Young men take ‘leap of faith’ on zip line, life’s vocation

HEWITT  For 15 minutes, Christian Philips, 13, of St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish in Chester, lived a metaphor of vocations. Wearing a helmet and suspended from cables, he carefully balanced himself while walking on wires more than 40 feet in the air on an indoor zip line here at Camp Shiloh in the Hewitt section of West Milford on June 25.

Philips’ feat seems symbolic of his journey in discerning his life’s vocation. With the skill of a high-wire performer, he is delicately balancing the “pros and cons” of married life and the priesthood, while also taking a “leap of faith”: trusting God in the way he trusted in his zip-line equipment. On that Friday, Philips came to the right place: the Quo Vadis Retreat at Camp Shiloh, designed to help him and the 34 other high-school-aged young men here explore God’s call — as a priest, religious, married person, or single person. The diocesan Office of Vocations sponsored the event, held in highlands of Passaic County.

“I’m keeping in mind the priesthood, because I don’t want to black it out in case it’s my true vocation but I’m leaning toward fatherhood. I’m good with kids and find them easy to work with but I’m keeping an open mind,” said Philips, who recently graduated as a Catholic homeschooled eighth-grader and is also thinking about a career as a mechanical engineer in the auto industry.

The one-day Quo Vadis event — Latin for “Where Are You Going?” — got these young men thinking about vocations with inspiring talks by seminarians and priests, including Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney. He also celebrated an outdoor Mass with music by Dan Ferrari, coordinator of music ministry at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center of Evangelization, Madison. Retreat-goers also joined in large- and small-group discussions about vocations and were invited to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation from priests here that day.

The retreat also offered lots of fun — from indoor basketball, zip lining, and rock climbing to a game room and outdoor archery, soccer, and a campfire. For lunch, Knights of Columbus cooked a barbeque, at which Bishop Sweeney talked with the young men. They later had dinner together, giving participants another opportunity to socialize. All the while, the young men — many of them invited by their pastors — engaged in enlightening conversations.

“Bishop Sweeney’s talk made me think more about the priesthood,” Philips said. “I like Quo Vadis because I like being with other guys in these events offered — and all the fun,” he said.

Toward the beginning of Quo Vadis, retreat-goers, priests, and seminarians gathered in a community hall at Camp Shiloh to listen to Bishop Sweeney after watching “Fishers of Men,” a short vocations video by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops. The Bishop described vocations as “having a belief that God has a plan for all of us.

“God will not force us to follow his plan but we should be open to it. We should ask him, ‘Show me your will,’ ” said Bishop Sweeney, who connected with the young men with his friendly speaking style and references to pop culture and love of sports, including to his beloved N.Y. Yankees. “Jesus calls us in mysterious but real ways, such as through other people,” he said.

Bishop Sweeney talked about two people in consecrated life, who influenced his priestly vocation. In seventh grade, Sister Margaret Mary, his teacher, mentioned that there was a high school in his native Brooklyn Diocese for boys who were thinking about the priesthood. He went to the open house and asked if the high school had a baseball team and it did, said Bishop Sweeney, who played for his school team and aspired to play for the Yankees.

The other influence was Msgr. Reilly, his high school Latin teacher and committed pro-life advocate, who was arrested in an act of civil disobedience outside an abortion clinic as part of Operation Rescue. He also founded Helpers of God’s Precious Infants, which helps mothers in crisis and encourages a “conversion of hearts.” The Bishop called joining Operation Rescue “one of the most powerful experiences of my life.

“I linked arms and prayed with all kinds of people, who risked everything for what they believed,” said Bishop Sweeney, who told the young people that they needed to open their hearts to God through prayer.

Before Bishop Sweeney’s talk, Father Ed Rama, director of the diocesan Vocations Office, told retreat-goers, “Jesus is present here today and wants to speak to you. Listen through the gift of faith. We want you to experience that joy. If you are called to be a priest, that’s an awesome gift,” Father Rama said.

There were presentations by three seminarians who will enter fourth-year theology in seminary in the fall. They also will be ordained as transitional deacons by the Bishop on July 10 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson — the last step before they are called to be ordained as priests next year. One of them, Stephen Delia, Jr., told them he left his college studies in mechanical engineering after two years to enter the seminary, which he called “a leap of faith.”

“Every vocation takes a leap of faith. You do not know what is going to happen. Trust in God. He will not let you down,” Delia said.

Wade Trainor said, “God guides us to the path that he wants us to follow. He wants you to be a better person.” He told the young men that he felt called to the priesthood by learning theology in an intellectual way and then growing into a “heart-to-heart relationship with God,” Trainor said.

Jose Zuniga said he “encountered the good Lord — his love and mercy,” while in the youth group at the Cathedral as part of Confirmation studies — an experience that led to his vocation.

“It’s the never-ending joy in my life. It’s made me happier and more enthusiastic,” said Zuniga, who told the young people, “try the seminary. Whether it is marriage or the priesthood, there can be no better life than one with the Lord,” he said.

During lunch, Kevin Goodsir, 21, of Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish in Hewitt — a retreat-goer older than the target demographic — said that his faith became strengthened when he started studying philosophy and history independently in college. This led him to want to learn about those subjects from the “traditional perspective” of the Church. He left college, prayed, discerned during COVID-19, and is now preparing an application to the seminary for the Diocese.

“In college, I experienced a radical conversation. I want to become a priest so I can tell people who are in darkness that they can experience that conversion and I can bring them to Christ,” Goodsir said.