Vocations are Awesome!

11/13/2013 Be Not Afraid , Brute , College , Fishers of Men , Pray , Selflessness , Snow , Vocations 3 Comments

On Monday night I (along with the other Springfield guys here at Brute) went over to a vocation night at the Newman center at Eastern Illinois University.  We prayed Evening Prayer together at 4 PM, crammed ourselves into Willie's car, and drove the 2ish hours it took to get to Charleston.  Of course, the ride was fun; we jammed to some music (I was introduced to the sound track of Space Jam, which apparently the rest of the known world has watched, but I haven't...), laughed at life, did some homework (I got, I think, 2 pages into a book...), and I took a short nap.  We got to the Newman center about an hour before everything was supposed to start, so we had an opportunity to relax a little bit, rearrange furniture down in the basement (which is also used as a St. Vincent De Paul Society, and so, has a ton of couches and stuff), and talk with Fr. John Titus, who is the priest for this Newman Center, and puts on this vocation night each year.

Around 6:00 (CT), people started arriving and I started chatting with (some of) them.  Pretty much everybody was new to me (though the other guys knew some people because we were only about 4o minutes from their homes), so I got to meet a bunch of new people.  There were 5 sisters there from a variety of different orders (2 were Dominicans, who were quite happy to find that two seminarians were named Dominic... )  Fr. Alford, the vocation director for the Springfield IL diocese, arrived right at 6:30 and dinner followed shortly after (rather tasty I might add: Jimmy-Johns, chips+salsa, carrots, fudge, brownies, and cookies).  I sat with a few of the other guys and a set of brothers who are in the process of (possibly) applying to enter next semester.  They are really cool guys, and we had a fun time eating with them.

After dinner we split into groups of guys (who went with the priests) and girls (who went with the sisters) and started the vocation side of the evening.  Fr. Alford opened the evening with a fantastic vocation talk.  Of course, I can't remember it verbatim, but one memorable thing that he said was that life is like a jig-saw puzzle.  It's up to us to choose who's picture we want to look at to fit together the puzzle.  We can look at the innumerable pictures that the world puts in front of us - cars, money, fame, whatever, or we can follow God's picture for our life.  Obviously, following God's picture is the best bet - want happiness? go to the source.  The analogy continued: the frame that we should assemble first and which guides where we put all the other pieces is our faith - it is within this guide that we need to fit all the parts of our life, otherwise our puzzle will never come together and we will never had a joyful, fulfilled, stable life.  Unfortunately, I've forgotten most of the rest of his talk, but hopefully you are able to get the gist - it was really great!

Continuing right along, after Fr. Alford another priest (of who I forget his name) of an order dedicated to Mary (maybe the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary?) spoke about the vocation of religious life.  Obviously, there are similarities (at least when comparing between priesthood in either case), but I loved his analogy of the diocesan priesthood as the Army or Marines - the usual hierarchy of the Church - and religion orders as special op's - filling a certain role in a specific place and time.  This priest was also the first to tell his vocation story.  He got interested in church music in high-school, redirecting his college plans from medicine (I think?) to music.  Of course, the story doesn't stop there; he eventually started practicing organ at the monastery/seminary of this religious order.  Soon enough doors started opening and he felt the call to enter the order... 

Next all of us seminarians told our stories.  Obviously, I can't recount them all here (I would mix the stories together), but I thought it was so cool to hear them all again.  The running joke is that the story changes a bit every time you tell it depending on the circumstances that are relevant at that time, and it is so true.  I heard different bits of everybody's story - some of us heard the call when we were young, some not so much; we all had different reasons why we felt we had to follow the call, we all had different obstacles to overcome, but seriously all of the stories were still inspiring!  Gosh, I remember when I was in exactly the same position as some of these guys - hanging out with seminarians, hearing their stories, asking some of the same questions... - it's so cool to be on the other side as a seminarian.  Man, it's awesome!

Alright - big, important, cool points of the discussion: Pray - a lot, that is the only way to discern God's will and have the courage to follow it.  Be not afraid - fear is never a reason to avoid or consider a vocation.  God doesn't choose the qualified, He qualifies the chosen - don't think we are all saints, or orators, or martyrs, that is why we have to surrender to God, so that He can make up for our lackings.  Watch for the signs - when you are discerning it is tough to see what to do, but look for where God is opening doors, putting a desire in your heart, telling you through other people, or giving you joy and peace.  Where are you most selfless? - God calls us all to give ourselves to others in some way, where is that for you?  No vocation is a selfish one.  Guys, you are called to  be a father regardless - whether that is spiritually (in the priesthood) or not.  I hope I didn't forget any good ones...

There you have it.  We probably discussing for an hour or two (time flies when you are having fun), and a bit before 9 PM we went back upstairs.  Every Monday they do a night-prayer-like prayer.  It was actually very beautiful.  They sang a song (that I hadn't heard before) to the Holy Spirit through several times (with different people harmonizing with it differently for each verse), then chanted a psalm (same setup), then another song (again, harmonizing it), then some intercessions (chanted), and finally the Salve Regina.  It was a bit tricky to catch the melody of each song in the first verse so that when people started harmonizing in the second, third, and fourth verses I'd know what to sing, but it was pretty.  It's really interesting, I usually wouldn't be into that kind of thing - too much flamboyance - but here I found it to be beautiful and a good 20 minutes or so of prayer.  I don't think I'd want to do it every night, but it was a good experience.

After this prayer we talked for a few more minutes with the remaining folks, and then hopped back in the car.  It was (obviously) dark out by this time and snowing - beautiful!  The ride back was tiring, but we kept the music pumping, prayed a rosary, and I drifted off into a nap for a bit.  It was an absolutely fantastic evening - man vocations are so cool!  Actually, despite only getting about 5 hours of sleep, Mass this morning was a lot more meaningful this morning.  I was just concentrating better, and praying it.  Gotta love it!

Alright, back to the books - 2 tests on Wednesday, 2 short essays due next week, and 3 long papers the week after that (though I have the rough draft done of one of those).  I can't wait until thanksgiving, at that point I'll just have finals left (should be easy... yeah...)

Brute courtyard with the first snowfall this year.