First Mass -
Parish celebrates the call of one of their own to the priesthood
By Kathleen Ogle
Managing Editor
MANVILLE — Regardless of where Redemptorist Father James V. Szbonya is assigned to serve as a priest, when he talks about his home parish, he will always be referring to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.
“Hello, my name is Father Jim,” Father Szoboyna greeted members of his family, friends and parishioners gathered May 14 for the parish’s 10:30 a.m. Mass. They responded enthusiastically and warmly with applause. “For those who don’t know me, I was baptized in this parish, I received my first Communion in this parish, I was confirmed in this parish, and now I celebrate my first Mass here in this parish,” he said. “There’s no place like home.”
Father Szobonya was assisted by the parish’s two deacons and 16 altar servers. Ten Redemptorist priests concelebrated the Mass, including Redemptorist Father Tom Forrest who offered the homily.
“As we gather today it is a great, great joy. Not too many parishes can celebrate first Eucharist with someone who was part of their parish,” said Redemptorist Father Boguslaw Augustyn, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish. “For me it is an extra blessing because Jim is a Redemptorist.”
The pastor played an important role in Father Szbonya’s journey to the priesthood. They first met seven years ago, when Father Augustyn was visiting the parish, and Jim was an altar server at Mass, as well the lector and an extraordinary minister of holy Communion.
When Father Augustyn told Jim after the Mass that he believed he had a vocation, he recalled there were tears in Jim’s eyes. For several years, Jim had contemplated priesthood, but having encountered obstacle after obstacle, he had given up the idea of ever becoming a priest. Father Augustyn introduced him to the Redemptorists, and Jim was finally able to pursue the priesthood.
“I am sure that Father Jim will prove himself to be an extremely talented and totally dedicated shepherd of the people of God,” Father Forrest said in his homily.
“Today, with the scarcity of priests in the church there’s only way for us to do our job — by sharing that job with you. We cannot do it alone,” Father Forrest said. “The job is too big and too important to be left only to us... Priests must work the way Paul did with his Boniface, with his Mark, with his Timothy and oh, yes, with his Priscilla and Athena — men and women — sharing with you without any fear or jealousy, the greatest task ever given to a human being, the task and the responsibility of leading the beloved flock of Christ.”
Before the final blessing, Father Szobonya announced that he was dedicating his priesthood to the Blessed Mother. As the choir sang Ave Maria, Father Szobonya knelt in prayer at the church’s shrine to Mary.
Like the Redemptorists’ founder, St. Alphonsus, Father Szobonya has a strong devotion to the Blessed Mother. As part of their profession, he said, the Redemptorists vow to to defend the Immaculate Conception. Father Szobonya also admires St. Alphonsus for his dedication to the magisterium, for his prayer life and great love for the Eucharist, and for having the highest standard for the priesthood.
Father Szobonya, 45, was ordained to the transitional diaconate last spring and spent the past year serving as director of religious education at St. Martin of Tours Parish, Bethpage, Long Island. Bishop Martin D. Holley, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, ordained Father Szobonya to the priesthood May 6 at the Basilica of the National Shrine to the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.
He spent the previous 6 years in formation with the Redemptorists’ Baltimore Province, earning a Master of Divinity degree at Washington Theological Union, Washington.
Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish, which has a large Polish membership and offers two Masses in Polish every weekend, was placed in the hands of Redemptorists from the order’s Warsaw Province in 1999.
Father Szobonya’s visit to Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish was brief. The following day he returned to Bethpage where he expects to serve for two or three years before his next assignment.
*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