BEAR — An opportunity to discuss the life of a priest drew a group of young men to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Bear, where the Diocese of Wilmington’s vocations office held Pass the Word on March 14. Ten individuals discerning whether they might have a priestly vocation gathered for Mass and other activities with Bishop Koenig, a few diocesan priests and seminarians.
Father Norman Carroll, the pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and the director of vocations for the diocese told the group they were “serious discerners,” most of whom had already discussed the possibility of priesthood with their pastors. He asked them to think about the way God talks to us, which could be through a teacher, parent or someone else, not just a priest.
“Thank you for taking the opportunity to listen,” he said.
Jakob Brown, a Seton parishioner who entered seminary for the diocese last fall, recalled attending Vacation Bible School there when he was young.
“Just a year ago I was in your shoes,” he said. He had been attending the University of Delaware, but after discussions with Father Carroll and some thinking, he entered the St. Pope John Paul II Seminary, where he is a sophomore.
During the homily at Mass, Deacon James Gebhart, who will be ordained to the priesthood in May, said each of the young men present had someone in their lives who believed they would benefit from attending Pass the Word.
“Sometimes, people see things about us that we don’t see about ourselves,” Deacon Gebhart said.
He recalled that as a high school student at Delaware Military Academy, a classmate said he could see Gebhart as a priest.
“It wasn’t too long after that encounter with that classmate that I began to discern a vocation to the priesthood,” he said.
The goal of Pass the Word, he noted, was not to have each of the attendees leave with an application to enter the seminary, although, he added, that would likely bring a smile to Father Carroll’s face. The priests and seminarians who were present were there to help the young men hear the voice of God and “to prayerfully begin a conversation with God.”
The ultimate question, Deacon Gebhart said, is how will each of them be a witness to God through their prayer lives.
After lunch and a game of guess the seminarian, Tibor Nagy, who attends St. Mary’s Seminary and University in the pre-theology program, spoke about his journey. Nagy graduated from Cab Calloway School for the Arts in Wilmington and the University of Delaware, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees.
He was not the most faithful Catholic, but he had a friend at Delaware who encouraged him to go on retreats sponsored by the campus ministry office. He always found excuses not to go until his friend died in February 2020. Nagy finally went on one of the retreats.
“It was that day that I had a transformative experience. It really was a turning point in my life,” he said.
The priesthood was on his mind, but he moved to Baltimore and got a job at a bank. He attended Bishop Koenig’s episcopal ordination at St. Elizabeth Church in 2021 and called it a “profound religious experience.
“It was three hours of overwhelming presence of the Lord,” he said.
He said a religious sister at the Mass told him, unprovoked, that she knew she wanted to be a nun after attending an ordination. Nagy went to the ordination of Father Brennan Ferris in 2022, and it stirred up more feelings in him, especially as he watched the new priest give blessings to the bishop and other priests. He entered seminary, and his desire to become a priest has only grown stronger.
“Take the time to grow in your relationship with our Lord,” Nagy said.
