Hometown priests visit their former grade school for Vocation Awareness Week
Advise children of I.C. School in Jefferson City to ask God what he wants them to be
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Father Eric Groner of the Divine Word Missionaries and Father John Schmitz gazed out nostalgically from the sanctuary of Immaculate Conception Church in Jefferson City.
They had once occupied those same pews with their schoolmates and spent countless hours in the same classrooms.
“Whenever we came here as a group, we’d all march down that center aisle and stop right here, and the teacher would genuflect and we would all get down on our knees and proclaim, ‘My Jesus, I adore you and I love you,’” Fr. Schmitz recalled.
He still does that every day when he walks into St. Patrick Church in Laurie, where he now serves as pastor.
“I’m so grateful that God helped me find what he wanted me to do for him — to be a priest,” Fr. Schmitz proclaimed.
He and Fr. Groner, a Divine Word Missionary who serves in the state of Louisiana, are graduates of Immaculate Conception School. They concelebrated an all-school Mass for Vocation Awareness Week.
Later, they visited classrooms and answered students’ questions.
“Look around”
Being a priest has its joys and difficulties, but for those who are called to it, it’s the straightest path to peace and fulfillment.
“We get to do so many wonderful things,” Fr. Schmitz proclaimed from the pulpit. “We get to be there when people are happy and celebrating joyful moments like marriages and Confirmations and First Communions. We get to gather and celebrate the Mass and proclaim the sacred words of Scripture and feed all of us with Jesus, his Body and Blood, in Holy Communion.”
Priests are also close to people through difficult times.
“When we have to say goodbye to someone who has died, or when someone is struggling with illness,” said Fr. Schmitz. “It’s amazing, because I go there with Jesus. I am in the image and likeness of Christ to them.”
He shared stories about ministering to people when they were sick and close to death, leading them in prayer and helping them find peace.
“It wasn’t me!” he emphasized. “It was Jesus who was ministering with me and through me.”
Fr. Schmitz explained that God creates every human being with unique gifts, talents, desires and dispositions.
These gifts are not just for the person who receives them but for the whole Church.
God has a plan for each of his people, a mission that will help them and the people around them get to heaven.
In addition to the call to holiness, which everyone receives at their Baptism, God calls specific people to serve him as husbands and wives, as professed religious sisters and brothers, and as priests.
“God knows everything about you!” said Fr. Schmitz. “Look around each day. What do you really enjoy? Who’s helping you? Where do you find joy when you do what you do?”
These are the kinds of questions that help people discover their vocation.
“Things you do well — recognize them,” Fr. Schmitz advised. “See how you can share those with your brothers and sisters and your classmates as sons and daughters of Jesus Christ, to all the people of the world,” he said.
He urged every child present to “find that seed that God plants in us, to let it flourish and grow in the heart of Jesus and the love of God.”
Both priests made it clear that the priests who inspired them were ordinary people with ordinary interests.
“My Mom and Dad knew some priests and were their friends,” said Fr. Schmitz. “I saw how they got to do a lot of wonderful things here at church. They also enjoyed being like me. They had hobbies. One really like motorcycles. One of them enjoyed boating, one enjoyed hunting. They did real things!”
Getting to spend time with them and know them helped take away the mystery of the Priesthood.
It helped him be open to what God was calling him to become, whatever that would be.
Fr. Schmitz told the children that thinking about what God wants them to be when they grow up is infinitely better than just thinking about what they want to be.
Fr. Schmitz noted that he has a pilot license and enjoys flying airplanes, but he is not a pilot.
Likewise, Fr. Groner enjoys fishing and traveling, but he’s not a fisherman or a cruise director on a ship. He’s a priest.
Fr. Schmitz suggested praying and asking: “God, what do you want me to do in serving you as a person of faith and a child of God?”
“God is going to bring you to fruition,” he said. “He’s going to let you be who you are.”
“It’s wonderful”
Fr. Groner’s uncle, the late Father John Groner, was a priest of the Jefferson City diocese, as was his great-uncle, the late Monsignor Bernard Groner.
To the younger Fr. Groner, they weren’t just priests, they were family.
“I.C. Church, we have had more vocations in this diocese than any other parish!” he said. “And we need God to send us more priests and sisters and brothers and deacons to serve the people of the diocese. So, where are we going to find them?”
He recalled how the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word who taught at I.C. School for many years were quick to encourage boys to consider Priesthood and girls to consider Religious Life.
“It’s still certainly something to think about,” he said. “The Church needs courageous young men and women to think about vocations to the Priesthood and Religious Life.”
God doesn’t call everyone to be a priest or a sister or brother, but for those who are called, “It’s wonderful!” said Fr. Schmitz. “It’s wonderful to find that seed that God plants in us, to let it flourish and grow. It’s wonderful to be a priest!”
It can take a long time to figure it all out, so patience and persistence are important.
“So, what is God calling you to right now?” Fr. Schmitz asked the children. “He’s calling you to be a wonderful student of I.C. School. He’s calling you to learn and grow and listen as he leads you to the life he’s had in mind for you from the beginning of time.”
