Family: The Center of Vocation

On Wednesday evening, I was formally accepted by Bishop Bambera as a candidate for the reception of Holy Orders for the Diocese of Scranton. I am experiencing the Spirit's gift of peace as I publicly commit myself to prepare for ordained service in the local Church of Scranton.

This rite was celebrated during Evening Prayer in the beautiful Cathedral of Saint Peter in downtown Scranton. This celebration of Evening Prayer and the Rite of Admission to Candidacy for Holy Orders occurred within the context of our annual Project Andrew Dinner, a time when young men from throughout the diocese who are discerning the possibility of priestly service gather together for prayer, fellowship, and a meal.

Rite of Admission to Candidacy for Holy Orders

My entire immediate family (mom, dad, siblings, and their spouses and significant others) were in attendance, as were various priests, deacons, seminarians, and young men from throughout the Diocese of Scranton.

Earlier that day, I had been preparing for this ritualized moment by spending some time in prayer. I happened to be reading an excerpt from a speech given by Pope Francis in 2015. In this talk, the pope speaks about priests and seminarians as those who are "born into a certain human context." These ecclesial ministers are not "mushrooms" that automatically spring up on the day of their ordination. Rather, as Francis reminds us, each priest and seminarian comes from a "fundamental center of pastoral vocation, which is the family."

Pope Francis

The family is the first center of human formation. It is within this "domestic Church" that "the desire for a life conceived as a vocational path can burgeon in young people, to be followed with commitment and generosity." Within the confines of the family, we first learn selfless love!

Pope Francis certainly captured my own experience and vocational journey! In my family, I learned the ways of love and acceptance, as well as the realities of sin, mercy, and forgiveness. From my parents, grandparents, siblings, and so many others, I learned what it meant to love unconditionally, to forgive from the heart, to embrace simplicity of lifestyle, to lovingly obey another, and to enjoy the beauty of life! In our home, I learned the fundamentals of my faith. We prayed. We thanked God. We went to Mass. We struggled. We fought. We forgave. We were not perfect, but God was still present!

And so, on Wednesday night and in these most recent days following, I have found myself experiencing great gratitude for the gift of my family - the domestic Church - where I first learned what it meant to be generous, forgiving, and prayerful. This shaped my own self-understanding and how I continue to respond to God's call to serve.

My family with Bishop Joseph Bambera on Wednesday evening

My prayer is that I never forget my roots and the very concrete, real center of my human formation. I hope that I continue to move forward toward ordained ministry in the Church as one who is selfless, open, merciful, and grateful. As Bishop Bambera said so beautifully on Wednesday evening: "Ryan, your openness to the Lord's call to serve the Church also demands a continual letting go of your own ego, needs, interests, and control in order to imitate Jesus - who washed the feet of his friends in humble service of their needs and then commands all who hear his words, 'As I have done, so you must do.'"

Indeed, this is a lesson I first learned from my family.