when we draw closer closer to the Lord, we get the attention of the enemy, uh and he's gonna he doesn't like it when we get closer to the Lord.
23:57
SPEAKER_05: So he's gonna use anything, our weakest parts, to um get us distracted from drawing closer to the Lord.
24:05
SPEAKER_05: So often now I would say on this vocation retreat experience is not an eight-day or even a three-day silent retreat, so it may not be intense as those um, but but anybody entering the spiritual life should be ready for those.
24:20
SPEAKER_05: Uh and we walk the journey together and spiritual directors, others um, you know, can help us on that journey, and and Jesus says, don't be afraid.
24:29
SPEAKER_05: So, but we shouldn't be surprised if we're drawing close to the Lord that uh the uh the the enemy will um you know use uh our weaknesses and temptations to to to get us out of um um drawing uh drawing close to the Lord.
24:45
SPEAKER_05: Uh you mentioned silent retreat, and I wanted to mention, and maybe Father Frank can think of some retreat houses he's been to, but um we have this wonderful retreat house in Morristown, um Loyola Retreat, run by the Jesuit Fathers, and I did my first silent retreat there in the sum, excuse me, in January of 1993, so just over 30 years, as my first year in the seminary in Huntington.
25:09
SPEAKER_05: They had a custom of doing a silent retreat, um, a program for guys in their first year.
25:15
SPEAKER_05: There were like two weeks of workshops, and then we went to this retreat house for a silent retreat.
25:20
SPEAKER_05: Little did I know that I'd end up back in the diocese.
25:24
SPEAKER_05: But uh that was the I guess my first experience of the diocese of Patterson, spending um eight days there in silence.
25:30
SPEAKER_05: Oh wow.
25:30
SPEAKER_05: Um, but you mentioned you the prayer continuing, and you have a director in that Ignatian way, the the St.
25:36
SPEAKER_05: Ignatius says uh there were some will do 30-day silent retreats.
25:40
SPEAKER_05: And um, but praying with the scriptures, I never prayed with the scriptures like I did during those eight days.
25:46
SPEAKER_05: And a director will give you a scripture passage and again introduce you to the Ignatian way of entering into prayer and using the imagination and placing yourself in the scene of the of the scriptures, the gospels especially.
25:59
SPEAKER_05: And um, it's a very, very powerful experience.
26:02
SPEAKER_05: Um, and so I was I'm very grateful to uh the Jesuit community um who run continue to run a retreat house, and it's used by many groups for many retreats, and um, I'm just glad it was available.
26:13
SPEAKER_05: So that's where the retreat will be um uh on the first weekend in March.
26:17
SPEAKER_05: Father Frank, uh any retreat houses or uh places for retreat that stand out that were helpful in terms of the environment?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: Um the one I love is um Spencer Abbey, uh St.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: Joseph's up there.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: Um they have a nice little Massachusetts.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Massachusetts, yeah.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Um so I know a lot of guys go there and I I've I've been up there once.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Um Trappists?
26:38
SPEAKER_00: The Trappists, yeah.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Um they're the ones that make all the nice vestments, the Holy Rose.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Yes, right.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, but um again, it's a beautiful uh place.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: And you also, if you choose, you can pray the the hours uh with the monks.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: So they do um I think one at like three o'clock in the morning.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: So if you're really into that, you can get up and uh uh do that.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Um I guess my fondest memories are all at um at this lesion in uh retreat house in Newton.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yes, uh that's where I did most of my um uh seminary retreats.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Um and just um again.
27:53
SPEAKER_05: I'll be there this coming weekend.
27:54
SPEAKER_05: Father Dan Murphy, one of our retired priests, um who had been pastor of St.
27:58
SPEAKER_05: Matthew's and Randall for a time.
27:59
SPEAKER_05: I think it's a men's group at um St.
28:01
SPEAKER_05: Matthew's.
28:01
SPEAKER_05: He's running a retreat weekend and um hoping to get up there for a visit on Saturday afternoon.
28:05
SPEAKER_05: Are you familiar with it?
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it's something about their baptismal call or something like that.
28:09
SPEAKER_01: Right.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: John Peter grew up in Green Township, which is right next to it.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
28:15
SPEAKER_01: Is your family still there?
28:16
SPEAKER_05: Yes, still there, yeah.
28:17
SPEAKER_05: That's great.
28:18
SPEAKER_05: Um so maybe, well, also to mention, um, glad to see the Flyers.
28:22
SPEAKER_05: Uh um another opportunity to for young men considering priesthood is Project Andrew.
28:27
SPEAKER_05: Just a very couple of hours, uh uh time of prayer, a simple meal and some fellowship with uh priests and seminarians.
28:35
SPEAKER_05: You can hear a vocation story as um John Peter mentioned, uh, and that's gonna be on um Friday, February 2nd, the day before the feast of the presentation.
28:44
SPEAKER_05: Um, or no, the feast of the presentation.
28:46
SPEAKER_05: Yeah, right, the second day before same place.
28:48
SPEAKER_05: Um at um Our Lady of the Lake in Sparta.
28:51
SPEAKER_05: Um, we thank Father Dave McDonnell, the pastor, for hosting, and Father John Calabro, the um campus minister at Pope John High School, has been helpful in organizing this particular project, Andrew.
29:04
SPEAKER_05: And um, Father Frank, maybe a word about working with young people in DePaul High School uh during this year with uh Father Joey Makdle and um Father Steve DeLia.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're actually very lucky.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm not gonna reveal his name, but we do have somebody who's not applying for our diocese, but he's applying for the Archdiocese in North because that's where he lives.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: Um so it's been uh fun to see, at least in this one instance, this one um man grow in his faith.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: I was walking in chapel and he was he had a I thought it was a Bible, because I'm like, there's no way this kid is praying with the bravery.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: A student at the Paul?
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, um I find out it's uh it's the bravery, and I'm like, wow, this is amazing.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: Um because I went to DePaul Catholic, that's where I I had my meetings for my uh to to enter and stuff like that.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: So it's just it was a beauty to see the full circle uh effect of um God called me and now he called me back there, and I get to journey at least a little bit with this man and this man, yeah.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Um to work with these young people who they're searching for something.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of people are very negative about the youth.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Um they're uh they don't they don't know they're very ungodly or they stuff like that.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: You see all at least in my instance when I talk to older people, they they kind of look down on the youth.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's it's a shame because we celebrate the feast of uh the conversion of St.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Paul today, and we have to pray for the conversion of all.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the I think the young people are searching for that conversion moment, but nobody's really preaching to them the the love of Christ and the beauty of a vocation to marriage or to uh a religious life or a single life or whatever, but they're searching for something and and the fact that I get to work with um with at DePaul one day a week or at my school at St.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Anthony's, um, just to be that presence.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: Not that I I'm preaching every day about vocations, but uh to show that I I do have a joyful life, have a challenges, um, but that I I love what I do, and um it's a joy that they call me father, so we have that interaction that so that I get to be that fatherly figure and say, you can do whatever you want.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: God is calling you something great, so don't be afraid of whatever it is.
31:10
SPEAKER_01: Um and Bishop, you often um encourage pastors, I know in your writing in the beacon, to um take part in the vocations and and encourage.
31:20
SPEAKER_05: The invitation, right?
31:21
SPEAKER_05: Um we're called to be like Samuel, uh, you know, uh for excuse me, Eli for Samuel.
31:26
SPEAKER_05: Um and Andrew, again, we call it that because Andrew went and got his brother.
31:30
SPEAKER_05: And uh I wrote my column in the beak uh in the beacon uh asking everyone um to uh well actually this past weekend asking everyone to share the good news about Catholic schools, which we need to do this weekend.
31:41
SPEAKER_05: This week coming up is Catholic Schools Week.
31:43
SPEAKER_05: So we um uh encourage um all those to support um our Catholic schools and encourage families to consider.
31:50
SPEAKER_05: The week before I had asked um to everyone to consider being an Eli or an Andrew for um extending that invitation and pastors and priests, as Father Frank has just shared, can do that in a particular way.
32:02
SPEAKER_05: And simply inviting a guy to a tender project, Andrew, or even maybe to come on the weekend retreat um can be a great help.
32:09
SPEAKER_05: Um, John Peter, thinking of uh young people, young men in high school or college, what advice or encouragement would you offer them if they were maybe thinking about this?
32:19
SPEAKER_05: Or if we have some parents or grandparents out there of um young men, what would you what would you say to them?
32:25
SPEAKER_05: So that's maybe two questions.
32:26
SPEAKER_05: What messages the young people and to parents and grandparents and uh some of the adults who might encourage young people?
32:34
SPEAKER_03: Um best advice I've ever heard, you know, is it comes from Jesus Himself, you know, do not be afraid.
32:39
SPEAKER_03: And um like I remember my going on my first like retreat that was specifically like at a seminary and it was this is a discernment for priesthood.
32:49
SPEAKER_03: It wasn't like a general retreat, this is like a priesthood retreat.
32:52
SPEAKER_03: I was very nervous about going.
32:54
SPEAKER_03: And um, I think one of the reasons is that I didn't I didn't want to like adopt the identity of like a discerner, and then people would think of me differently.
33:02
SPEAKER_03: Oh, he's thinking of becoming a priest.
33:03
SPEAKER_03: I didn't want to like, but you know, we're in the Christian life, we're always um leaving behind the old man and you know, putting on the new man of of Christ.
33:12
SPEAKER_03: And uh I just want to encourage people that if you do have those fears, um, yeah, just trusting God um and you'll be a better person for it.
33:21
SPEAKER_03: Um and then for older people, um I think being good examples, being uh good Christian examples, um, like for me, uh I get a lot of inspiration, like seeing really old priests go up to say mass and like they're you know, have a cane or walker and they're they're hobbling up there.
33:43
SPEAKER_03: It's like wow, that they've given their whole life to this.
33:46
SPEAKER_03: And same with like uh married people that you know, like old married couples that are been married for 50, 75 years, that I get a lot of it, like they've given their whole life to that person.
33:55
SPEAKER_03: And uh so be good examples.
33:59
SPEAKER_03: Um and um another another thing, like I mentioned with like my retreat for Catholic R Work Camp was um having like a chance to give of myself and you know older people, if you had like a ministry where you you know help the homeless or something, um like invite young people to to come help you because there's someone who said it uh somewhere it is in giving that we receive, right?
34:22
SPEAKER_05: And when we when we're able to give in service, um we uh we receive so much in return.
34:29
SPEAKER_05: Jay, I know you had questions.
34:31
SPEAKER_01: When we uh John Peter, when we spoke uh during the pre-interview on the on the phone yesterday, um you had said one of the things you found helpful in your discernment process for the priesthood was speaking to to seminarians.
34:46
SPEAKER_01: I w I wonder if you can uh elaborate on that a little bit.
34:49
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
34:50
SPEAKER_03: Um I remember I had no idea like what a seminarium was or um you know who they are.
34:57
SPEAKER_03: And uh uh for one visit to seminary, I I shot a seminarian, and this was a guy that was like right out of high school.
35:04
SPEAKER_03: Uh it's like a year older than me.
35:07
SPEAKER_03: And um just seeing that they were like interested in all the same things I was interested in, and um uh I think a trouble when you're you know a teenager and you see a priest, you think that they're just so far above you.
35:22
SPEAKER_03: There's like no way I could become that.
35:24
SPEAKER_03: Um and you know, especially if there's older priests, but like when you see a seminarian, it's like okay, here's someone that's like in an in-between stage.
35:32
SPEAKER_03: Not that far away, right?
35:33
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that um and um and it's also like you know, if you don't like growing up, I I never saw that many seminarians, and then if you don't see that there's I think some people can take priesthood for granted, like, oh we just have priests.
35:50
SPEAKER_03: And they you don't think of a where the priest come from.
35:53
SPEAKER_03: Um someone has to step up and and do it.
35:55
SPEAKER_03: And so when you see someone, oh here's someone that that's wanting to be to be a priest, um, it is helpful.
36:00
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
36:02
SPEAKER_01: Father Frank, I something um stuck out to me when when you were speaking earlier, you said um was it um making the the decision to become a priest as and like you're s it could you possibly be a sac you're sacrificing s something else.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: Is that how in the end when you did finally make that decision, is that is that how you you think of it currently, or I wonder if it's uh something different.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: Um I I it you have so God calls you to whatever you're calling you.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: So when you say yes, it's what God meant you to be, I think.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: Um so I obviously I gave uh up other stuff, but sure um but if I chose that I would be giving up other things too.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think that's what we have to realize is when you choose something, you get you have to go up something, yeah, either either way you're giving something up.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Um and either w life you pick is gonna have joys and challenges.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: So um I can say it would be easier if I was married with kids, and then you talk to somebody in the pews who didn't sleep all night because their kid was growing up and all this stuff, and then they have to go to work.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: So well, at least I didn't have that.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: So so like it's that's the beauty, I think, of the vocation.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: God is calling you to something for you.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: Um it's not a cookie cutter thing.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: God has yeah called you to to live the life that leads you to heaven and uh and now you had actually you told me that you left the seminary for a time and you came back.
37:28
SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us about that a little bit?
37:30
SPEAKER_00: Um so I went in right out of high school.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Um so I thought I was ready to save the world and uh um but in reality uh I was not.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: I was not ready to make that big commitment um of um entering seminary in a serious way.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: Um so after one year I uh I kind of ran away from it.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Um and I did odd jobs for four years, and then um finally through um beautiful priests and uh good friends, um they kind of slapped me around a little bit and said, uh-huh, it's time to either make a decision, either commit to a real career or yeah, go back.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: And I know in my heart I always knew I wanted to go back.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, but then finally I made that that decision.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: I always struggle with um self-confidence and uh on that self-image type thing, so I never thought I was good enough, or I would look at the courses and I'm not gonna be able to handle that.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know how I got through Latin, but I did.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Um stuff like that.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: And you just so it took a lot for me to realize that if God's calling me, he'll get me through it.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: And uh it took beautiful priests and beautiful people to to have faith in me to in order for me to have faith in myself to say and despite some of the challenges of being in the seminary, there's wonderful people there, right?
38:47
SPEAKER_05: I mean the faculty and the other seminarians, and you get a lot of help, right?
38:51
SPEAKER_00: Um I I never would think I would miss academic work and living in the academic setting, but I definitely do miss the the community of the seminary, yeah.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: To have those late night chats um in in the room uh while you're struggling over this paper.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, awesome.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: It's just it's it's an interesting uh uh thing.
39:11
SPEAKER_01: So and there's someone who's been a presence in your life for for some time.
39:14
SPEAKER_01: I wonder if he couldn't.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Um Monsignor Kapke was my spiritual director um in seminary.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: Um he was one of the great priests who um was Eli in my life.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: Um like an emotional talking about it, um, because he was very patient.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: I that's what I always love about this story.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: If I was Eli, I would slap Samuel and say, Don't wake me up again, kid.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Right, okay, right.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: But he uh Monsignor Cupy never gave up on me.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh um, so he kept encouraging me, along with uh Father Joe Gabriel and Mark Kolonowski, all wonderful priests of our diocese who who walked that journey, who all different in their ministry and all different in their personalities, but they they showed me the beauty of the priesthood and they showed me that if God is calling me, it's it's a life worth Paris growing up with St.
40:03
SPEAKER_05: Pius X in hospital, right?
40:05
SPEAKER_05: Right.
40:05
SPEAKER_05: Um I remember being ordaining you a deacon there, right?
40:08
SPEAKER_05: And uh Father getting to know Father Mark Olonowski and then learning that Father Kupke had been there, Monsignor Kupke, right?
40:13
SPEAKER_00: It's we always joke because whenever he tells stories about St.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: Pius, I don't know who he's talking about, but I know like the grandkids or something.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: So it's always a good time with that.
40:21
SPEAKER_05: But uh and then uh when you were ordained, you found out where you were going for your first assignment.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: That's and on my uh canonical retreat for the priesthood, when you get ordained, you have to do uh retreat.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and I was freaking out.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I don't want to go to this place, I don't want to go to this place.
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Um and he's he kept talking about well, what about a place with the school?
40:42
SPEAKER_00: What about and he was trying to give I think hints at maybe I should calm down and it might be okay.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: But I had no idea at all.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: And then when uh bishop announced who I was going to, I was I was shocked.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was a little awkward at first.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: It was a little awkward because this guy knows all my dirty boundaries and I'm gonna be living with him.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, but it's been a wonderful uh so far so good, right?
41:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's been a very affirming and and joyful uh yeah.
41:07
SPEAKER_05: And you get to know uh uh one of beautiful things anytime you're serving in a in a parish, but maybe in a particular way, uh I think in your first assignment, um, to get to know a parish family community, right?
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Is their priests.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm finally so there was I had a hard time with Hawthorne.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh they I think they know that.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Um was it Montville?
41:27
SPEAKER_00: It's not Montfill.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I consider Hawthorne the city.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: I know they laugh at that when I say it's a city, but if if I don't see a backyard and a front yard, I'm like, where am I?
41:35
SPEAKER_00: Um but so finally I I would say a year and a half, maybe two years, I finally'm a Hawthorne guy now.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: So uh that's the beauty of it.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm one of them, and uh uh it's a great joy to be be in that town and um be part of that town.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: Community of faith, right?
41:50
SPEAKER_00: And even even the greater community, you know.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: What's that?
41:53
SPEAKER_00: There's so many times where I'll be uh at a restaurant or something, and somebody who's not Catholic who will be like, Oh, can you pray for this?
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Can we do that?
42:00
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they even put me to shame.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: They want to pray right there, and it's like, well, we're okay, I guess we'll pray over here, you know.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: But just the beauty of of the faithful um inspiring me and stuff like that.
42:11
SPEAKER_01: Can I ask you um when you were uh aspiring to become a priest, um what was something you were really looking forward to once you became a priest?
42:22
SPEAKER_01: And now looking back, has that changed or um Yes.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: So I this is gonna sound odd, but I thought saying mass would be the greatest like thing that I would do every day.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: And in one way it is, but it's more that conversations I have with people after mass or when I I go to the hospital and I talk to the wife of the person who's sick.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: It's in the the small encounters that you realize really realize that you make a big difference on a individual um, and how people will invite the priest into their lives, right?
42:58
SPEAKER_05: At the as we say, the most joyful and sometimes most difficult moments, but the how grateful they are that a priest is there, right?
43:05
SPEAKER_05: Um and what a privilege that is, the trust that we're given.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: It's seeing that the Eucharist does push us out into the world.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Right.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: So the Eucharist just can't stay at the altar, it has to transform to do do that, do the um have that relationship in the community.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful.
43:20
SPEAKER_05: Hopefully, this is all sounding familiar to John Peter, right?
43:23
SPEAKER_05: Uh some of the you've heard it some of it before and you're learning it as you go, is that right?
43:28
SPEAKER_03: That's right, yeah.
43:29
SPEAKER_05: Um and uh maybe um to just say a word about um some of the things that you're learning at the moment or have learned during your time in the seminary, maybe especially about being a Das and Priest serving as a priest in the in a parish, if that's going to be God's will for you going forward.
43:45
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
43:46
SPEAKER_03: Um so right now this semester, um as I mentioned, a spirituality class taking spirituality, uh taking philosophy of God, and you have to take philosophy of minor seminary, and that's uh you know, good to think about God in the intellectual way, and then um uh and then because um I had some extra credits on minoring and psychology, and uh I found uh behavioral modification very helpful.
44:15
SPEAKER_03: Um Behavior modification.
44:16
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's uh it's a good one of just okay, how do you you know Change habits.
44:20
SPEAKER_03: Change habits, yeah.
44:21
SPEAKER_03: And uh I've I found that helpful for yeah, it for teaching of like okay, if you want people to raise your hands more, you know, do do this.
44:29
SPEAKER_03: And uh um found that helpful.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: Um you should come to my seventh grade and have a I haven't practiced it yet.
44:37
SPEAKER_03: I don't I don't I've only learned it yet.
44:40
SPEAKER_03: Um I think you know, the best thing I've learned about seminaries is just being a father to to the people.
44:48
SPEAKER_03: That's what a parish priest needs to be, and you know, um care for them and uh uh be there for them.
44:55
SPEAKER_03: I think that's that's one thing I've I've I've learned that uh I could think would be very helpful.
44:59
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you still find that people treat you different at Stan Hall like they know that you're a seminarian?
45:04
SPEAKER_00: Or um I know when I was there I I I felt that that there was that distinction that you know when you wear that crest, the people know that they're you're trying for something I think higher.
45:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, pe people do uh realize that.
45:18
SPEAKER_03: And uh it was nice like good for the march life we went down with the university and uh um I think yeah, people were happy to have us seminarians there because we did morning prayer and evening prayer down on the bus.
45:30
SPEAKER_03: And uh and one thing, yeah, we don't you always wear this crest, but we always wear collared shirts and uh not ties but colored shirts and uh um no one no other college student wears like a college shirt.
45:43
SPEAKER_03: And sometimes when I go into the calf, the the work they're like, oh here you go, uh you know, professor, and like not just a student or sale.
45:51
SPEAKER_05: But as you're you're part of the regular undergrad community as well, right?
45:55
SPEAKER_05: So yeah, yeah.
45:56
SPEAKER_05: So there's a a good balance there um in terms of education and getting to know peers and and even their styles and dress codes.
46:04
SPEAKER_05: And uh that opportunity to get to know them and at the same time being that sign value even of um uh um being interested in what what God's plan is for you.
46:17
SPEAKER_05: I know we're gonna be conscious of time, but and Jay wanted to get in a word about hockey, I think, before Yeah.
46:22
SPEAKER_01: Well, I I loved it.
46:23
SPEAKER_01: So when we were um doing when I was doing the pre-interviews with each each of these gentlemen, um it came up that each of them's a hockey fan.
46:33
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, I'm a diehard devils fan, and I I played a bit of hockey in in my day, and it turns out both of these fellows have it have as well.
46:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh and John Peter, what happened?
46:43
SPEAKER_01: Your your family home up in Green Township, like it when we got those heavy rains, right, there was a uh natural pond formed in the front yard.
46:53
SPEAKER_03: Yes, yeah.
46:54
SPEAKER_03: It usually happens in the spring where we have a lot of water to fill up.
46:57
SPEAKER_03: Never happens in the winter or so much.
46:59
SPEAKER_03: Um so that's you know, I know the flooding's affected so many people, but it it's it was hopeful for us to have this nice ice rink.
47:07
SPEAKER_03: And uh I'm sad it's how many brothers and sisters?
47:10
SPEAKER_03: I I'm one of eight, so I have seven brothers and sisters.
47:13
SPEAKER_03: Um unfortunately not everyone was able to make it the past weekend, but uh my brother came up from Maryland uh with uh with his two kids and uh yeah, it was a fun time.
47:21
SPEAKER_01: Um so they were playing pond hockey on their front yard.
47:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
47:25
SPEAKER_01: And Father Frank, it turns out, is a uh season ticket holder for the Devils.
47:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
47:30
SPEAKER_01: Are you going to tonight's game?
47:31
SPEAKER_01: Is tonight home?
47:32
SPEAKER_01: It's a way game.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: So um that's me and my father's uh bonding times.
47:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: I usually don't go to beginning games without him, so uh that's that's the time we came to the ball.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: And what is this about you were you're pro you were a wrestler?
47:45
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I you aspired to be a WWF wrestler when you were younger?
47:49
SPEAKER_00: I I was try I trained and I would do matches in local BALs and Night Columbus's and I would have a stage name?
47:57
SPEAKER_00: I was cowboy Frankie Lanney.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: Um I put on a cowboy hat and there we go.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: But um cool.
48:03
SPEAKER_00: So I that's yeah that yeah, that was part of my past, which I love.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh it was one of the cows how close did you come to making it?
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: I I I stopped before I was uh 19.
48:15
SPEAKER_05: So it's a wonderful vocation video, Fishes of Men.
48:19
SPEAKER_05: And uh there's a line in it where uh one of them says, God calls regular guys, and you and also he's there's another line that says, You gotta be tough, you gotta be tough to be a priest.
48:28
SPEAKER_05: So um Father Frank uh and and John Peter uh I think give good testimony to God calls regular guys to be holy as he calls all of us to be holy.
48:36
SPEAKER_05: Um and uh it's not easy to discern or uh say yes to a vocation of priesthood, but the Lord does plenty of help along the way, and and that starts with a first step, uh responding to an invitation.
48:47
SPEAKER_05: So uh Project Andrew, uh Friday, February 2nd.
48:50
SPEAKER_05: If young people, young men out there, please consider.
48:53
SPEAKER_05: And also all those out there who are listening or watching, please consider um being an Andrew or an Eli, extending that invitation to a young man in your family or or in your parish uh that that that might have the the the qualities um that Jesus is looking for, um, or even just an open heart to consider Lord's call.
49:12
SPEAKER_05: And then the discernment retreat you can register online is um right, Jay?
49:16
SPEAKER_05: Um Google.
49:17
SPEAKER_01: Yes, if you go to uh rcdop.org on the top though there's uh like a banner that you can click on and it takes you to the registration page.
49:26
SPEAKER_05: Father Rama, our vocation director, um, can be contacted as well for any questions.
49:31
SPEAKER_01: And we'll have uh all sorts of links in the show notes.
49:34
SPEAKER_01: Great.
49:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well thank you so much, you guys, for for being on the podcast.
49:39
SPEAKER_01: And uh anything else you want to add to to this episode as we wind up, Shepard?
49:44
SPEAKER_05: Um you know we pray, making that sign of the cross, and we know that Jesus says that sometimes we have to share in the mystery of this cross, and so we pray in a special way for the Birdnik family.
49:54
SPEAKER_05: Um Sheriff has given so much and uh going through a very difficult time right now, and we'll certainly see the community come together in the coming days uh to be for them.
50:03
SPEAKER_05: And and we know that so many families um experience the sudden death of a loved one.
50:08
SPEAKER_05: And uh so um let's remember to pray for one another and um and and hope everyone knows that there's help and um and um uh we should reach out to one another um to um to let one another know that um we're each loved and and and uh and um so we pray for the Burning family and and we pray for all those who might be going through difficult times and those who have passed on, Father Jack Klein, whose funeral I celebrated this past Tuesday, um all of our deceased loved ones, we pray that they would receive the fullness of everlasting life in heaven.
50:43
SPEAKER_05: So we have a lot to pray for.
50:45
SPEAKER_05: Every day is a gift, and uh, and and thanks to John Peter and thank you to Father Frank uh for being our guest today.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: And thank you for spending time with us.
50:54
SPEAKER_01: Get to know us a little better by following Beyond the Beacon on Instagram or Facebook.
51:00
SPEAKER_01: I hope you'll join us for the next episode.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to subscribe, comment, and leave a positive rating.
51:05
SPEAKER_01: If you're watching on Bishop Kevin Sweeney's YouTube channel, be sure to like, subscribe, and ring the bell for notifications, email questions, and podcast topic ideas for the bishop to beyond at pattersondioces.org.
51:19
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us.
51:21
SPEAKER_05: Thanks very much.
51:22
SPEAKER_05: God bless, and happy Catholic Schools Week this week.
51:25
SPEAKER_05: Thank you.