Seminarian profile

BY ANNIE LUST

Twenty-some years ago, there was a young boy at a makeshift altar in his home outside Attica, Ohio. He was playing Mass. He was, of course, the priest, and his grandparents were the parishioners. In 2019, Zach Brown was ordained a transitional deacon. In 2020, Zach will be ordained to the priesthood. He will stand at the altar and celebrate Mass as a priest. While they will not be sitting in the pews, his grandparents were instrumental in helping him get there. In fact, he wonders if he would be there at all, if not for them.

“I was one of those kids who liked to play Mass,” Zach Brown recalls. When his grandparents, Mary and Joseph Phillips, visited, they were always willing to be his parishioners. Joseph helped him create a Mass set, with play vestments, paten, and chalice. It was one of the ways that Mary and Joseph encouraged Zach to consider a vocation to the priesthood, but certainly not the only way. First and foremost, they prayed. “They prayed for each of their children and grandchildren by name every night.” When Zach stayed with his grandparents, he heard them list each person from their oldest son down to the youngest member of the family.

Their deep faith made an impression on their grandson. They went to daily Mass. They prayed the rosary on long car rides, a habit that Zach continues to this day. They welcomed their entire family for Sunday dinners, where Joseph led the family in a prayer before dinner. When Zach received his First Holy Communion, his grandparents gave him the gift they gave each grandchild - a handmade rosary in the colors of Zach’s choice. In fifth grade, he transitioned from playing Mass to being an altar server. “I really loved (being a server), so I did it all the time,” Zach said. His grandmother noticed. She told him he would make a great priest. As a pre-teen boy, there were much more immediate concerns for Zach, like simply getting through junior high. He did not forget her words though, even if he did push them to the back of his mind.

Zach was a junior in high school when Mary was diagnosed with Stage IV acute leukemia. “It rocked our family,” he remembers. Mary was the matriarch, an active participant in the lives of her children and grandchildren, and they were struck with the harsh reality that she would be taken from them - and soon. Even for a family with deep Catholic faith, it was a very difficult reality. “We were blessed to have her for three months,” Zach said. Mary died in September 2009.

Only a few weeks later, Zach was trying to decide what he wanted to do after high school. “Junior year of high school, you are getting all of the questions about what you want to do in the future,” Zach recalls. He kept giving a vague answer about agriculture because it was something he enjoyed, but in reality, he had no real idea ... yet. Mary was no longer physically present, but her impact on Zach was far from gone. The idea that she lovingly planted in his mind years earlier came to the forefront. “I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing, but this idea came to mind: What about the priesthood?” he recalled. He did research, reaching out to a priest he knew with questions about the priesthood. After an initial reluctance, he decided to tell his immediate family. His mom burst into tears of joy. His dad and sisters were happy, too. Eventually, he applied to become a seminarian in the Diocese of Toledo and was accepted.

At Thanksgiving in 2010, Zach knew he would tell his extended family the news. He was sitting across from his grandfather when he told everyone he wanted to be a priest. Joseph stood, moved to tears, a rarity in Zach’s memory. “He said, ‘I just wish Mary would have been here to hear that. We prayed for all of you, and we prayed for Zach for that vocation...and it would have been a great joy for her to hear you say that.’” Zach recounted.

The following autumn, Zach began four years of study at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. During his senior year of college seminary, Zach’s grandfather was diagnosed with acute leukemia, the same disease that had taken Mary five years earlier. The family was devastated again. Joseph was particularly heartbroken that he would not see Zach ordained. Just as Joseph had outfitted Zach to play Mass as a child, he wanted to play a part in giving Zach the tools for the priesthood. Joseph wanted to buy the chalice that Zach would use during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He gave the money for the future purchase. Joseph Phillips died in February 2015.

During this time, Zach was waiting to find out where he would go for his final years of priestly formation. To his surprise, Bishop Daniel Thomas asked Zach to attend the North American College in Rome - a somewhat daunting request for Zach who had only been on a plane once. He accepted and spent three years of study in Rome, just a short walk from St. Peter’s Basilica. Zach then spent his pastoral year at St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Findlay, Ohio, from Fall 2018 to Spring 2019. He was ordained to the transitional diaconate on May 18, 2019. Mary and Joseph were certainly in his thoughts. He even carried the handmade rosary his grandparents had given him for his First Holy Communion.

In autumn 2019, Zach returned to Rome for a final year of priestly formation. God willing, he will be ordained a priest on June 27, 2020. On that day, among the many things on Zach’s mind, his grandparents will certainly be an important one. As he raises the chalice that Joseph purchased for him containing the wine that will become the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, there will be an inscription that Zach had engraved on the bottom, in memory of his grandparents. In that way, Joseph and Mary will be with Zach at his ordination and each time he celebrates Mass. It’s a fitting tribute. As Zach says, “who knows if I would be here today if not for them?”