PRIESTS
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What Carmelite tradition has taught the world is that prayer can be anywhere and everywhere in the day. Carmelites are known for praying outside of the box.”
Nicholas Collura served in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in San Antonio, Texas, and is now a novice of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in the West Coast Province in Los Angeles, California. He has a Master of Divinity degree from Boston College. He has written for National Catholic Reporter.
Racing toward my religious vocation
EARLY ON, Nicholas Collura was attracted to celebrating the sacraments. Here, he reads from a lectionary, dressed for ministry in a Roman collar, as is the practice among Jesuit novices.
by Nicholas Collura
This Jesuit novice was attracted to the priesthood by a love for the sacraments and service. The freedom to continue writing while being a priest moved him to join a religious order.
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HE BURST INTO TEARS as suddenly as if she’d been hit in the face. I stood there, stunned and staring, uncertain what to say. My job in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps was to direct a social service office in an urban parish in Texas. On that overcast day a week before Christmas, a big-hearted businessman had visited our little church with a stack of $500 gift cards he wanted to donate—anonymously—to the neediest members of our community. I had the privilege of choosing the recipients and making the deliveries. When I arrived at the home of the young single mother whose tears I recall to this day, she and her four young children were piling into a dilapidated car where they would spend the next few nights while a local handyman repaired the roof of
146 | VISION 2017 | VocationNetwork.org