More than 200 young men in grades 8-12 attended the annual Young Men’s Vocation Luncheon sponsored by the Serra Club of North Columbus on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at the Pontifical College Josephinum’s Jessing Center.
Students from seven high schools, six middle schools and one homeschooler were served lunch, interacted with seminarians, listened to vocations presentations from two recently ordained priests and toured the Josephinum.
The 205 young men in attendance were accompanied by principals and administrators from their schools. Men and women religious also were on hand.
High schools represented were Newark Catholic, Columbus Bishop Ready, Columbus Bishop Watterson, Columbus St. Francis DeSales, St. Charles Preparatory School, Chesterton Academy and Columbus Bishop Hartley. Eighth graders came from Dublin St. Brigid of Kildare, Delaware St. Mary, Columbus Immaculate Conception, Columbus St. Andrew, Grove City Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Worthington St. Michael schools.
Father Jeff Rimelspach, the Serra Club chaplain, led the opening prayer. Father David Johnstone, parochial vicar at Worthington St. Michael Church and chaplain at St. Francis DeSales High School, and Father Michael Haemmerle, parochial vicar at Westerville St. Paul Church and the diocese’s associate director of vocations, shared their testimonies before the recitation of the Angelus prayers followed by the tour of the Josephinum.
Both priests were ordained on May 18 at Columbus St. Andrew Church by Bishop Earl Fernandes.
Father Haemmerle told the young men to examine the deepest desires of their hearts, saying, “Your vocation, whatever it may be, will satisfy those deep desires of your heart, what you’re made for.
“For me, one of the deep desires of my heart, when I was discerning the priesthood, was this desire to bring the grace of Confession to people. I received so much grace from going to Confession that it was something I wanted to offer others. And that was how God drew me to the priesthood.”
While in the seminary, Father Haemmerle was inspired by watching priests serve as spiritual fathers to their parishes and how they impacted the lives of parishioners in good and bad times.
“That was wonderful. It was beautiful,” he said. “And I wanted to be able to be a father to a parish someday.”
He explained that a vocation is part of God’s plan and that not everyone who enters seminary will become a priest.
“You don’t have to have your whole life planned out,” he said. “If you feel God might be calling you to the priesthood, apply to seminary. See if that’s where God is calling you. You’re taking that one step.
“But the seminary helps form you to be the saint you agreed to be. And it also helps you discern the priesthood better. And if you leave seminary and you become a better Christian man, it would’ve been time well spent.”
Father Haemmerle pointed out some of the goals for seminarians in the diocese. Among them are to focus on Christ, become obedient sons, embrace the cross, take extreme ownership of mistakes and be a man of integrity.
Alex Nagel, a 16-year-old sophomore at Newark Catholic, said he has prayed to God lately for his vocation and “I would love to be a father one day, and I think that’s what He’s really encouraging me to do, but I want to experience all this and make sure it’s the right decision. I still have a long time to go and I’m still young.”
Several students said the luncheon offered them an opportunity to think about where God might be leading them in the future.
“I’m an altar server and would like to find out more about vocations and, right now, I think I’m called to marriage,” said Jerry Maxwell, a 13-year-old eighth grader at Delaware St. Mary.
Gavin Hvizd, a 14-year-old eighth grader at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School, said, “I’m attending the luncheon because I wanted to experience it, to see if Jesus is calling me.”
His classmate, Sebastian Buckner, came to “see if I can find what my vocation is and what Jesus is calling me to.”