Seminarian Nicholas Esposito remembers his first call to the priesthood. He was in the fourth grade and an altar server in Hammonton. His experiences on the altar and conversations with priests increased his interest in the vocation.
He may have had doubts and fears, but when he discovered the “why” of his calling, he knew he could overcome the “how.”
“As Catholics, what should our ‘why’ be? Heaven and happiness. [A happiness not] of passing pleasures like new clothes or new cars, [but] long-term-happiness, which is something we only experience when we follow what God wants us to do,” Esposito said during his visit Jan. 11 to Holy Spirit High School in Absecon.
Esposito – who is third college at The College Seminary of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Andrew’s Hall, Seton Hall University, South Orange – was among the seminarians, women religious and priests who shared their vocation stories with the Diocese’s high school students Jan. 3-9.
At Wildwood Catholic Academy, North Wildwood; Paul VI, Haddonfield; Gloucester Catholic, Gloucester City; Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill, and Holy Spirit, students were challenged to seek God’s plan for their own lives.
“In college, I really wanted to fit in,” Sister Faustina Joseph, CFR, told Holy Spirit High School students as she discussed a topic many are all too familiar with: finding acceptance and worth.
A Catholic from birth who grew up in England, she said she was quiet about her faith, as it was frowned upon by her acquaintances. She believed that to belong, “I had to look to my friends. I had to dress like them, have my hair like them and have the right brand of shoes on.”
As the “life of the party” with friends and having good post-collegiate job prospects by holding a doctorate in biochemistry, Sister Faustina acknowledged, “[I] had what all the world said would make me happy, [but] I was miserable inside. … I was what everyone wanted me to be. I was trying to fit in so much, I didn’t even know who I was.”
Then, she was in a serious car accident that led to more than 30 reconstructive surgeries, a three-month hospital stay and her having to learn to walk again. The experience, she said, led to “the opportunity to be still and recognize that if I die tomorrow, all of these people that I was trying to please, would they even remember me?”
She continued, “My accident was a turning point for me; I started listening and talking to God.” In that silence, she heard the Lord say, “You don’t have to be anyone but who I made you to be.”
Now, as a Franciscan Sister of the Renewal serving Atlantic City’s poor, Sister Faustina goes forward in joy. “I know who I am, and that makes me whole. I am the Lord’s, and he is mine.”
For seminarian Theo Deluhery, who is fourth college at The College Seminary of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Andrew’s Hall, his vocation moment came in his senior year of high school, when hearing God’s whispers that wouldn’t end, he finally declared in prayer, “I’m open to your will, Lord, not my own.” He soon broke off his relationship with his girlfriend and rejected an invitation to the prom.
Dr. Tom Farren, Holy Spirit principal, said the visitors’ messages were the talk of the students, many of whom felt a connection to the religious sisters and seminarians. “All of the speakers brought their life and experience to students in a personal way where they could meet, converse and question, and through that, begin to explore their own path.”
Reflecting on the talks, Holy Spirit’s Samantha D’Arcangelo said, “I’m inspired to know that even through their own doubts, they wanted to listen to God, and follow Him no matter what.” She added that “the discussion of their own lives – such as … knowing that Nick has a greyhound and Theo a poodle – and [about] their families was relatable.”
Fellow classmate Kevin Bradberry said the talks made vocations “a more realistic life path.” Although he doesn’t feel a calling to the priesthood right now, he acknowledged that “one never knows. I think I know what I want to do, but that doesn’t mean that’s what God wants me to do. I have to think about that.”
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