ARTICLES

A Mother and Her Sons

THREE LATE VOCATIONS IN STOCKTON

By Karen Walker

Three seminarians over the age of 60. Three men -- an entertainer, a salesman and a lawyer -- whose calls to the priesthood were so unusual that each had to convince the bishop they were genuine. Three men whose loves are the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Virgin and the saints.

Jim Rivera, Nathan White and Pat Curran are new seminarians for the diocese of Stockton. Rivera is 63 years old, White, 61, and Curran just turned 64 this past December.

Curran is studying at St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park. He first entered the minor seminary under the Diocese of San Francisco in 1948 as a high school student and stayed six years. "Fifty years ago I'd have been in my first year in the [major] seminary," he reflects with amusement. But Rivera and White, after living many years in sunny California, are studying in Wisconsin -- at snow-covered Sacred Heart Monastery and School of Theology.

"Going back to school after you haven't been there in a thousand years is a challenge," Rivera chuckles. White agrees, and also points to all the tests and applications required before entering the seminary. "When you decide to become a priest, you need to persevere to get through all the hoops," notes White.

Yet for all the challenges of relocation and studies these three face as they begin their journey to the priesthood, each man radiates joy and peace.

Rivera was an entertainer for more than 25 years. He grew up in Chicago. After obtaining a degree from Loyola University and pursuing graduate studies at American University in Washington, D.C., he worked in marketing. Rivera grew disillusioned with the business world in the late 1960s, learned the guitar, and became a folk singer in 1973. In 1976, Rivera moved to California. He married at age 40; his marriage lasted a month and was annulled. A brief return to business proved unsuccessful. Soon after, he had what he calls a deep conversion. "I'd lost my job, I'd had four operations on my knee in 10 weeks without a solution in sight, and I'd broken up with someone I'd dated for a long time. I was crying from the inside of my soul: 'What do you want me to do, God?' 'Why don't you stop trying and let Me do it?' I heard. Without hesitating, I screamed out my response: 'Because I'm afraid, I don't know how. Why don't You help me?'" That was the beginning of a new journey.

It became clear to Rivera that he was to sing. His musical group, Shanachie (which means "storyteller"), features Irish and American folk music and has performed around the world, cutting three albums distributed to more than 40 countries. Last March, they released an all-Irish CD which went national in three days.

One might think the life of a performer would preclude serious spiritual development. But that's not the case with Rivera: "Because I was an entertainer, I had the opportunity to develop a spiritual lifestyle. I spent one to three hours each morning in prayer and meditation." And when Nativity parish in Menlo Park began a perpetual adoration program, Rivera participated as often as he could. Eventually he was asked to stay from 9 p.m. to midnight during weekdays so women who might want to pray during those hours would feel safer. "I got to spend three hours a night, Monday through Friday, in front of the Blessed Sacrament, reading and praying!" recalls Rivera. "It had a transforming effect on my spiritual life. Remember Tavia in Fiddler on the Roof? All day long and all night, he kept talking to the Lord. That's what I started doing without even realizing it.... The more you deny yourself the things of the world, the closer you get to God."

Three years ago, Rivera made St. Louis de Montfort's Consecration to Mary, and he credits his entrance to the priesthood to the Blessed Mother. "When you have the idea [of becoming a priest] so much in your head, day and night, you give up resisting. When you sit in front of the Blessed Mother, pray the Rosary and talk with her Son, it becomes apparent that this is the place where you're most comfortable; the place where you belong. There was no incarnation moment."

Nathan White's story is different. After serving in the Air Force, he worked as a paint salesman for 35 years. He was married for as long, although he and his wife separated after 27 years, with one son. Prior to their separation, White was searching for a closer relationship with God and became interested in the Secular Franciscans. His wife complained about his wasting gas to attend the monthly meetings, but his pastor encouraged him to continue.

In 1988, White made his profession. Franciscans are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, which added a new dimension to his faith since he had never felt close to Mary before. He read several books about Mary, including The Immaculate Conception and the Holy Spirit, by St. Maximilian Kolbe, and two others by Anne Catherine Emmerich and by St. Louis De Montfort. He also began attending Mass at least three times during the weekdays, reading the Bible, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, and working to help others. His prayer life developed. "I even have [a prayer] when I put on my socks and shoes and when I make my bed," White says. "I keep busy most of the time praying. When I was at work, I'd try to pray the Jesus prayer: 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.' It kept me thinking about God, helped me to control my temper and gave my mind something to think about besides mean thoughts!" About three years ago, someone recommended his name to the Serra Program, a group dedicated to religious vocations. "I wanted to do something besides sitting around and getting old. I wanted to do service for God and His people."

For a while it seemed like becoming a priest wasn't an option. He had already been turned down as a deaconate candidate. He didn't have a divorce or an annulment, and at age 57, he thought he was too old for priestly life.

In December 1997, his wife died of cancer. "It's still a loss when your wife dies, regardless," he says. But it changed his circumstances and he decided to talk with Father Illo, director of vocations for the Diocese of Stockton. The next thing he knew he was on track to enter the seminary. "I'd like a special apostolate working with the elderly or the RCIA. I'm not interested in being a pastor -- if some young man wants that [job], it's all his!" says White.

Pat Curran was a lawyer -- working in the county counsel's office in Stockton -- and married for 32 years, with four grown children and several grandchildren. He and his wife had retirement plans before she took sick, but he accelerated his retirement as much as he could during her illness. When his wife died of cancer 10 months later, in January 1996, he continued working part-time but took more time off to think about what to do with the rest of his life.

Throughout his life, Curran had a devotion to Mary. He describes his life as very spiritual, attending daily Mass, devoted to praying the Rosary, and faithful to the teachings of the Church. Although his work required night meetings at county planning boards, he found time to be involved in Church projects. In the 1970s he served on a parish council; for nine years he served on the school board of his childrens' Catholic school, and he was on the advisory board of Catholic Charities. Attending daily Mass since he was a small child, he continued as an adult -- either going to the morning Mass at his parish, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or at the noon Mass in downtown Stockton. But, "it wasn't until 1983, when I got into the charismatic renewal, that I became much more spiritual and got involved in a weekly prayer group," Curran says. His ministry work was also active, at first with a teen catechetical group and then with R.C.I.A., until his wife got sick.

Curran recalls a brief discussion with his wife during her illness. "She asked me once if I would become a priest after she died," he recounts. "I told her 'No way!' I'm too independent, too old, and I don't want to work for someone else."

After his wife's death, Curran made two pilgrimages, one to the Holy Land and one to different Marian shrines -- Fatima, Lourdes, Garabandal, Paris and Lisieux -- throughout Europe. He enjoyed the second trip because it afforded him opportunity for quiet prayer. In 1997, on another pilgrimage, he spent Pentecost week in Medjugorje. On this second trip he concluded St. Louis De Montfort's 33-day Consecration to Mary. "What came to me in a deeper sense was the notion of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, like a mother's sorrow for her wandering children. I sensed the heartbreak of Jesus over those who wouldn't open themselves to Him and to His love. It moved me deeply."

Curran knew he wanted to be involved in ministry again. But one night after his last pilgrimage, it dawned on him that the way he could dedicate his life to serving others and God was to become a priest. "It hit me like a big surprise," he says. "I wondered why I hadn't thought of this before. It just fits.... One thing that has come to me is how much everything in my life has pointed to where I am right here, right now. I have a tremendous sense of living every day for itself and not looking for what's going to happen in the future. No expectations; just sensing the presence of God and His glory in the here and now."

Like Rivera and White, Curran has a longing to bring God's love especially to the sick and helpless. Like his co-seminarians, he sees Mary's influence in his journey to the priesthood. "Mary wants us to be close to Jesus. She wants nothing for herself," he notes. "Her complete dedication was to God, completely giving of herself and somehow she's still doing that. She's a herald in today's world." Rivera adds that the key to knowing what God wants in your life is not to simply ask Him, but to "just keep telling Him you're ready to do whatever He wants you to do. The more we believe in obedience, the more we are humble and the more we rely on the Blessed Mother, God and the Holy Spirit, than all of a sudden -- guess what -- we start growing!"

A quotation from the opening prayer of the Tridentine Mass which Curran had embroidered as a birthday present years ago, not even knowing why he wanted it, is apropos of the three seminarians' hope: "I will go unto the altar, God, to the God who gives joy to my youth."