Priesthood

Here are a couple of things to consider as possible signs of a priestly vocation:

• Love of God that manifests itself in a desire to offer one's whole life in service to God 

• Love of the Church and its rich tradition

• Love of the Sacraments and desire to celebrate them

• Love of God's Word and a desire to proclaim the Gospel 

• Desire to be holy like Our Lord and the Saints

• Desire listen to others and guide them spiritually

• Desire to deepen prayer and relationship with God

• Willingness to live simply 

• Desire to offer the goods of the intimate companionship of a wife and a family to God as a gift

• Ability to relate with a variety of people

• Joy in serving others especially the poor

• Generosity 

• Ability to listen to others and accept direction from superiors

• Desire to grow in union with God through prayer and service to the needy
  
  

If you are thinking about priesthood or religious life, these are some of the things you should do:

Prayer - always pray, but not just with words, take the time to listen. Listen that God can make His will known. Know that you are not alone in this process, there are others who are contemplating a similar path.

Find a Spiritual Director - someone who can assist you in your prayer life and discernment. A spiritual director should be a priest. Consider asking the Pastor of your parish to recommend a good priest he knows for this. It is possible to interview a potential Spiritual Director before actually asking him to be your director. Be sure you are comfortable with your Spiritual Director first, as you will need to follow his directions obediently.  The descision to enter the seminary should be one that yoru Spiritual Director agrees with.  After entering the seminary, you will need a new Spiritual Director if he is your parish priest.

Be in contact with the Vocations Director. The Vocations Director is a priest who guides your process of answering God's call.  Together with your Spiritual Director, he helps you to understand where, when, and how to respond to the call of God in your heart.

Be active in the ministries of your parish. This will help you to see if you are able to do the work of ministry and be comfortable in this life. It will also give you some sense of what the life of a priest or religious might be like.

Join a discernment group. Our Diocese has a group for young men in High School who wish to discern the Lord's calling in a serious way with others.  Contact the Vocations Office to join the group both for montly meetings and the annual Quo Vadis retreat.

Schedule a visit to the Seminary. The Vocations Director regularly meets at the Seminary for visits with young men who are interested.  Minors are also welcome to visit the Seminary with their parents and family.  Set up a Seminary visit by contacting the Vocation Director and we will arrange a date and time with the Seminary schedule.

Fr. Jose Lim
 Ordained June 24, 2023

      
Fr. Jose Lim      A priest was not what I expected to be. Growing up in northern New Jersey, I had a great family and we always attended church.  I grew up Catholic, receiving all my sacraments at the same home parish alongside my friends, but I have to admit that I never really sought out the depth of what the Catholic Church really taught.  By the time I received the sacrament of Confirmation, I honestly considered it to be almost like “Catholic graduation” and in many ways, going to church was something that I felt only grandparents did once they grew old and bored.  After Confirmation in 8th grade, I would eventually fall away from my faith for a time, really becoming a practical atheist—I would attend church out of obligation or a sense of guilt, but really didn’t believe in what was happening around me or living out an authentic Christian life.  I really wasn’t a credible Catholic.

      It wasn’t until about 6 years later when I was a sophomore at Rutgers when I would encounter Christ again in a very profound way.  I started attending Mass at the insistence of the girl I was dating at the time and through that, I met Catholics who truly believed, were authentically trying to live out their faith, and they were my age!  There was something about them that I almost envied—they had a faith, hope, and sense of joy that I simply didn’t have and I wanted to know what they had that I didn’t.  It was through that experience of Christian witness that I began to form a prayer life, delve into scripture, attend Mass on a daily basis, returned to the sacrament of Reconciliation, and spend time in front of the Blessed Sacrament in adoration.  By the time I graduated from college with my degree in nursing, the Catholic Center had become the focus of my life at university, where my relationship with Jesus was rekindled, where I would meet some of my best friends and receive the foundations of my formation, and where I would begin discerning a call to a possible celibate vocation.  Although I was certainly curious about where God was possibly calling me serve, I was a bit anxious about what that would look like!
      
     A community known as the Brotherhood of Hope took me under their wing and I entered a program of formation with them, allowing me to pray alongside them and discern religious life. I would eventually move down to Florida to continue discerning a religious vocation with that community but would realize that wasn’t where God was calling me to.  I moved back to New Jersey to continue my discernment and also take some time to put my degree to use.  I would work as a registered nurse at Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ, and loved my time serving the sick.  I would go out on dates every so often, but realized by then that my heart was still wondering—am I called to belong just to the Lord?  It was during that season of my life that the diocesan priesthood would come to the forefront of my mind, especially through the care of the sick and dying.  It was also during this time that I was surrounded by a holy group of friends who were also discerning the Lord’s will in their lives, and to have their prayers and support was a great gift to me and something that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

     I eventually applied to seminary for the Diocese of Metuchen and was accepted in 2017.  I attended Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University and really loved my time as part of that community.  In 2019 I was transferred to the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where my formation for the priesthood would continue.  It was during these years that I would grow in love for Jesus Christ, His Church, and made the decision to give my life entirely to His plan for me—to be his priest if that was his will for my life.  I was ordained to the diaconate in Saint Peter’s Basilica in October of 2022 and then ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Saint Francis of Assisi in Metuchen in June of 2023.  I would eventually earn my licentiate in sacred theology with a focus on moral theology and bioethics, and returned to New Jersey to serve as a parish priest.  Following Jesus in this way, although certainly with its various challenges, has been the greatest adventure of my life and I am eternally grateful that His plan has been richer than I ever could have possibly imagined.

     I encourage all young men who are even a bit curious about a possible vocation to the priesthood of Jesus Christ—give Him the space and the time to work and you’ll be surprised where He’ll take you.  It’ll be a greater adventure than you could ever plan for yourself and He will be with you every step of the way.

To Save A Thousand Souls by Fr. Brett A. Brannen

To Save a Thousand Souls: A Guide for Discerning a Vocation to Diocesan Priesthood is the definitive guide for men considering the priesthood. Using powerful and entertaining stories, the book explains in down-to-earth language how to carefully discover God's call. To Save a Thousand Souls has been bulk-ordered by over 100 U.S. dioceses, and has become the standard "

 for discernment" throughout the country. It has been re-printed in Europe and Asia and translated into Spanish. Readers are enthusiastic in their praise for To Save a Thousand Souls, saying it is easy to read and answers almost all their questions about discerning their vocation. Many young men who have read the book have gone on to enter seminary.

The Priest is Not His Own by Fulton Sheen

The beloved Archbishop Sheen, whose cause for canonization is open in Rome, presents a profound and deeply spiritual look at the meaning of the priesthood and relationship of the priest with Christ as an "alter Christus".

Sheen delves deeply into what he considers the main character of the priesthood, and one not often discussed, that of being, like Christ, a "holy victim". To be like Christ, Sheen emphasizes that the priest must imitate Christ in His example of sacrifice, offering himself as a victim to make His Incarnation continually present in the world.

"Unlike anyone else, Our Lord came on earth, not to live, but to die. Death for our redemption was the goal of His sojourn here, the gold that he was seeking. He was, therefore, not primarily a teacher, but a Savior. Was not Christ the Priest a Victim? He never offered anything except Himself. So we have a mutilated concept of our priesthood, if we envisage it apart from making ourselves victims in the prolongation of His Incarnation."
—Bishop Fulton Sheen

Located in Highland Park, New Jersey, the House of Discernment is designed for men who are working or attending college and thinking about the possibility of priesthood but are having difficulty making the decision to begin seminary. It is also for those who would benefit from some time living in a rectory with priests.

This program offers individuals a live-in experience attached to a parish and the daily assistance of priests to help them discern if the life of a priest is where God is calling them. The structure of the program is designed around the individual’s current work or school schedule and includes daily Mass, prayer, meals and one-on-one discernment meetings, at a minimum.

Discerning the Diocesan Priesthood
 Simply put, discernment is the process by which a man takes the time to consider how God is calling him to serve in his life; be that through the priesthood, marriage, religious brother, or by continuing in the single life. No two individuals are alike; therefore, discernment is unique for everyone.