BY DAVID MYERS Southwest Kansas Register To receive a call from God is to be invited to a journey. You can’t have one without the other. This is the story of my journey. Children and nervous persons may wish to turn the page. When I was in junior high and high school, there were two things I knew with certainty concerning my future: 1) I wanted to help people 2) If helping people required mathematics or spelling, they were out of luck. I realize now that God placed this desire in my heart – the desire to help people -- despite my having little confidence that I could accomplish this goal. I was afraid that I didn’t have the intellectual capacity to do anything but, say, help a little old lady across the street. And even that had its challenges. One day I was helping a woman across some train tracks when Train A, traveling 70 miles per hour, left Boulder heading toward Denver 22 miles away. At the same time Train B, traveling 60 mph, left Golden heading toward Denver, 25 miles away.
By FATHER WESLEY SCHAWE Director, Office of Priestly Vocations In our Christmas issue, we considered the fact that anyone on this earth who is called to be a priest is called from the moment of his conception. It got me to thinking: If I could have one wish granted for a day (and this is definitely a vocation director kind of wish), it would be that God make known in some visible way everyone who He has called to be priest. How would He make it visible? Here are some of my suggestions: • Those who are called would have the clothes they’re wearing instantly turn black. Everyone else’s turns green. • Divinely-printed name tags (in Times New Roman, I presume) to be worn for a day. The names of those called to be priests are all preceded by “Father.” • The smell of chrism oil exudes from the hands of those called for a 24 hour period, regardless of multiple hand washings.
At the start of each year I look for the word or phrase that will nudge me vocationally over the next 12 months. I am not so much searching for a word as I am willing to be found by the word God has in mind. Whatever I might think this word or phrase means is only a glimmer of what it will reveal to me. The word that found me recently is one I cannot honestly say describes me. That word is: generous. In a world whose conversation is more like two disparate monologues—the monologue of the one percent and the monologue of the 99—this word “generous” wedges in like sand in the oyster just itching to produce a worthy pearl. If I understand the Scriptures correctly, God’s heart isn’t with the high and the mighty who have secured for themselves enough and more than enough, but with the lowly who wrestle daily with their poverty and who look like they could benefit from the relief of divine generosity. Mary’s Magnificat proclaims what this generous-hearted God looks like in action. Generosity therefore becomes a vocational word for us. Its fuller phrase, “living generously,” points us to an intentional way of life that is larger than ourselves. I am not speaking about the occasional donation to a worthy cause, or the tithing which is more like tipping. I know these modes of “generosity” quite well. I discern within this phrase, though, a vocational imperative to live life openhandedly, which is the only way God knows how to live.
By JACOB SCHNEIDER Seminarian for the Catholic Diocese of Dodge City
Editor’s Note: Jacob Schneider is a seminarian for the Catholic Diocese of Dodge City. He is currently in Pre-Theology I at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver. The following is taken from his Question and Answer interview that begins on Page 2 and continues on Page 14. Because of the depth and extent of his answer, the SKR is including it below. Southwest Kansas Register: As you go through seminary, have you recognized any misconceptions about seminary students, or those seeking the priesthood, that you would like to dispel? The seminary is first and foremost a place of discernment. All too often when a guy goes to seminary, people think that he is already a priest. We go to seminary to try and listen to what God is truly calling us to do in our life, what will be most pleasing to Him, and what will be most rewarding and satisfying for us on earth. If a guy is discerning a priestly vocation and he thinks he can discern this while still dating, and still walking down a path to marriage, I would say good luck -- you may be doing what seems right. However, that may not be what God is calling you to do.
One of the greatest thrills I had as a child was when my teacher would announce that we were going to watch a film -- from the dousing of the lights to the flut-flut-flut-flut of the projector as it rolled to life, to the screen igniting in hues of grey. It didn’t matter if it was about “Pecos Bill” or about the life cycle of the amoeba, if it was a film, I was happy. One of my favorites focused on the future -- the housewife dressed appropriately in high heals and pearls, slipping a turkey into a small oven, only to remove it fully cooked three seconds later.
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