Category: BC Catholic

Serra International is an organization created by Catholic laity whose objective is to foster and promote vocations to the priesthood and all religious vocations in the Catholic Church, as well as encouraging the laity to fulfill their Christian vocation to service. Serra is named after St. Junipero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan missionary who played a leading role in early missionary work in Mexico and the United States. Below, local Serrans share their experiences.

“I joined Serra over 20 years ago, wishing to be a part of those eager to promote vocations. The outcome is the opportunity to know seminarians in their place at the abbey, the several times we can convene at Holy Rosary Cathedral to support our faith, and in our activities to be together for the greater glory of God.” — Mike

“I joined Serra shortly after I was baptized and confirmed in the Church. The organization was instrumental in helping me to build my faith over the last 20+ years. The fellowship and purpose of Serra kept me engaged with the Church.” — Ben

“Just as a number of Catholic mothers pray, I too prayed that my son would have a vocation to the priesthood. When I realized the priesthood was not his vocation, I joined Serra so that I would have Spiritual Sons who would become priests – thereby making me a Spiritual Mother of priests.” — Ethelyn

“After many years of struggling with my two sons, they decided not to pursue the priesthood and my heart was broken. I lost all my desires in my life until I joined Serra Club where I encountered seminarians. Therefore, I am not only a mother of two sons but also a mother of all the seminarians, to whom I share my heart, and pray for their vocations.” — Cathy

My passion now is to promote vocations, particularly to the priesthood, so when my time comes I may have a priest to celebrate my funeral Mass.

What I have been doing with the Serrans: Since 1981, I’ve been instrumental in starting the club in the Fraser Valley West, started the Serrans in Kelowna, established a Kamloops chapter, organized Stations of the Cross in the Fraser Valley West every Friday of Lent for the FVW deanery (Surrey), and got the traveling Chalice for Vocations that goes to homes promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate, and consecrated religious life.

As a result of the above experiences, I am at St. Ann’s Abbotsford re-establishing a parish vocations committee/ministry.  — Leo

“I know that the celebration of the Eucharist can only be done through a priest, and as the Holy Eucharist leads us to eternal salvation, praying for priests is a priority.

“Let me see your hands,” I said to my three-year-old son after he had finished a large piece of orange chiffon birthday cake.

I took his chubby little fingers in my hands and with a warm cloth wiped away the sticky mess between each finger. When I was close to completing my task, he impatiently squirmed and before I was satisfied that all the icing had been wiped away he was on the escape and rushing to play ball with his older cousins and younger brothers. It was just a fleeting moment in time, but a moment that I cherished and held onto. I knew how quickly time would fly by and just as he had escaped my motherly gestures in that moment he would soon be escaping into the world to find his own way in school, in work, in life.

“Hold your hands tighter on the bat,” the baseball coach yelled to my now 12-year-old son. Sitting beside my husband in the small stands, we, along with all the other parents, called out encouragement to our young, energetic ball players. I watched my almost-teenage boy grip the bat as he swung and connected with the ball that had been pitched to him. The stands erupted into cheers as he slid safely into first base. Just like baseball’s first base, he would soon be sliding into high school.

“Wake up, they’re not home yet,” I would sometimes say to my husband, nudging him awake. During the busy years of four teenagers, we had a hard and fast rule in our home; it didn’t matter what time of the night each of the kids came home, but they had to come into our bedroom and let us know they were okay. My husband is a deep sleeper, and my side of the bed was closest to the door, so the kids would always come and talk to me, sometimes just to say they were home before slipping down to their bedroom and other times sitting on the side of the bed talking for hours about things happening in their lives. On one of these nights, our now 19-year-old son stared down at his trembling hands and shared with me his desire to enter into the seminary and, if God willing, become a priest.

This had not been on my radar at all. Our son was in his first year of business administration at university, and I knew he had been thinking of applying to larger universities in Vancouver. This meant he would soon be moving away. But this news sucked all the breath out of my lungs. I never thought about any of our children going into religious life, it had never really been a topic of conversation in our home.

“Faith is God’s gift, received in baptism, and not our own work, yet parents are the means that God uses for it to grow and develop,” writes Pope Francis in his book Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love). To get a sense of the vocational journey that parents witness in their child’s formation of faith, we spoke with the parents of priests in the Archdiocese of Vancouver. 

Mr. Tong Lê and Mrs. Mai Nguyễn (Le) are the parents of recently ordained Father Patrick Le, who is now an assistant pastor at St. Matthew’s Parish in Surrey. They are also long-time parishioners of St. Patrick’s Parish in Maple Ridge, their home church. Both Mr. and Mrs. Le credit St. Patrick’s Parish and Father Richard Au for playing a crucial role in their son’s discerning to join the seminary and become a priest.

Can you describe Father Patrick at a young age? 

Mr: Le: Before the seminary, he was really picky. He wanted to do things his way. Even from the way he’s eating, he asked his Mom to cook a different meal every day.

Mrs. Le: I’m a hairstylist and when Patrick was 4, I would bring him to work. He always brought his notebook and a pen. One day I asked him, “What are you writing in the book?” And he said, “I’m writing the Bible.” He showed me the book and there were drawings of different shapes, a square or a dot, things like that, then a heart and a cross. I asked him, “What is this for?” He said, “It’s a heart for the mother. Mother Maria. And the cross is Jesus.” In my mind, I thought that this boy is going to become a priest. But I kept it to myself. I just kept praying.

How did you react to him going to the seminary? 

Mrs. Le: It was a big reaction. He was in Grade 6 and we said, “No, no.” We thought he was too young to think that way.

Mr. Le: Then one of my wife’s customers, a former seminarian, came to us for a haircut. He just asked one question: “If your child wants to play soccer, would you tell him to wait until he’s 25 years old to start playing? Or would you let him play right now?” Only a simple question like that caught our hearts. I said, “Okay, we should let him go.”

What have you learned as parents witnessing him become the person he is today? 

Mr. Le: Do simple things. Pray. A little bit of reading the Bible at night.