A time to discern
By Kathleen Ogle
Managing Editor
NEWTON – In a homily on the feast day of Mary Magdalene, Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski urged men and women considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life to seek the Lord but not in the places where they might expect to find him.
Bishop Bootkoski celebrated celebrated Mass July 22 with nine single adults at the Life Awareness Weekend at the Sacred Heart Retreat Center. The six men and three women spent the weekend at the center discerning God’s will for their lives. Specifically, they explored the possibility of a life serving God and the church as a priest, sister or brother.
The weekend retreat is an annual program sponsored by the Diocese of Metuchen for single adults considering a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.
Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but “a woman who wanted to experience Jesus Christ, who wanted to know him and have him in her life,” Bishop Bootkoski said. “So she searched.”
“We’re all seekers,” the bishop said. “I’ve been ordained a priest for 40 years and I’m still seeking.”
He described how following Jesus’ crucifixion, Mary Magdalene expected to find Jesus at the tomb.
“She was still looking for the dead Jesus,” the bishop continued. “When he appeared, she did not at first recognize him. He called her by name, ‘ Mary,’ and she tried to hold on to him.
“When he said don’t hold on to me, what did she do? She ran back to the place where the disciples were gathered and said ‘I have seen the Lord, he is risen,’” he recounted. “Her testimony was the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
“The God we are looking for is not the God of the dead, the God of the living. He is very much around, just maybe not where you expect him.
“In some sense, our relationship with Jesus is fleeting. We can’t hold on to him. We come to experience Jesus by the way we share him. And that sharing is ministry,” he said.
Bishop Bootkoski told the men and women that whether or not they ultimately felt called to the priesthood or religious life, “you are still called into a loving relationship with our God.”
After the Mass, the discernees met with Bishop Bootkoski for an open discussion about vocations.
Father Vashon said he was “very pleased” with the weekend’s program. “I thought we had a really positive group of men and women seriously open to God’s will in their life for a vocation,” he said.
The discernees were joined by a team comprising priests, sisters and seminarians including Father Randall J. Vashon, director of the diocese’s Office of Vocations; Oratorian Father Peter Cebulka, associate director of Office of Vocations; Hong Kim, transitional deacon; and seminarians Jack O’Kane, Glenn Obrero, Edmund Luciano and Keith Cervine. Sister of Jesus Our Hope Christine Quense and Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister Carmen Teresa Fernandez of Immaculata, Pa. were also present.
Team members gave presentations about the life of a sister, brother or priest, providing information, according to Father Vashon, that would better allow the discernees to make decisions in their life.
Located in rural Sussex County, the Sacred Heart Retreat Center is a ministry of the Salesian Sisters.
“It’s important to get a way from the distractions of day-to-day living,” Father Vashon said. “The facility really lends itself to good discernment.”
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law