BRANDYWINE HUNDRED – Students from three Catholic schools, along with some homeschooled youngsters, gathered at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Brandywine Hundred on Jan. 22 to learn more about vocations from diocesan priests and a group of religious sisters.
The Sisters of Life stopped at IHM on the way from their home in New York City to Washington, D.C., where they will participate in the March for Life on Jan. 23. One of the sisters, Sister Gianna, is a Delaware native who happens to be the biological sister of IHM’s pastor, Father John Solomon, who is also the diocesan director of vocations.
The day was split into two parts. The women began the morning visiting the classrooms of the lower grades, followed by a program with approxiately 180 sixth- through eighth-grade students from IHM, St. Mary Magdalen and Aquinas Academy, along with the homeschoolers. The group began in church with a short prayer service, after which the girls stayed in the church with the sisters and the boys headed to the school cafeteria to meet with the priests. Everyone returned to the church for adoration, with music provided by some of the Sisters for Life.
Three sisters began their day with the pre-kindergarten students. Sister Luz read a book to the children, with the message that God always loves them.
“God loves you even when you forget to do your chores,” Sister Luz told the students. “Always never, ever forget that. Ever, ever, ever.”
In a second-grade classroom, three other Sisters of Life explained more about their congregation.
“We are Sisters of Life,” Sister Miriam Bethel said. “We have veils because we are married to God, which is so crazy.”
Sister Mary Pieta told the second-graders that they are all different. No one has the same fingerprints, she said.
“Even twins are made different,” she said in a classroom that included a set of twins.
Sister Magdalen Clare asked the students to be willing to “venture with God,” who has a plan for each of us.
Sister Gianna joined Father Solomon and Sister Esther with a fourth-grade class. She told the students that God has a plan for everyone. She asked the children to pray, “Jesus, what do you want me to do with my life?”
“He sees us with much love,” said Sister Gianna, a 2005 graduate of Padua Academy in Wilmington.
The students had some questions. One wanted to know why the sisters wear rosaries. Sister Esther explained that the rosaries symbolize the power of prayer. They are on the sisters’ left side because that is the side where soldiers would keep their sword. Sister Gianna also said she had a necklace and Sister Esther didn’t because it signifies how far along the women are in their vocation journey.
Sister Gianna also spoke to the older students in the church. The Sisters of Life of New York City, 10 of whom were at IHM, work with women experiencing troubled pregnancies. She said the women who enter the congregation take the three traditional vows – poverty, chastity and obedience – also take a fourth vow: to protect life.
They live in Manhattan, where they work with all kinds of women and experience the craziness of the city, but they are making a difference in people’s lives. Her message to the students was similar to that imparted to their younger counterparts.
“Each of you is perfectly seen, known and loved by God,” she said. “The pinnacle of creation is you, the human person.” God, she said, has a plan for each of them, “a plan for love.”
Sister Gianna issued three daily challenges to the students in the church. She encouraged them to ask God how he sees them; what he wants for their lives; and to be open to his love.
The sisters then met with small groups of girls in the church, and the boys walked back to the school to meet with Fathers Solomon, Brennan Ferris, Joseph W. McQuaide IV, Bill Melnick and Glenn Evers. Father Ferris, who graduated from St. Elizabeth High School in 2013, told his group how he had thought about becoming a priest as far back as middle school, but the feeling faded as he reached high school.
“If you’re trying to get a girlfriend, it’s not the best thing to say: ‘I want to be a priest.’” he joked.
Father Ferris, ordained three and a half years ago, said the inclination returned later in his high school years. His whole life changed because of his vocation, he said. He is currently assigned to St. Michael the Archangel in Georgetown, where he ministers to the large Spanish-speaking community. Nearly all of his public Masses are in Spanish.
He said he celebrates a lot of evening Masses because the people he serves work long days. He said it took about eight years of study to become a priest. A boy asked him what he likes best about being a priest.
“When I do things, I give grace to other people. That’s my favorite thing,” he said.
Father Solomon asked the boys to be open to what God is telling them. God is not going to send them a text message.
Father Evers, the pastor of St. Joseph’s Parish in downtown Wilmington, told his group that he liked to backpack when he was younger. He learned to travel with as light a load as possible, and that has translated to his life as a priest. He realized that he didn’t need material things to be happy. He also said his studies of St. Padre Pio taught him some things.
“When I was reading about the life of St. Padre Pio, I realized those were the same things I loved,” he said.
Across the cafeteria, Father Joseph McQuaide told a group of boys he “would not change a thing” about his life as a priest. The pastor of three downtown Wilmington churches – St. Peter Cathedral, St. Patrick and St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception – Father McQuaide said the priest is the shepherd of his community.
He does not have children of his own, but he has his family and the children in his churches.
“My life is fuller than I ever imagined,” said Father McQuaide, also the diocesan chancellor.
Photos by Mike Lang.
