Faithful Steps During Holy Week

The Lenten journey brought the Salesian office of vocations to a very moving and rewarding Holy Week. As the Church set out to engage in the most holy days of the year, the vocations team offered a group of faithful young men the opportunity to journey with Christ as they discerned their vocations. The second round of discernment days offered in March brought together Jerry Rice and Mathew Rueda from Mary Help of Christians in Tampa, FL; Daniel Korenchan from the University of Illinois in Champaign, IL; and Ben Russo from Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, LA at Don Bosco Residence in Orange, NJ from March 24-27 during the Easter Triduum.  Fr. Dennis Hartigan and Br. Bernie Dube served as members of the team helping me to facilitate the vocation discernment presentations and discussions. 

During the Triduum, we attended several services at the following in communion with the greater Church to reflect on and honor the tremendous love of Christ’s sacrifice. Our group was fortunate enough to participate in the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at Our Lady of the Valley Church in Orange, NJ; the Good Friday Liturgy at St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown; and the Easter Vigil at St. Joseph Provincial Center with the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The ability to spend those holy days in many beautiful places of worship allowed our group to physically and symbolically travel with Christ as He was on his loving journey for our salvation. We also made time to bond with the Salesian community in Orange to fully experience what communal religious life is all about.

For participants who were still around on Easter Sunday, we celebrated with local members of the Salesian family a festive meal  prepared by Br. Juan Pablo. Ben Russo, who was still with us on Easter Monday, participated in the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy by walking through the holy door at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, NJ.

These sacred days provided the means for the discernment participants to experience our family spirit while communally preparing for the Easter event. Having celebrating the Paschal Triduum with them, let us pray during the Easter season, that they may entrust themselves to the Risen One and serve the Lord with joy! May they, and all of us, continue taking faithful steps as the Easter people we are called to be.

March Madness: Vocation Style

The Salesians at the Don Bosco Residence had its own version of March Madness with a young adult discernment group this past weekend.  Members of Reborn Young Christ, a Korean ministry located in Stony Point, New York came together for fun, faith, and discernment in true Salesian style from March 18^th-20^th.  The four participant- Rono Yick, Jae Kim, Peter Chang, and Woojin Chae- experienced days in the life of our formation house to get a chance to see what it means to live communal vocation. They were able to participate in Mass, in vocation formation sessions, work period, recreation, praying the rosary, community building games, a Korean noodle social, and hearing vocation stories from some of our guys in initial formation.  One of the community building games featured “Whose Line Is It Anyway,” an improvisational comedy show that originated as a British radio program and later aired in America.

 For sure, the Salesian faith-based Reborn Young Christ organization provided common ground for participants to understand a Salesian context for discerning religious life. Another take on our March Madness for a new group of discerners will take place over the Tridium with participants traveling from Champaign, IL/ Tampa, FL/ and the Westbank of New Orleans.  

Super Bowl, Super Discernment

If you ask many people what they did this past weekend, they would say that they watched the Broncos take on the Panthers for the coveted 50^th Super Bowl Championship. However that was the only super event of the weekend if you ask some members of our Salesian family. This past weekend was not only marked by Super Bowl, it was also graced with one Super Discernment Weekend by the Office of Vocations. The vocation team led by Fr. Jim Berning, Br. Bernie Dube, and Fr. Dennis Hartigan hosted a special large contingent of high schoolers and young adult men who participated in the winter Come and See held at Don Bosco Residence from February 5-7.  The program provided the participants with fruitful Oratorian interaction with Salesian life in a variety of ways through ice-breakers, community-building games, festive meals, prayers, vocations stories, and even an engaging in-door soccer recreation at the Our Lady of the Valley Gym.  Given our overnight accommodations with the Salvatorian Fathers Monastery in Verona, NJ, the panoramic scenic overview of New York City was the “awesome” cap to the weekend as stated by the participants.

There was a diverse group of participants in attendance that brought members of the Salesian family from all over. The young men who made the journey to attend were:
Francis Vu of Allen, TX
Timothy Ripka of Salesian High School
Tommy Stika and Kevin White of Don Bosco Preparatory High School
Nikolas Filice of Toronto
Jonathan Rafael, Christopher Espinoza, Santos Rivera, Jude Eguia, and Dhivyan Grille of Don Bosco Christo Ray, Washington DC. 

The vocation team helped to foster an oratory environment that enabled the participants to feel right at home and aided them to search for the manner in which God was calling them to pursue their heart’s desire.  Nevertheless, an additional twist was added to this discernment weekend.  Tommy Stika, who made the discernment weekend earlier last October, was asked to be a young discernment team member.  The fact that Tommy shared from his own lived experience allowed the other participants to relate with a fellow journeyer on the same path of discernment.

The “take home” experience for many of the participants was a resounding sense of community.  The fraternal life from the weekend attracted the discerners to really consider Salesian life, an integral aspect of our living that is a centerpiece in General Chapter 27. As we thank God for the opportunity to facilitate the needs of these discernment participants through prayer, community, and understanding the Salesian charism, let us all commit to promoting the next discernment program scheduled for the Easter Tridium from March 24-26, 2016.  There will be an informational flyer posted soon!

Come and See Canada, A Discernment Weekend Experience

    The work of Salesian vocations is alive and well in Canada, and we could not be more overjoyed. The Salesians of St. Benedict Community recently hosted five young adults on a Come and See Discernment Weekend at Etobicoke, Canada from October 16-18.  The participants included Myrick Rodrigues, David Andrews, Avery Burrows, Steve Polo, and Ivan Skokos.  Fr. Jim Zettel and Fr. Jim Berning facilitated the weekend program as they worked together to accompany these young men into understanding Salesian religious life and their own vocation callings. 

    The activities of the weekend took place both at the parish setting where the Youth Group was in operation and at Don Bosco Residence where many of the presentations and discussions occurred.  A discernment journal was used throughout the days so that the participants could understand how God’s presence was threaded throughout their entire lives and how God has been calling them to discern His plan for their future         

    A true beauty of the weekend was how welcoming and encouraging the parishioners of St. Benedict were as they hosted us and even prepared the meals for the occasion.  The St. Benedict community created an environment of familiarity, welcome, and home that brought the participants to feel a real attraction to Salesian life.  In the weeks ahead, let’s include these vocations in our intentions so that they continue to be seekers, and that they have the courage to surrender themselves to God’s plan.  

When An Invitation Is Answered...

As Salesians, we often encourage young people to come to know about who we are and our spirituality by joining us in our works, prayers, celebrations, etc. This invitation was most recently accepted by three remarkable young men as they joined us for a Young Adult Discernment Weekend. These young men, Anthony Pinto of Miami, FL-  Ivan Gemio of Port Chester, NY-  and Namir Warmack of  Orange, NJ- participated in the Come & See weekend on September 18^th to 20th as a part of their discernment journey.  The entire community of the Don Bosco Residence was on hand to welcome these guests which helped to give this discernment retreat a warm familial feeling.

The weekend was faith-filled and fun-filled opportunity for the participants to experience a bit about Salesian life through many experiences. Thankfully due to his early arrival from Miami, Fr. Dennis Hartigan and Br. Rafael Vargas were gracious enough to show Anthony what a day at Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey held for the students and Salesians there. He was able to see the importance of fraternity amongst the students and the Salesian community which he had come to learn about when he first met Fr. Matt DeGance at camp this past summer. Later on, when the remaining participants joined the program, they were able to participate fully in the Friday activities of the community which included sharing their initial vocation story, enjoying a pizza dinner, and joining in with members of Seton Hall University’s DOVE program who volunteer at the youth center at Our Lady of the Valley.

 On Saturday, the participants were further welcomed by the larger Salesian family at the Jubilee Celebrations at Stony Point honoring those Salesians who have devoted themselves for significant years to the service of the Lord in the spirit of St. John Bosco. I believe that getting to share in the camaraderie and joy of this special celebration helped our young adult discerners to see how being called to be a Salesian is not a solo event, but rather that it means being part of a great and beautiful family every step of the way. The remainder of the weekend went on to include some recreational time with the community in a game of soccer, discussions and reflections on vocations, and an opportunity to spend time journaling in the hopes of helping them to discover, understand and map out their vocation.

Our Come and See weekend drew to a close with Liturgy with the parish community at Our Lady of the Valley wherein Fr. Steve Dumais’ homily highlighted for our participants and the church community that we’re all called to hold on to the innocence of faith  that is often modeled by children and believe in God’s awe and wonder with unabashed virtuousness as they do.  All in all, this past Come and See weekend provided the young men with a comprehensive understanding of the Salesian way, the lived community experience, and a chance to see how they fit into all of it.  They will continue to be accompanied to find if this is where they are being called to give their lives to the Lord.  Let’s pray with them and for them that they may find their path to discipleship in the Lord Jesus.