It's not natural, it's supernatural.

Some people don’t get why a person will consider religious life or priesthood as a way of life. I believe this is true for several reasons but perhaps the main one is because of the profession of the vow of celibacy. As human beings you see, most people are meant to find a life partner. Relationships are what make the world go around. So unlike what Tom Jones says; it IS unusual. One of our late Capuchins; Fr. Godfrey Mannion once said; “It’s not natural but it’s supernatural.”

So we religious always try to keep one eye on the next world while we go about our daily lives. This is also true of many others who are not monks, nuns or priests, but we religious have promised to daily or even more regularly check in with Jesus Christ in prayer.  So we look to the next world because after all, we believe that we’re going to be there an awful lot longer than we are here on planet earth.

So why did I choose to be a Capuchin? Or as so many people have asked me; what made me become a Capuchin? Well, it took a long time percolating as a young person Breakdancing, Dee-Jaying on our Kilnamanagh Summer Project Radio, and going out with two or three girls. And then joining in 1987 and being professed in 1994 and continuing until my ordination in 1997.

Between the years I studied, was involved in pastoral ministry, laughed, cried, fell in love, felt lonely, and got scared, wondered, and struggled. But deep down too, it felt right, it fit. Just like you, my life can be a day-to-day rollercoaster. But unlike you maybe, few people understand the choice of religious life and that can be hard. Don’t get me wrong, people are very kind.

People sometimes ask; why stay in an organization that some have little time for today and perhaps people are angry with (especially in Ireland for example?) To tell the truth, sometimes in our world it isn’t easy to be identified publicly as a priest or a religious. When was the last time you saw a priest in a collar or a nun in a habit on the streets? (outside of Rome)

A few years ago, I was crossing Stephen’s Green in my habit one evening to go to Loreto College to speak at a fundraiser on behalf of Br. Kevin and the Capuchin Day Centre. I couldn’t get parking near that side of the Green so I parked a bit of a walk away. In the middle of the Green I walked right into a load of teenagers. Suddenly they were calling to their mates to come and see this real monk. I was surrounded and mobile phones were out. Could they have a picture? I stood in with some of the group for the picture – I imagine I was all over Snapchat or Instagram in the days after.

I stay in religious life because I’ve no choice. I can’t leave – I don’t want to. That’s what a vocation does when it’s internalised, in other words when I try to understand it on the inside. It’s a love relationship with Jesus Christ that’s fuelled by prayer. And I need your help too and I’m glad when you say you’ll pray for me and you often do.

So here we are on Vocations Sunday, this year in the teeth of a Global Pandemic, when we can’t meet up or invite you to ‘come and see’ I still invite you who are considering what do with their lives to consider what it might be like to be a member of a religious order or a priest. It’s all about serving – maybe you can handle it.