Meet the seminarians Lukas and Michael

^{Source: Diocese of Nottingham}

There are some roles in life which are so exhaustive that no job description could ever cover, everything which it entails. Who could complete a job description for the role of a mother or father? Where would you start and finish, when writing a job specification for a Catholic priest?

The Diocese of Nottingham has two young men preparing for the priesthood at Oscott Seminary. Lukas Mickevicus, was born in Lithuania but ended up in Nottingham, as a student of Chemistry at the city’s university. It was in the final year of his four-year course that he began his discernment to the priesthood. After graduating, he worked for one year in a lab, before applying to seminary and beginning his studies at Valladolid in Spain. He is 25 years-old.

Michael Furey, was raised in Derby and worked for a funeral directors for 4.5 years before his admission to Valladolid. He is now 28 years of age and in his third year at Oscott College in Birmingham.

Michael felt a calling to the priesthood from a very early age. He first began to contemplate the priesthood at the age of 9, when he served on the altar, and observed closely what happens on the sanctuary during Mass. “I kept thinking about it until I was 11, and then I went to secondary school and sort of forgot about,” he explains. But a few years later, the topic of the priesthood came up during an RE lesson. “I remember having this quiet sensation, or a voice in my head saying to me; ‘the priesthood is for you.’

“It wasn’t like a Damascus moment. It wasn’t like the call of Samuel either where I said: ‘speak Lord your servant is listening!’. It was a very gradual process of asking questions of various priests and really reading about it from books and online sources.”

Lukas describes his upbringing as ‘culturally Catholic’ and tells me “It remains a bit of a mystery,” how life’s events led him to the seminary.

“It was all about saying ‘little yeses’ on the way,” he observes. “Yes- I will try going to Mass when I was at school. Yes-I will go to the campus Mass. Yes-I will join the music group. Yes-I will try to be on the Catholic Society. Yes-I will watch YouTube videos about the faith and talk to my peers about the faith and finally, yes, I will go to a discernment evening. It was just sort of boiling up in me.”

When Lukas first applied to seminary, he anticipated that he would have to wait more than a year before his admission, but on hearing that he could in fact start sooner than anticipated, he was literally “jumping for joy.”

Both Michael and Lukas concede that the life of a seminarian is not always easy. Aside from the rigour academic life demands, community living- just like family life-has its tensions and challenges. Both seminarians have daily chores to do such as laundry and cleaning their rooms. Lukas is heavily involved with music ministry and Michael has been given the role of college bar manager, which isn’t as fun as it sounds.

“We’ve had some awful trouble with the locks recently, on the cupboards underneath the bar,” he explains. “You can almost relate this to the job of the parish priest.”

Michael explains how he learned that St Mary’s on Sea in Grimsby, had dreadful problems with its drains some years ago. The local plumber told the parish priest: “the drains will work here, when water flows up hill.”

Michael says: “It really made me think about the responsibilities here to the house, to the community and how, this is something you won’t escape when you leave for seminary. You have a duty of care to look after whatever is entrusted to you, whether it is a college bar, or a whole house, or any other property in your care.”

Fortunately, Michael and Lukas are blessed to be under the care and tutelage of Fr Neil Peoples, who is Vocations Director of Nottingham Diocese. Fr Neil tells me that from the beginning of anyone’s discernment journey, he wants to be a friendly face rather than just a ‘name on a poster.’ Nottingham Diocese has a flourishing young adult ministry, and he makes a point of being present at their events as chaplain, so that young adults discerning the religious life can easily connect with him.

He currently runs a monthly discernment meeting for anyone contemplating the priesthood and religious life, and he will also take part in the Diocesan pilgrimages to Walsingham and Lourdes later this year.

The future of the Catholic Church in England and Wales depends on priests. What can we do to support vocations to the priesthood, apart from praying for them?

‘Gentle suggestion’ is Fr Neil’s prescription. In Fr Neil’s experience, hearing from someone who is not a priest that the priesthood might be for you, is far more persuasive than a priest encouraging you to apply for seminary.

“I remember when I was in the working world and moaning to a colleague about our pay,” he tells me, “at a time when plumbers were making a lot of money. “And my colleague said to me, ‘well you could become a plumber, or you could become a priest.’”

Based on Michael’s story, a plumbing qualification could probably be added to the ideal job description for a Catholic priest. 

Please pray for Michael and Lukas as they prepare to offer their unique skills and gifts to the never-ending list, of what it really means to be a priest.

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Vocations Sunday Prayer

God our Loving Father,

you called each of us by name through the Sacrament of Baptism to holiness.

Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, you made us the temples of the Holy Spirit.

Help us to listen to the cry of our Lord Jesus from the Holy Cross ‘I thirst’

and respond to the call

‘Go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news to all the nations’.

Guide us in every step we take in life

and lead us in every decision we make in responding to your call.

Make us and mould us into the living images of Christ your Son,

who was always close to those in need.

We make this prayer through Christ our Lord,

Amen.

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