BRIDGEWATER – Across the country, college students are packing their cars, preparing to return to campuses this fall in pursuit of academic achievement, community life, and personal growth – and Catholic seminarians are doing the same.
“In my first days of college I experienced a lot of turmoil in trying to decide what I really wanted to do in my life,” said Luis DeJesus, a seminarian for the Diocese of Metuchen who moved to Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., on the feast of the Assumption. “I felt a lot of pressure from a lot of different places – inside and outside – and at the end, I just said, ‘What do I really think God wants of me?’”
DeJesus is one of nine new seminarians following God’s call to the priesthood, bringing the total number of men in formation for the Diocese of Metuchen to 25. Another five men are expected to be ordained to the priesthood on Aug. 22 at a 9:30 a.m. Mass of the Rite of Ordination at the National Blue Army Shrine, Asbury. While the ordination will be private due to COVID-19 restrictions, it will be streamed live and available to watch at www.diometuchen.org.
“I’m really excited to finally be in the place where I think I belong, to have an encounter with God in a very special way, primarily through the prayer life, but also the instruction I’ll receive through the formation and academic programs,” said DeJesus. “I feel very confident that it’s my heart’s desire to follow the Lord in the priesthood.”
Just days before the men were scheduled to begin studies at their respective seminaries, they gathered alongside current seminarians and men discerning a vocation, for fellowship, evening prayer and Mass, celebrated by Bishop James F. Checchio of Metuchen.
“The seminary is a time for you to spend time with the Lord, to develop a listening and receptive heart, which we do primarily through prayer,” the Metuchen Bishop said in his homily during the Aug. 12 Mass, held at St. Bernard of Clairvaux Parish in Bridgewater. “The seminary’s purpose is not to keep you from the altar but lead you to the altar.”
He told the seminarians that the faithful only have one expectation when they come to a priest: to encounter Christ.
“Our people are praying hard for vocations to the priesthood. They hold you in their hearts and in their prayer because they desire Christ and they want you to bring Christ to them,” said Bishop Checchio. “The more you’re able to take Him on, to become more like Him now, the more you’ll be able to share Him.”
Marco Barcenas, who will attend Saint Andrew's College Seminary, the undergraduate seminary of Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University, said he is looking forward to doing just that, “to getting to know Christ more.”
“I was taught by one of the priests I met that to really know and love God, you have to know Him intellectually, so I’m hoping with the human, spiritual, and intellectual formation, I will know Him more and have a personal relationship with our Lord,” said Barcenas.
Though this will be the first official step toward the priesthood for Barcenas, he said he has been discerning his call to the priesthood since he was a sophomore in high school. He said his discernment was in part thanks to Quo Vadis Days, an event which seeks to bring together young men who are serious about their Catholic faith, empowers them to live as intentional disciples, and supports their ongoing vocational discernment.
Barcenas, who was also part of a discernment group led by the diocesan director of vocations, said both Quo Vadis Days and the discernment group helped him to understand where he is going in life, “especially in this time of age when we get so confused with the world. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to discern what God is calling me to be and if the priesthood is really for me,” he said. “Then, I will do my best to answer God’s call.”
No matter their individual journey and despite their unique calling from God, the men agreed that God is leading them on a path to holiness. Discernment takes courage, strength and, above all, prayer, they said.
“Your prayer life doesn’t have to be complicated – just a simple, committed time that you’re going to give to the Lord every day,” said DeJesus.
After developing routine prayer, he said he would advise those discerning a vocation to the priesthood to find a trusted mentor, “hopefully a priest or some kind of spiritual director, to whom you can express your concerns or fears, hopes, desires and joys.”
“Just trying to make a serious commitment to prayer and letting God speak to me through that really helped me see that seminary is the way to go,” said DeJesus. “Being able to speak to God and another person to find the way that you’re supposed to walk, I think is the best way to really discern God’s will for your life.”