Young men discerning a vocation participate in diocesan retreat

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PROVIDENCE — The diocesan Office of Vocations offered a Discerning Retreat on the Priesthood for College Age Men and High School Seniors this past weekend at Our Lady of Providence Seminary. The overnight retreat, with 15 young men discerning a vocation in attendance, began on Friday evening and featured conferences, opportunities for fraternity with one another, along with opportunities for confessions and time for Eucharistic Adoration.

Five local seminarians currently studying at OLP also attended and helped to facilitate discussions and answer questions the discerning young men had. Father Yerick Mendez, from the Diocese of Springfield, Mass., served as retreat director, and delivered talks on the priesthood.

On Saturday, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin met one-on-one with each candidate for the first time during the annual event, before celebrating Mass with them.

“This is one of the most important events we do each year,” said Father Christopher Murphy, assistant vocation director for the Diocese of Providence. “It is a real gift to have the seminary to use for this occasion.”

While the identities of those young men in attendance remain anonymous to the public while they are discerning, one of the Providence seminarians facilitating the program, Peter Cotnoir, reflected on his attendance at the event several years ago before he entered OLP.

“I was discerning, but I already knew that God was calling me to be a priest,” said Cotnoir, a Fourth College seminarian who will graduate from Providence College this spring and head off to major seminary this fall.

“A lot of guys come in questioning, is this what God wants from me?” he said.

Cotnoir said the retreat is especially helpful for the discerning candidates as it helps them to understand what the process is like. They also get to see what it is like for the seminarians to fulfill their duties in service during the Mass.

In his homily Saturday, Bishop Tobin said he appreciated the individual discussions he had with each candidate earlier that morning.

“I was truly impressed and found the conversation to be very insightful and very encouraging, and for me very inspiring. Thank you very much for your insights and for your candor. It was very helpful.”

He then reflected on the Gospel, in which John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the waters of the Jordan River, describing it as a fitting way to conclude the Christmas season.

“The baptism of Jesus marked a very important time in his ministry,” the bishop said.

While integral to Christian formation, though, baptism is merely the seed that is planted in our hearts and our souls.

“It depends on what we do with it,” he said.

After baptizing Jesus, John realized that his role had reached its apex, and now it was time for Jesus to assume the role of christening others into the faith.

“He must increase and I must decrease,” the bishop said, quoting the Scriptures, noting how Jesus and his ministry in the name of God now superseded everything else.

In a message directed at the discerning candidates themselves, the bishop advised them that in moving forward in their pursuit of a vocation, Jesus must increase and they in turn must decrease.