My new assignment as Associate Director of Vocations

The following article was published in the Parish Bulletin at Our Mother of Good Counsel Church in Los Angeles, where I am in residence.

The California Augustinians have assigned me as the Associate Director of Vocations. Although the term Vocation, a calling, is often associated with priesthood, a calling is something all of us receive. Our first call is always as Disciples of Jesus Christ. After that, some are called to forms of service, to careers, to marriage, to parenthood, to a convent, to a monastery, or to the clergy (or even some combination of these). My principal responsibility will be to assist our Director of Vocations, Fr Tom Whelan OSA, with accompanying young men as they discern a call to join the Augustinians.

Los Angeles is a strategic center amidst our Augustinian institutions in Ojai & San Diego. Many Religious Communities have LA as a base of operations, providing a unique opportunity for our Order to be better represented at local collaborative Vocation Events. It also puts me in contact with thousands of young people in Catholic Schools under-served by Priests and Religious. Finally, it should be considered an investment of the Augustinians for the Parish Community of Our Mother of Good Counsel, by subsidizing an additional Augustinian that supports the Community Life and Ministry of our priests here.

While applying to the Augustinians, a family member asked me, “What is the Augustinian charism.” Beneath her question, was an assumption, “What do they DO? Do they run parishes? hospitals? schools?” She was thinking of charism exclusively in terms of Apostolate or Mission or Service, but not in terms of gift or grace. Years earlier, an Augustinian Leader, Fr Ted Tack, would say “An Augustinian’s first Apostolate is Community.” An Augustinian’s life is not just a job title, so to speak, but a life of the heart. Augustine directed his community to seek God together in oneness of mind and heart. That is the greatest gift that we offer the Church and the world, and supersedes any practical business we do in a parish, hospital, school, or other institution.

I will likely meet hundreds of young men called to the business of the church, whether as a priest, a religious or lay-person. My hope, however, is to help young men who may feel a calling to share in Community Life with the Augustinians, and to seek God with us in oneness of mind and heart.

You can begin to support this ministry of mine by your prayers. As my ministry evolves, there might be additional ways to support Vocations at Our Mother of Good Counsel.