‘Discovering your call’

MENDHAM  Afua Agyekum and Joseph Korab, both sophomores at diocesan Catholic high schools, took time from their studies last week to “dream big” about their future plans — she as a pediatrician and he as a Catholic priest.

On March 13, Agyekum, 15, of Pope John XXIII Regional High School, Sparta, and Korab, 16, of Morris Catholic High School, Denville, along with 24 fellow students at their high schools, got to think more about that big question — “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” — during the “Discovering Your Call” vocations-awareness event at Mallinckrodt Convent here. They received lots of encouragement and guidance from priests and religious sisters and a brother from the Diocesan Vocations Awareness Committee, who spoke to the young people about a variety of vocation options — as a priest, religious, married person, or single person or in a particular profession. The speakers also imparted to the young people a powerful central message: that God gives you the passion and talents that you will need for your life’s work — a vocation that will give you the greatest fulfillment, as you do his will.

“God knows what will make you happy. He has put that in your heart. When what you want is aligned with what the Lord wants for you, that’s when you will be happiest and you will make the biggest impact on the world and the people around you,” said Sister Barbara O’Kane, vocation director for the Religious Teachers Filippini in Morristown, who spoke at “Discovering Your Call,” held in the motherhouse of the Sisters of Christian Charity here. The multi-media talks often were accompanied by slides, images or music. “[In our vocations], we are asked to give of ourselves in often unexpected ways. We always gain more. God fills our hearts with his love and joy. Ask him what your vocation is. Keep asking — and you will find a fulfilling life,” Sister Barbara said.

That encouragement of the priestly and religious speakers was music to the ears of the students — most of them still in discernment — who declared some of their own possible vocations: doctors, nurses, priests, researchers, musicians, government officials and soldiers, as well as working with Doctors without Borders or Habitat for Humanity. Organized by the Vocations Awareness Committee, the event was open to all local Catholic high-school students, who also explored their own vocations by participating in an icebreaker and prayer service led by Sister Mariette Therese Bernier, vocation director for the Benedictine Sisters in Elizabeth, as well as hands-on activities. At the end of the day, they listened to a panel of priests, a religious brother and religious sisters who shared their own vocation stories.

“I want to be a pediatrician to heal sick and dying children here in the U.S. and around the world, maybe by getting involved with Doctors without Borders,” Agyekum said at “Discovering Your Call.” “This is cool to hear what other young people are thinking about doing with their lives, similar to me, to make the world a better place and share God’s love,” she said.

Like the other speakers, Franciscan Father John Aherne, parochial vicar of St. Mary Parish, Pompton Lakes, radiated joy, as he spoke about the priesthood and his own specific priestly vocation. In his talks that day, he encouraged the students to listen for God’s call in their everyday lives and then “be open, so we can respond.” He told them about his later-in-life vocation — that he worked in book publishing and started an Irish step-dancing school before studying for the priesthood when he was in his 30s.

“We are not called to do one thing. God is constantly reaching out, calling you in new and exciting ways. He may call you to one thing in high school and then something else later in life,” said Father Aherne, who was ordained a priest last June at 44 years old. “Priests are called to love and serve others. The priesthood is a way of relating to people, inspiring them and making Christ come alive in a particular way for them in their lives. At a funeral, we help families in their grief. [In confession], we help people in a sacramental way to ease their burden with God’s forgiveness. In Baptism, we welcome a baby into the community of believers in Christ,” he said.

In the vocation of consecrated life, religious sisters have a mission: to live in community with their lives centered on God through the religious vows that they made — “a gift we offer to God and his people,” said Dominican Sister Pat Stringer in her presentation. Each community has a “charism” — a special gift that it gives for the good of the Church, such as teaching, preaching, healing, missionary work, pastoral ministry or contemplative life, she said. Serving as promoter of Dominican life for her community, Sister Pat told students that they live out the following three religious vows they have promised:

• Poverty — the freedom from a preoccupation with possession, so they can focus on God, deepen their relationship with him and reliance on him and follow his will.

• Obedience — listening to their spiritual directors, leadership team of their communities and praying to discern God’s will for them.

• Chastity — “the gift of giving freely to God and others and living God’s grace in freedom and love” in a religious community without attachments of marriage and family.

In contrast, the vocation of married life involves a “covenant between a man and a woman for the good of the couple and the generation and education of children,” Father Aherne said in another presentation. The Church says that couples vow to be there with their spouses “through thick and thin” and to “make each other holy by living together, having children and also serving them,” the priest said.

People also can discern a vocation of the single life, which enables them to serve God and others in ways that married people, priests and religious cannot, Father Aherne said. They can bring God’s will and Christ’s message into the world by ministering to family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and parishioners, he said.

The event also included a hands-on “heart” activity to help them assess their values and priorities in life — important in discerning their vocations — and a panel of priests and religious sisters and a religious brother. They fielded questions from the students, sharing their own vocation stories and the joys and struggles of their various ministries. Panelists included: Father Aherne; Sister Bernadette McCauley, vocations director of the Sisters of Christian Charity; Father David Monteleone, pastor of Holy Spirit Parish, Pequannock, and an assistant diocesan vocations director; Franciscan Brother Octavio Duran of the Franciscan friary in Butler and editor of the Anthonian magazine; and Sister Antoinette Moore, eastern regional vocations director of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace in Teaneck. Moderating the discussion was Sister Maryanne Tracey, vocations director of the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station.

Near the end of “Discovering Your Call,” Korab, of Holy Family Parish in Florham Park, told The Beacon that he enjoys being an altar server at Masses and finds great inspiration in his desire to become a priest from the two clergy in his parish: Father Thomas Rekiel, pastor, and Father Krzysztof Liwarski, parochial vicar.

“Both of them tell me that I’m the future of the Church. I hear the call to serve God and others [as a priest]. I want to be able to say Mass and change a parish that might be struggling in a collaborative way,” Korab said. “Today, I learned that being a priest is about serving other people, not themselves. They need to be flexible for the unexpected things in life,” he said.