“…if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.”

American novelist Flannery O’Connor responded with this curt statement after a fellow dinner guest suggested that the Eucharist was a nice symbol. The devout Catholic O’Connor had clearly based much of her journey in the faith assenting to the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and so she responded with great courage at a suggestion that the Eucharist was not the very presence of Jesus’ Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity under the appearance of bread and wine.

She recounted the comment to her friend in a letter and went onto write regarding the comment ‘that was all the defense I was capable of, but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that [the Eucharist] is the center of existence for me; all the rest is expendable.’ (Excerpts from O’Connor’s letter cited in John Desmond’s 2002 article for Logos “Flannery O’Connor and the Symbol”)

Certainly, anyone can look to this anecdote for encouragement in making the Eucharist the center of his or her life, but I think about that statement when it comes to other truths of the faith that we hold as well, including the call to celibacy for most priests in the Roman Church.

As I’ve stated in this space before, the reason for celibacy is often assumed to be ‘so the priest has more time to minister and doesn’t have to care for his family.’ My response to that is O’Connor-esk: “if that’s the reason for celibacy, to hell with it.’

Priestly celibacy is a real Spiritual Fatherhood that a man must be called to. One of the reasons that seminary is so long is so a man can discern chaste celibacy alongside priesthood. Jesus says in Matthew 19 that some will be called to be unmarried “…for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive this.” (Matthew 19:12b; NRSV2CE)

If my celibacy is a way to give me more time, it’s not working. I have less time now than I ever had, but that is because I am seeking to exercise a real fatherhood and a real spousal relationship that is lived out in my soul and in my day-to-day work and life.

Jesus actually taught this in the Gospel. That’s why I always cite these words when people try to give me an ‘out.’ They say things like: “I wish y’all could get married, because you’d probably have more help.”
I realize that these comments are made in support of me and my brother priests, but sometimes I respond in a way similar to O’Connor’s defense of the Real Presence. If the priesthood and the call to celibacy that I discerned in seminary is really all about efficiency and was not a true call to be a spiritual father, to hell with it.

I believe that priesthood can most fruitfully be lived out with a deep recognition that you were called into relationship with the church and into a true fatherhood for her people. Thankfully this was explained to me many times in many ways by many different formators in the seminary, and that work continues with our men currently in formation.

Thank you for your support of priests, and please encourage them to take ownership of the identity that Christ has called them to – they are spouses of the church, and they are true fathers of the People of God. Pray that our men in seminary discern well the call to celibacy, and that they courageously accept that call if, and only if, the Lord offers it.

– Father Nick Adam

For more info on vocations email: nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.

In his book From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, Msgr. James Shea makes the argument that the Catholic Church must reconnect with her evangelical roots. He spends a couple of chapters in this short book explaining that structures within our society that used to be infused with Christianity no longer are, and college students who used to return to their religious roots after a few years away at school often no longer do so. Msgr. Shea does a great job explaining the reality that we are living in, and he also gives an encouraging and invigorating challenge to those who love Jesus and His church: be disciples first, and then become apostles.

FOCUS seeks to answer this call in an inspiring way. The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) is a national network of missionaries who work on college campuses to help students become disciples of Jesus Christ. They also train those student-disciples to become apostles, encouraging them to go out and preach the Gospel after it has led them to change their own lives. The annual FOCUS conference, SEEK, was held in St. Louis earlier this month, and the fruits of their mission were on display. About 19,000 people attended the conference. It was amazing to witness the faith and dedication of these young people, and not just their faith, but their formation. In speaking with the attendees and spending time with them, it was clear that they didn’t just like coming to church, but on top of that they were in a living relationship with Jesus Christ, or they were at least on the road to having one. They were dedicated to the sacraments and they understood why the sacraments were important to their life.

As the head of FOCUS, Curtis Martin stated in one of the breakout sessions: our colleges and universities help to set the course of our culture, and the next generation is formed during these four critical years, so we must bring the Gospel to these campuses or risk young people losing their faith entirely before entering the work force. This conference was a very life-giving event for me, but it also has left me considering what I can do as a priest to support the young people I met and was inspired by. The young church needs priests who will accompany them and bring them into contact with the Lord through the sacraments. There were about 400 priests at FOCUS, and it was amazing to see how the students would regularly come up to us with big smiles and ask for various items to be blessed, or for prayers for a certain intention, or for one of us to hear their confession.

As vocation director, I am grateful for the work done by campus ministers across our diocese. About 80 students from our diocesan universities attended the conference. FOCUS serves at Mississippi State right now and they had about 60 attendees alone! But all of us share in the responsibility to form our young people in the faith, and I am grateful that I was able to attend this event, and it has led me to think seriously about the way that I evangelize. Nearly 19,000 people attended a conference centered on Jesus and the sacraments. The desire for God is in the hearts of young people — what are we doing to bring Him to them?

– Father Nick Adam

If you are interested in learning more about religious orders or vocations to the priesthood and religious life, email nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.

Celibacy is discerned alongside the priesthood. In the Roman Church celibacy is a discipline that is the norm for all ordained priests. This is distinct from various eastern Catholic Churches which allow for married priests while all bishops are celibate. The church venerates the celibate life for her priests because our high priest, Jesus Christ, was celibate. The tradition of the church also proclaims that all the apostles, the first bishops, lived celibately following their call from Christ, and that this is not simply a way for priests of the church to ‘have more time’ for ministry, but it is a call into a spousal relationship with the church itself.

The longer I live my priesthood the more I appreciate the spousal aspect of my celibacy. Just as a husband lives for his wife and seeks to give himself to her in all that he does, the priest should do the same for the church. As the love between a husband and wife bears fruit through children and in the community, the priests’ love for the church and his care of protection of her brings forth spiritual fruit in the people of the parish and those that he encounters in the wider community.

Priesthood is most fruitfully lived by men who understand and ‘lean into’ their spousal identity. This means that priesthood is not reserved for men who otherwise would not desire marriage, or who simply want to ‘do good in the world.’ Priesthood is for men who are invited into a relationship with God through the church that brings out a not just a true fatherhood, but first a spousal union. Men are husbands before they are fathers, and so a priest has to be dedicated to giving himself fully to his bride, the church.

When a man is discerning the priesthood, he should pay close attention to the call to celibacy. There should be a discernable movement within the heart of a man as he progresses through the seminary that he is willing and able to give his life away for his bride. Our society has many roadblocks to maturity that sometimes need to be tackled outside the seminary system, and so it is my job and that of the formators at the seminary to help our men see those roadblocks and overcome them. In our day, the ability to commit to lifelong covenant relationship is inhibited by constant distractions, some more gravely immoral than others. Our understanding of our own manhood can be threatened by cultural movements that seek to limit the specific genius of masculinity and femininity. All of these issues are addressed within the seminary as men are encouraged and required to grow in maturity so they are able to be a leaven in society, not to simply go with the flow.

If he is not willing or able to grow in this identity, then he is may not called to priesthood, or he needs to step away in order to grow in maturity and an understanding of who he is as a man. The church needs husbands and fathers seeking to give themselves completely for the life of the church. The call to celibacy must be present if a man is to live out his priesthood as a true spouse of the church, and as he gives himself more and more to that life giving relationship, he will see the fruits of his labor through many spiritual children.

– Father Nick Adam

If you are interested in learning more about religious orders or vocations to the priesthood and religious life, email nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.

The Christmas decorations are going up in the rectory and in downtown Jackson and I know that the halls are being decked at our seminaries as well. As we prepare for the coming of Christ at Christmas, we give thanks for the gift of the church, the Eucharist and the priesthood. Here are a couple of updates of note as we near the end of another year!

On May 20, 2023, Ryan Stoer and Tristan Stovall will be ordained to the transitional diaconate. This is the final step before priestly ordination, and it has been a long journey for both Ryan and Tristan to come to this point. The ordination will be at 10:30 a.m. at the Cathedral.

Shortly after their ordination, Ryan and Tristan will be joining myself and two of our other seminarians for a two-month immersion trip to Mexico in June and July. I have written about this immersion in previous issues. It will be an opportunity for our seminarians, and myself, to gain incredibly important language skills so we are better able to walk with all of our parishioners.

Following that trip, they will embark on their diaconal ministry assignment. This is a big step in the journey of every seminarian. The diaconal assignment is always a little longer than a typical summer, and it gives the newly ordained deacon a great chance to celebrate liturgies and to preach at Mass. Ryan will be at St. Joseph Parish in Gluckstadt while Tristan will be a St. Mary Basilica in Natchez. I know that the people of these parishes will be very supportive and I thank Father Matthew Simmons and Father Aaron Williams for supporting our formation program by walking with these men.

On May 27, 2023, Deacon Carlisle Beggerly will be ordained to the priesthood. His initial priestly assignment will be decided at a later date. Deacon Carlisle completed his diaconal assignment at St. Francis in Madison and is now finishing up his Master of Divinity at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. It is always exciting to set these on the calendar, and please keep these men in your prayers as they near these milestones.

I am also happy to report that the proceeds from our 3rd Annual Homegrown Harvest Festival stands at $142,515.06. This is a really remarkable total and speaks to the support that is present for our seminarians and formation programs. A great thanks also to those who gave to the Department of Vocations as a part of #iGiveCatholic. Please keep all nine of our seminarians in your prayers that they have a restful and rejuvenating Christmas holiday and that their upcoming annual retreat is grace-filled and helpful to their discernment.

– Father Nick Adam

If you are interested in learning more about religious orders or vocations to the priesthood and religious life, email nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.

The Friday before Thanksgiving is a day of great rejoicing for many of our seminarians. For one thing, their Thanksgiving break has arrived and they’ll have a week to spend with family and friends and prepare for their final exams. That Friday is also the day of the annual bonfire at St. Joseph Seminary College. This tradition that goes back many decades and so many of our priests have taken part in it (including myself). The students at St. Joseph (which, because it is a Benedictine monastery, we know as St. Ben’s – confusing I know!) spend the early weeks of November gathering and stacking timber that has fallen around the

property and then stuffing it with as much brush as they can. Thankfully there are 1200 acres of trees at St. Ben’s and usually a hurricane will have pushed through earlier in the fall and provided plenty of raw material. The night before the bonfire the students and faculty have a gathering to bless the fire and ask the Lord to make the next evening a time of fraternity and community that will build up the future priests of the church. Then on bonfire day the men from Notre Dame in New Orleans cross Lake Pontchartrain to join their younger brethren for a football game followed by a great dinner and the lighting of the fire.

My favorite bonfire memories were usually from the football game. It’s amazing how pumped up you can get to compete against another team when there is only one other team to compete against and you only play them once a year. I used to always play receiver, not because I was athletic, but because I was a good field spacer because I knew all the routes and I could open up the field for our more athletic teammates to get open. One time, our quarterback threw me a bone and tossed me a touchdown pass on 4th and goal from the 1-yard line. I was so honored that he trusted me in that moment, but when we talked about it on the sideline, he said — “that was 4th down? I thought it was 3rd or I would have never thrown that to you!”

Those moments are particularly fun for me to reflect on now that I am walking with our current seminarians. Their great memories will be different from mine, but I know that the Lord will give them the same encouragement from these events that I received. The fraternity experienced in seminary is special, and it has endured long after ordination. We have so much great support for our seminarians throughout the diocese, and that support doesn’t just help them learn about theology and liturgy, it gives them opportunities to build friendships that will help sustain their ministry for decades to come.

Father Nick Adam

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

As I was preparing my homily for daily Mass recently, I was reflecting on these words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Our Lord’s statement reveals that a little faith doesn’t just go a long way, it also produces miracles. After all, it is impossible for a mulberry tree, or any other tree, to be planted in the sea!

But our faith can be shaken. A mustard seed is tiny and is easily lost if we don’t protect it. This is one of the reasons I continue to write this column. We need to be reminded that our faith is shared and we need to build one another up to keep up the fight. It is hard to be a Catholic in a land that has so few. It is hard to promote priestly vocations from our parishes when there are so many other forces in our culture that might distract young people from their calls. But it is a fight worth fighting, and with a little faith, God can work miracles through us!

As Joanna King reported elsewhere in this edition of the Mississippi Catholic, our 3rd annual Homegrown Harvest Festival was a great success, and I have come away from that experience more confident than ever that the Lord is going to do great things in our vocation department. Our POPS group (Parents of Priests/Seminarians/Sisters) continues to solidify with many of our parents supporting one another and coming up with great ideas for the coming year. I am also working with our diocesan chancery on new ways to engage Catholics throughout the diocese to help more people get involved in our vocation initiatives and in supporting our seminarians.

But the most important thing we can all do is pray. Please continue or begin to pray for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life in our diocese. If everyone who reads this would pray regularly for this intention, I know that it would make all the difference. We ask for the intercession of Mary, Mother of Priests to nurture and protect the vocations of those who are discerning or who will discern the priesthood in the coming year.

The next time you attend Mass, I invite you to offer your Mass intention for an increase in vocations, or better yet, offer your Mass for a young man or woman you know in your parish who you think would make a great priest or religious. Some people ask me: how do I offer an intention at Mass? Well, when the gifts are coming up to the altar, in your mind’s eye ‘place’ your intention on the altar with the bread and the wine. God can work miracles with all that his people present offer to him in the Mass!

Thank you for your continued support of our mission for a Homegrown Harvest, let’s continue to build one another up so we can keep the faith because God is working and he will work miracles as long as we are open to his will for us!

– Father Nick Adam

If you are interested in learning more about religious orders or vocations to the priesthood and religious life, email nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.

Our Homegrown Harvest effort is working. Not only have we netted four new seminarians in the past year, but we have two men currently in the application process and one more who is in a pre-seminary online program that we offer to guys who are seriously considering a priestly vocation.

The health of a vocation department is not just quality and quantity of candidates; it’s also dependent on building up a good support system for all those who have a hand in promoting and supporting vocations. Here are some other initiatives that we recently ramped up with that in mind:

– We had our first ever POPS event on Sept. 24. The Parents of Priests/Seminarians/Sisters is an effort to support our parents who are supporting their children in discernment. The Knights of Columbus of the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle provided dinner. It was a great event. We are looking at doing a Christmas party in December.

– I attended Southeastern Pastoral Institute’s Encuentro Regional (Regional Encounter Workshop) Oct. 12-14 to learn more about working with young Hispanic Catholics in our parishes and helping them discover their vocation. It was a great experience, and I enjoyed the networking and got some good ideas both for vocation promotion and parish best practices for Hispanic ministry. Bishop Kopacz and Faith Formation director, Fran Lavelle also attended this workshop which was held in St. Augustine, Florida.

– We hosted our first ever Bethany Night in mid-October. This was a dinner, talk, and time of adoration for young women open to the call to religious life. Sister Karolyn Nunes, FSGM, was in town and so I asked her to give a presentation to those who attended. Sister Karolyn is the vocation director for the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George, the same order that Kathleen McMullin, now Sister Mary Kolbe McMullin, entered last year. A great thanks goes to the Knights of Columbus from Holy Savior in Clinton for providing dinner and to this parish for hosting us. I also took Sister Karolyn to St. Joe High School in Madison to speak with two sections of Senior Theology, and that was a great time, the kids were full of great questions.

And our Homegrown Harvest Festival has brought in a record amount to go toward the tuition/books/fees for our nine seminarians. Thank you all for the trust that you have placed in the Lord as we have made a call for support of our men in formation and thank you for you the encouragement you continue to give to young men to consider the call to the priesthood and young women to consider the call to religious life.

Don’t assume. Just ask.

I met Kai Lee I during my final year of seminary studies in New Orleans. One of the priests on faculty, Father Joe Krafft, told me that he had met this man at a parish in the area who was looking for an RCIA program that fit his circumstances. Kai had been married to a Catholic for about 30 years and had raised his son Austin in the faith. He was so active in his parish that most parishioners at Christ the King on the Westbank assumed he was already Catholic, but he hadn’t even been baptized! As Father Krafft listened to Kai’s story and realized he wasn’t baptized, he didn’t assume that Kai had already discerned whether or not to join the church, he asked him!

            Kai began to attend RCIA sessions at the seminary with myself and one of the other seminarians. He was an incredible student who left no stone unturned. He ended up reading through the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church (and he poured through much of it while he was taking instruction from us), and I always had to make sure I stayed up on my own studies so I’d be able to help answer the questions he would come up with during the week. Kai remembers how we would often go over our class time by 30 minutes to an hour just talking about the faith. Kai was baptized and received first communion and confirmation in May 2018. It was a joy filled day, and it was a great joy to see Kai, his wife Vicky, and their son Austin earlier this month as they paid a visit to Jackson.

            The lesson I learned from Kai is one that I use in vocation ministry today: don’t assume, just ask. You may see a young man who is active in his faith and in the church and assume that he has already been encouraged to think about priesthood, or that he’s already discerned and decided against going to the seminary — but don’t assume, just ask! It is so helpful to all of us when we are encouraged by someone to share our gifts. We need that encouragement as human beings, and so never be shy to ask someone if they have considered priesthood and to tell them that they should.

            There is one more step that is important to remember. If you can, make sure you help that person make the next step in their journey. Father Krafft helped Kai get connected to an RCIA program that fit his specific circumstance. You can help a young man that you encourage about the priesthood by putting him in touch with me! Remember that anyone who is interested in priesthood or religious life can call my office to get more information — my direct line here at the office is (601) 969-4020, or send me an email at nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.

            Don’t assume, just ask. And then help a young man make the next step in his discernment by encouraging him to talk to me!

The church is universal, and nowhere has that been more apparent to me than at our Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle. In my first three months as rector, I have been blessed and pastorally challenged by the diverse backgrounds and needs of our parishioners. After three Masses in English each weekend, our 1 p.m. Spanish Mass welcomes the largest single crowd of the bunch. The pews are truly full at that Mass, it’s pretty cool to see. We seek to serve this diverse community by offering catechesis in both English and Spanish, and I am consistently depending on our bilingual parishioners to help me with homily translations.

In order to serve this community well, facility with the Spanish language is vital. I have some Spanish skills, but not enough, and it is so difficult to find time as a pastor, or as an associate pastor for that matter, to go for an immersion experience in Mexico or Central America. With this in mind, we are going to send several of our seminarians to Cuernavaca, Mexico this coming summer for a two-month immersive experience. This experience is organized by St. Meinrad Seminary, and it is hosted by the Benedictine Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels outside Cuernavaca, which is about an hour and a half from Mexico City (if the traffic is good).

I visited the monastery to observe this program back in July and I was very impressed. Not only do the seminarians get one-on-one instruction from teachers four hours a day, but they also take part in the liturgical life of the monastery, and so the needs of their spiritual life are nurtured while this very practical program plays out. In the future all of our seminarians will be required to take part in this immersion as a part of their second summer in our program, but since the need is urgent and this program is helpful, we are going to send four of our guys (Ryan Stoer, Tristan Stovall, Will Foggo and Grayson Foley) down there this summer to get things kicked off, and I will be going to Mexico with them. I certainly could use the practice, and I hope that this will be a blessed time of camaraderie and fraternity as we take this adventure together.

My first thoughts about a required immersion experience began to take shape a few years ago when I visited the Diocese of Little Rock. Spanish immersion seemed to be a real point of cohesion for their seminarians, and it certainly is a great gift to the Hispanic Catholics in that diocese. Little Rock has consistently had over 20 seminarians, and their demographics are pretty close to ours, so I think they must be doing something right! I am pleased that we are getting this off the ground, and I pray that this will be a great opportunity for our seminarians to grow in love of the church, and the people they will serve, as future priests of the diocese.