TEXARKANA — Encouraging priestly vocations has always been close to the heart of Mike and Jackie Cigainero, members of St. Edward Church.
Their respect for the priesthood and religious has paid off in their family; their own son Robert is soon to finish his fourth year at St. Joseph Seminary in St. Benedict, La., and is scheduled to be ordained in 2014. Now the Cigaineros have a chance to share their enthusiasm with their parish family. Father Vincent Flusche, pastor of St. Edward, has asked them to chair a vocations committee. They have chosen several parish members to work with them, and Mike Cigainero said with a smile, “I think it’s going to be fun.”
The Cigaineros and their committee see their purpose as creating an atmosphere in their parish hospitable to the development of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.
Mike Cigainero emphasized, “We are not recruiters; God does the calling. We’re just facilitators.”
Jackie added, “The main thing is to get the whole parish praying about more vocations and talking about it and becoming more aware.” Her husband described their work as “plowing the ground.” He explained that when God drops a seed into a young person’s heart, that seed must be nourished and given a chance to bear fruit. The Cigaineros and their committee are planning to plow the ground at St. Edward in several different ways.
First, they believe prayer is the most important way to encourage vocations. Cigainero said, “We are going to ask Father to include a prayer about vocations at the general intercessions of Mass. And when it comes time for ordinations in the diocese, we’d like to get a list of seminarians along with men who are studying to be permanent deacons and pray for them by name. We will also put that list in the adoration chapel. We will ask people in their adoration hour to take just a minute and say the prayer for vocations. That prayer would remain in the chapel, and we’ll have people praying for vocations 24 hours a day.”
The Cigaineros have practiced what they preach. Mike Cigainero said, “I don’t know when I started, but I have prayed for 25 years or more for one of my children to be a religious.” His wife Jackie also has observed a faithful prayer life.
Another way to keep people in the parish aware of vocations, Cigainero said, is to use the groups, committees and commissions already operative in the parish.
“We would like to get the different groups to incorporate an awareness of vocations into what they are already doing,” he noted. “For example, the youth group could show a film on vocations several times a year. And vocations could be talked about at retreats.”
The Cigaineros believe the religious life must be held up to all as a high calling; something very desirable. Cigainero said, “If some young people are called, we need to encourage them and let them know it’s a good thing; it’s not a bad thing, it’s a great thing. We want to have an atmosphere where, if a young man or woman thinks he or she is called, they can go and talk to someone. We want to have an atmosphere where people will want to talk about it.”
He added, “Also, as parents of a seminarian, we could share our experience. There are a lot of parents who might be apprehensive about their (child) becoming a priest or a sister or brother. They have questions: Will my child be lonely? Will he or she be moved around? All of these things.”
The Cigaineros said their experience as parents of a seminarian has been “great.” Jackie observed, “I have been particularly touched by people coming up and saying they are praying for Rob. That really means a lot to me.”
Her husband added, “There are at least three or four people a week who come up and say, ’How is Robert doing? I’m praying for him.’ This is not about us, but it has been a good experience for us.”
Jackie laughed as she told about calling her son at his seminary. She identified herself to the seminarian answering the phone and asked, “May I speak to my son?” The seminarian replied, “Which son? You have 80!”
Cigainero said a question he would ask parents is: “If you had a son who came up to you today and said, ’I’m thinking about being a priest,’ would your answer be: ’Wonderful! Praise God!’ or would your answer be: ’Why do you want to be a priest?’ If the family is not supportive, it can shut a young man down so fast.”
Another goal of the vocations committee is to encourage strong families. “If you have good, long-lasting Christian marriages, it will produce priests,” Cigainero said. “We need good strong families.”
Father Flusche agrees.
“Part of our hope as a vocations committee is to really encourage holy families; people who see their marriage as a vocation; not as a lesser calling but as an equal and different calling by God,” he said. “We believe that if people see their marriages as holy and see that their vocation is to be servants and to bring their spouse to Christ just as a priest is to be a servant or a sister is to be a servant to bring other people to God, their children will be encouraged by that and see a vocation to the priesthood as a true possibility.”
He continued, “Every one of us has a vocation; that vocation is to follow God. There are four specific ways you can do that: either in the married life, the priesthood, vowed religious or the single life.”
Father Flusche said the diocese is doing well in encouraging vocations.
“We have 27 seminarians now, which is as many as they have in the (Arch)diocese of Houston, Texas, which is a tremendously bigger diocese. Part of the credit for that goes to our vocations director, Msgr. Scott Friend, but credit also goes to parents and others who are encouraging young men and women to see the religious life as a possibility and a high calling. We also have from our parish a young woman, Sister Sabina DeMuth, who just made her final vows — the Nashville Dominicans. We would love to see some other girls from our parish see the religious life as the calling God has for them.”
Msgr. Friend has said he would like to see more parishes organize Vocations Committees to encourage young men and women to consider a religious vocation.