Years as a priest have been the 'happiest of my life'
Fr. Richard Lewnau, Special to The Michigan Catholic
Published January 5, 2007
Vocations Supplement
God, in His goodness, has called me to serve Him as a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit. I was ordained a priest on May 29, 2004, by His Eminence Cardinal Adam Maida, and the two and a half years during which I have served the Lord as a priest have been the happiest of my life.
The seed of my vocation was very much planted during my childhood. All of my family members are very devout Roman Catholics, and while growing up, the Church was always an important part of my life.
Also, I believe that attending Catholic schools for 12 years (Our Lady of Refuge in Orchard Lake, grades 1-8, and Orchard Lake St. Mary's, grades 9-12), in addition to growing up in a strong Catholic family, gave my life a religious, moral and academic foundation that I would not otherwise have received.
In other words, I grew up with a well-developed Catholic identity.
Even with my strong Catholic identity I did not know right away that the Lord was calling me to the priesthood. In fact, after my graduation from Orchard Lake St. Mary's I attended a secular college – Michigan Technological University in Houghton – to pursue a degree in electrical engineering.
Throughout college the faith remained an important part of my life. Of course, attending Mass on Sundays and holy days was a given, but I also began to become more involved in the life of the Church; from choir to parish council to church maintenance, I was finding that I was spending more and more of my time at the church.
At this point in my life I had always admired and respected the priests I had known but had never really considered myself becoming a priest. Therefore it came as quite a surprise when the parish priest, Fr. William Callari, God rest his soul, told me that he thought I would make a good priest. I did not take his insight too seriously. A few months later, when Deacon Paul Lucchesi, God rest his soul, told me the same thing, I began to pray more earnestly about my vocation.
Then, a year later Fr. Larry VanDamme, the current pastor of St. Albert the Great in Houghton, also said that he thought I would make a good priest; at this point I heard, not Fr. Larry, but our Lord speaking through him. The following fall I entered Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Entry into the seminary was a transition for me. Certainly it required some time and effort to make the change from science and engineering to philosophy and theology; but what fit as naturally as if it had always been part of me was the spirituality that I had encountered. Daily Mass, holy hours, morning and evening prayer — I just knew I was in the right place.
Today I am the associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish in Lapeer.
My days involve celebrating Mass, visiting with the children in the parish school, bringing the sacraments to the sick and homebound, hearing confessions, offering Mass for the inmates at the state prison, instructing people in the RCIA program, and so much more that I cannot even list everything. Every day is something new and different. Some days are very good, some days are not so good, but every day is a gift from God.
Just as there are different gifts but the same spirit who gives all of them, so there are different callings, but the one Lord who calls. God does not call everyone to the priesthood. Some He calls to the consecrated life as religious brothers and sisters, others He calls to the married vocation, still others to the chaste single life. All the different vocations working together are necessary for the building up of Christ's Body — the Church.
If you are a man who is experiencing God's call to the priesthood, the most important thing I can say is do not be afraid. You may feel unworthy and inadequate in the face of such an awesome responsibility; this is a good thing. There is no man who is worthy to stand in the place of Christ, and yet He chooses unworthy, sinful men, as He did with Peter and the other apostles, and enables them to do great things for Him. All that is needed is that faith and trust that the apostles had to be able leave all behind and follow Him.
Fr. Richard Lewnau is the associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish, Lapeer. For more information about becoming a priest, contact the archdiocesan Vocations department at (313) 237-5875, e-mail vocations@aod.org, or visit www.aodonline.org.
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