WOONSOCKET – Perhaps among Jay and Janine Gonya’s 16 children is a vocation to the priesthood or religious life.
Click here to view more photos“We promote it. We’re very supportive of the idea, but it hasn’t happened yet,” said Jay Gonya, who brought his family from Blackstone, Mass., to a family vocations day Dec. 3 at St. Joseph Church in Woonsocket.
Priests from the Diocese of Providence joined priests, brothers and sisters from religious orders that included the Benedictines, Dominicans and Franciscans to share their vocation stories with families, most of them with young children and teenagers, that attended the daylong gathering.
Speakers encouraged the youth to discern their particular vocations and also reminded parents of their responsibilities in living out the Catholic faith at home.
“It’s from good Catholic families that the seeds of vocations are sown. We are here to plant seeds,” said Father Joseph Aytona, a young missionary priest from the Fathers of Mercy and the lead organizer of the conference.
Father Aytona organized his first vocations day when he was still a second-year seminary student, and has led 34 such events in 40 dioceses across the country. His brother, Jewel Aytona, is also a priest with the Fathers of Mercy.
“Our parents set a good example with their Catholic faith. But it was also our extended family, our cousins, aunts, and uncles. One of the things we did as an extended family in Southern California was to pray the rosary together,” Father Joseph Aytona said.
“The idea here is to promote vocations through the sanctification of the family," he said.
Olga Millette, a Blackstone, Mass., resident and a friend of the Gonya family, attended the daylong conference with six of her 11 children, the youngest, 8-month-old Aidan, resting on her shoulder.
“This really brings you back to the center of your faith. Sometimes, in the day-to-day, you feel alone, but this gives you a sense of community, a reminder that we’re not alone. Something like this reminds you that your sacrifices do matter,” Millette said.
Her 12-year-old son Michael Millette, who attended a weeklong retreat this past summer in New Hampshire, said he enjoyed meeting people his age who also like to attend church and pray.
“I like God a lot. I think of him all the time,” he said. “I pray at school. The kids ask me what I’m doing, but I don’t answer them.”
Young children, teenagers, fathers and mothers broke up into groups to listen to various talks before attending Mass in the church.
Father Michael Najim, the vocations director for the Diocese of Providence and chaplain of La Salle Academy in Providence, explained to the men the similarities between their vocation and that of the priest’s spiritual fatherhood.
“When a man is called to be a priest, he is called to be a spiritual father,” Father Najim said.
Father Andrew Beauregard, a priest from the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance, told a group of young men and teenage boys about the necessity of integrating the Catholic faith into their lives.
“It’s just the way we live our lives every day, being faithful to the Gospel,” he said.
Inside the church, Brother Adrian Duran of the Fathers of Mercy shared his conversion story with the women's group. He described growing up in Los Angeles in a non-practicing Catholic household marred by physical abuse, violence and drugs.
Brother Duran said his father was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to murder his mother. The young religious brother fell into a life of gang activity and drug dealing.
“I didn’t know anything about Jesus. Why? Because my family didn’t teach me anything about Jesus,” said Brother Duran, adding that his mother later helped him to experience a conversion in his teen years, which led him to discern a vocation to the priesthood, which he is preparing for in the seminary.
Ken Vaudrain, a parishioner at Blessed Pope John Paul II Parish in Pawtucket, attended the conference – which included a talent show with priests and religious singing, even break-dancing — with two of his children.
“The young priests and sisters have been tremendous. They represent the perfect marriage of Catholic teaching with the intention of Vatican II to reach out to the world," Vaudrain said.
Jay Gonya said he was pleased that his children met the friars and sisters in person.
“Kids don’t get to see a lot of religious day to day. It’s good for them to see the monks, the priests, the brothers, so they are exposed to all these forms of religious life," Gonya said.
