“God bless Mommy, and Daddy, and Patrick, and Nanny, and Pop, and Grammy and Poppy. Amen.”
This is probably the earliest prayer I ever said. It was our bedtime ritual to invoke the Almighty’s blessing upon our closest family – at least immediate family and grandparents, though I seem to recall often extending the prayer to include cousins and neighbors. This simple act of faith before sleep was one of the elements of the environment that shaped me as a child and served as the fruitful soil for my religious and priestly vocation.
Indeed, my earliest memories of faith reflect a world imbued with God’s goodness and people dedicated to His service. In my grown-up hindsight, I see that perhaps such a world did not really exist; but to my child-like, enchanted perception, it was quite real. I am not sure which perspective is more accurate. Now that I work in vocation promotion, I realize the importance of cultivating a faith-based worldview for children so that they can be open to God’s invitation for their lives. Naturally, the family is the primary location for this formation. I do not think we can overestimate the importance of teaching children to pray, even in simple ways, as my parents taught me.
The faith I received at home was also fostered beyond our family. As parishioners at Blessed Sacrament in Margate (now Holy Trinity), we attended not only Sunday Mass, but often weekday Masses. I was also an altar server on the team that got to serve the Sacred Triduum each year with Fr. Lewis Battisti our pastor and Fr. Perry Cherubini. We were regulars at Mass at the local convent of religious sisters in Ventnor, where Msgr. Paul O’Connor said Mass and would do magic tricks for the kids afterward. Participating in the regular gathering of the community for Mass reinforced the worldview I was receiving at home.
My introduction to religious life came with Sister Theresa Kevin Donohue, Sister Rosaline Walter and Sister Kay Rush, all Franciscans who taught and administered at Blessed Sacrament Regional School in Margate, just a couple of blocks from our house, where I attended first through eighth grade. Although the sisters instilled in most of us initially a sense of fear and respect, their dedication and sense of humor also shined through. Sister Kay, our eighth-grade teacher, became sick and eventually passed away while my class was her students. Sister Kay loved the University of Notre Dame, so when she became too sick to teach, Ms. Claire Collins, our music teacher, re-wrote the lyrics to the Victory March, and we all stood below Sister Kay’s window and sang to her. I don’t remember all the lyrics, but bits and pieces stick with me, including a reference to her religious vow name (“Sister Matthias, yes, we are biased…”). These fond memories stick with me as reminders of the witness value of vowed religious, especially embedded in a Catholic school.
I first met male religious at Saint Augustine Prep, the same high school where my father had attended. Although I never had them in class, Fathers Paul Galetto, Ron Hamaday, Francis Horn, OSA, as well as Brother Dave Graber, MSSCC, were visible signs of the apostolic life of the vows. So when I ended up at a Jesuit university, I made it a priority to get to know the priests there, which would eventually lead to my finding a home within their community. Years later, when it came time for me to serve as a teacher at Loyola Blakefield in Baltimore, consciously or not, I sought to emulate those men who were role models for me in those formative years.
More recently, when I was preparing to give a homily at a Jesuit high school in Boston, I remembered the words of Deacon Rocco Mangino (Saint Anthony of Padua, Hammonton) who taught me sophomore religion: “Say what you mean. Mean what you say. And never back down.” Deacon Mangino died during our junior year, 2006, but the authenticity and audacity of his commitment to service in the Church remain with me and many of his former students.
I could share more memories of Knights of Columbus vocations essays or the food pantry at Saint Nicholas of Tolentine in Atlantic City, but I hope these vignettes of my early formation in the Diocese of Camden serve to encourage young families to commit to regular prayer in the house, attendance at Mass, Catholic education and community engagement in your local parish. Ultimately, all vocations are a gift from God, but we remember that God delights to work through our own efforts.
Father Brendan Gottschall, SJ, serves as assistant director and promoter of vocations for the USA East Province Jesuits.
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