Discernment: A True Grace from the Lord

By Fr. Eddie Chincha, SDB

During the last five years, the Mary Help of Christians (MHC) Center in Tampa, FL, has been blessed to assist our province and the Diocese of St. Petersburg with religious and priestly vocations. We are humbled to have seen such success in this area and would like to share our story.

Vocation animation is the crown jewel of youth ministry. We sow the idea that God has a plan for everyone in young people’s minds so the Holy Spirit will eventually speak to them of a religious vocation. The next step is to be bold and suggest to young people that they may have a religious vocation. You may ask, “How do I know whom to ask?” This helps young people to see firsthand what our lives are like.

First, we have elderly Salesians and others in the St. Philip the Apostle Residence. Some of them can point out someone with a vocation on the spot. It is truly a grace the Lord has given them. So, I tried to organize events when our community would host students or other groups of young people as often as possible. This helps young people to see a bit about what our lives are like.

Next, we invested a lot of our resources in vocational animation. We have a very structured process to select students to attend Salesian Leadership Retreats and Gospel Roads. One of our criteria is that the young person has the potential for a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life. We also try to get those young people involved in summer camp and on our youth ministry team. Later, we invite them to come to our province-sponsored discernment retreats in New Jersey. In this, we are thankful to our director, Fr. Franco Pinto, for his generosity in sponsoring students attending retreats.

The most important and final component is that our community is open to inviting young adults to live in the community with us for a semester or a year. These young men get involved in the youth ministry and learn more about our charism. This also results in students getting to see that discerning a religious vocation is normal and creates a snowball effect.

Those who have come through our doors and have discerned a vocation with us are listed below. Most are still in formation, while others have finished their discernment. We are grateful for their generosity. Nicholas Jandernoa, Quan Phu, and Jieo Tecson came from out of state to discern with us. Nathan Gonzalez, who is a parishioner and camp staff member, spent time in formation with us and in New Jersey. Frankie Chazhikattu is a Cristo Rey Tampa Salesian High School alumnus and a current candidate. Many students look up to him for his generosity. Chris Busser came from Christ the King Parish in Tampa to discern with us for a year; he discovered that God called him to serve as a diocesan priest. Jorell DeGuzman was a parishioner at MHC and a camp counselor before he joined the diocesan seminary. JJ Galvez has been a camp counselor and volunteer at MHC and is currently living with us; he is applying to become a candidate in New Jersey next year. Finally, Maria Jose Urdaneta, a parishioner from St. Mark’s Parish, where I lead most of the Hispanic ministry, has applied to be an aspirant with the FMAs. Besides these, more young adults and students come to us open to exploring a vocation.

Don Bosco said God called one of every 10 young people to a religious or priestly vocation. So why can't we recognize that fact and become more proactive in seeking out these vocations? National surveys say young people begin vocation discernment in their mid-20s. However, six out of our nine local vocations were under 22 years old when they came through our doors or joined a formation program. We are happy that, here in Tampa, we have started a new trend: discernment can begin during the late teen years, too. I want to believe that if this can happen here, then it can happen everywhere. As St. Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Rm. 8:31.