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On Being a Priest
“Your are a priest forever like Melchizedek of Old” with these words a person goes from being a simple follower of Jesus Christ to an individual whose live
is now dedicated to serve God as His servant, shepherding God’s children. A priest becomes the hands, feet, mouth and human voice of Almighty God
here on earth to give solace and comfort, affirmation of God’s love and forgiveness to all the children of God that he has been called to serve. The priest
becomes the human instrument through which Almighty God transforms the simple bread and wine offered by the faithful into the body and blood of Jesus
Christ. God does the transubstantiation the priest is the conduit.
Whether he is called by the title of Monsignor, Bishop, Cardinal or Pope, his first and primary calling and responsibility is to serve simply as a servant of the
Lord here on earth.
All the titles in the world can not raise a person any higher in the eyes of God than being a good and faithful servant as a priest and caring for God‘s people
as Christ would have cared for them.
I find it strange, when God has chosen to communicate with us here on earth either as himself or in the person of our Blessed mother, He rarely makes
himself known to the ones with titles. He appears generally to the simple individual who truly believes and loves Him and has put their faith in Him.
St. Francis was a soldier, St. Joan a simple maiden, Juan Diego a peasant Indian, Padre Pio a simple priest, St. Bernadette a simple school girl. None of
these were among the hierarchy and when they told those in charge what God directed them to do, they were ridiculed and scorned.
Why is it that God did not go directly to those in the hierarchy? Could it be that they, with their lofty titles and grandiose life styles had lost sight of God’s
original intent? Could it be that they chose to use their positions of power to decipher the word of God to their own self interests?
I find this worth pondering.
To be called to be a priest is an overwhelming responsibility and yet, knowing that God has called you for a special mission in His name, is the most
humbling experience an individual can ever experience.
I am constantly asking Almighty God to inspire me and guide my every action so that I may only bring honor and Glory to Him. I pray constantly that I can
make a difference in the lives of those who come to me and bring them to a closer relationship with Almighty God. That is my only desire.
I recently said in one of my reflections that we have to give ourselves over completely to the will of God subverting our own personal desires and putting
our total lives in God’s hands. I believe that this is the only way that we can honestly and fully serve God. Even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane cried
out "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.". In this simple plea, Jesus showed us that we should give
ourselves and our will over totally to Almighty God. When I was called to be a priest, after many years of desiring to be so called, and believing that though
my heart felt I was being called it was not God’s will especially at age 71, I made the commitment to accept the call with the full knowledge that my life, as I
had lived it, was over and I was to begin a new life whose only purpose was to serve God with all of my being. I ask God to constantly lead me to where He
wants me to go. I guess that is what the new cardinals might feel, but I pray that they think about how they will live that calling and that they realize that
their first responsibility is to God and the people he has been given to shepherd. Not to achieving honors for themselves. AMEN
“Your are a priest forever like Melchizedek of Old” with these words a person goes from being a simple follower of Jesus Christ to an individual whose live
is now dedicated to serve God as His servant, shepherding God’s children. A priest becomes the hands, feet, mouth and human voice of Almighty God
here on earth to give solace and comfort, affirmation of God’s love and forgiveness to all the children of God that he has been called to serve. The priest
becomes the human instrument through which Almighty God transforms the simple bread and wine offered by the faithful into the body and blood of Jesus
Christ. God does the transubstantiation the priest is the conduit.
Whether he is called by the title of Monsignor, Bishop, Cardinal or Pope, his first and primary calling and responsibility is to serve simply as a servant of the
Lord here on earth.
All the titles in the world can not raise a person any higher in the eyes of God than being a good and faithful servant as a priest and caring for God‘s people
as Christ would have cared for them.
I find it strange, when God has chosen to communicate with us here on earth either as himself or in the person of our Blessed mother, He rarely makes
himself known to the ones with titles. He appears generally to the simple individual who truly believes and loves Him and has put their faith in Him.
St. Francis was a soldier, St. Joan a simple maiden, Juan Diego a peasant Indian, Padre Pio a simple priest, St. Bernadette a simple school girl. None of
these were among the hierarchy and when they told those in charge what God directed them to do, they were ridiculed and scorned.
Why is it that God did not go directly to those in the hierarchy? Could it be that they, with their lofty titles and grandiose life styles had lost sight of God’s
original intent? Could it be that they chose to use their positions of power to decipher the word of God to their own self interests?
I find this worth pondering.
To be called to be a priest is an overwhelming responsibility and yet, knowing that God has called you for a special mission in His name, is the most
humbling experience an individual can ever experience.
I am constantly asking Almighty God to inspire me and guide my every action so that I may only bring honor and Glory to Him. I pray constantly that I can
make a difference in the lives of those who come to me and bring them to a closer relationship with Almighty God. That is my only desire.
I recently said in one of my reflections that we have to give ourselves over completely to the will of God subverting our own personal desires and putting
our total lives in God’s hands. I believe that this is the only way that we can honestly and fully serve God. Even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane cried
out "Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.". In this simple plea, Jesus showed us that we should give
ourselves and our will over totally to Almighty God. When I was called to be a priest, after many years of desiring to be so called, and believing that though
my heart felt I was being called it was not God’s will especially at age 71, I made the commitment to accept the call with the full knowledge that my life, as I
had lived it, was over and I was to begin a new life whose only purpose was to serve God with all of my being. I ask God to constantly lead me to where He
wants me to go. I guess that is what the new cardinals might feel, but I pray that they think about how they will live that calling and that they realize that
their first responsibility is to God and the people he has been given to shepherd. Not to achieving honors for themselves. AMEN
Looking back on 77 Years of the journey of Life
A Reflection by Rev. Fr. Bob Johnnene OFD
Mission Saints Sergius & Bacchus/ Franciscans Of Divine Mercy
www.missionstsergius.org
www.franciscansdivinemercy.org
At 2:30 of the afternoon of November 16, 1935 in Boston Massachusetts my life adventure began and as I prepare to enter the 76th year of my journey down the highway of
life I look back on the past 75 years with wonder and amazement.
My journey at times was on smooth Super Highways and at other times unpaved bumpy roads. All the time I dared to dream the Impossible dream and some times it was
achieved and at others it crashed in flames.
I have been told that I was born under the part of the sign of Scorpio that is attributed to the Phoenix and there have been times I seemed to be like the Phoenix and rose
from the flames to have a new life while remembering the mistakes of the past one.
I have also realized how the events of my life have shaped my life, the ministry I am attempting to do for the greater honor and glory of God and the Franciscans of Divine
Mercy.
God has most certainly blessed me with an abundance of his blessings and lifted me up and guided me onto the path He wanted me to follow especially in the darkest
moments of life.
The fact I actually came into this world at all was considered a miracle since my mother had lost two other baby boys and was advised not to try to have any more but she
prayed and trusted in God and I came into being.
According to my mother, there were serious doubts I would survive even when I was born as I was dehydrated and mother claimed that the first 6 months was touch and
go and required me to have round the clock attention including being bathed in warm Olive Oil three times a day.
Since then I have been blessed with relatively good health and even though the last few years have had me making many trips to doctors and hospitals with bouts of
cancer and serious stenosis of the spine that limits how long I can stand and how far I can walk, I consider myself greatly blessed, especially when I see people much
younger than I with far more serious illnesses unable to get around at all or sometimes failing to remember their family and friends.
I was blessed to have parents that exposed me to all the fine and performing arts. I was at the 1939 Worlds fair, saw the original production of THE KING AND I with
Gertrude Lawrence. By my 13th year I had traveled and visited 44 of the contiguous United States.
I received an excellent education from devoted nuns and priests and eventually entered the seminary in my junior year of High School. I was on the verge of being
ordained a Josephite priest in 1957 when they recommended that I take some time off to be sure of my vocation, so, I followed my second love, Theater.
I never became famous, but I did get to work with people like Julie Andrews, Liza Minnelli, Hal Prince, Carol Burnett, Elizabeth Montgomery Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Robert Mitchum, Peter Graves, Jan-Michael Vincent, Richard Burton, Shani Wallace and so many others on stage in New York, on Television and Films.
I actually got to write, produce and direct a show that was in the 46th Street Theater in New York City.
In 1960 I met the woman who would become my wife and the mother of my three children. Even though the marriage did not last for many reasons which are not worth
covering at this time, I believe now that it was all part of God’s grand plan for me.
When ever I thought the gifts and talents I had were of my own doing and started to wander away from the principals I had been taught, God found a way to get me back on
track.
The desire to serve God as a religious existed as far back as the first grade and I even had an altar complete with tabernacle in my room.
I was devastated when the Josephite’s told me to take time off to contemplate my perceived vocation and even though I was no longer in the seminary I continued keeping
up on my theology, the changes of Vatican 2, taught in Catholic Schools in Boston and California often serving as a DRE (Director of Religious Education) in the parishes I
lived in.
There were times I became upset and depressed and it was in those moments that God saved me from doing something drastic and gave me proof of His infinite love,
mercy and healing power.
On one of those occasions when I was in deep depression and contemplating suicide, I tossed the Bible on the floor in anger but was compelled to read the pages that it
opened to; It was the book of Job.
I realized then that if I kept my trust and faith in God and did not give up or blame Him for the trials I was having, He would lead me where He wanted me, and He did.
I often pray the prayer I said then, “God, what is it you want from me? I am not good on subtle hints God, I need you to push me, no shove me where it is you want me”
I was led back to teaching in the Catholic schools, from there I became fully immersed in parish ministry and in 1980 was ordained a Deacon just after my mother had come
to visit me in California and she decided to stay there until the day God called her home in 1987.
Throughout the past 75 years I have been witness to many joyful events of history such as the end of WWII, the inauguration of the first Catholic President, Mans first
landing on the moon, The signing of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to the election of the first African American President Barack Obama.
Unfortunately I also have vivid memories of some of histories darkest moments since I was born at the end of the Great Depression and will never forget that December 7th
Sunday when Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese and the words of FDR echoing from the radio “Today is a Day that will go down in Infamy”.
Television allowed us to watch in horror the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the atrocities of the Vietnam war, the slaughter in
Rwanda and genocide in the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In 1986 Cardinal Roger Mahoney founded a ministry within the Los Angeles Diocesan offices for the Lesbian and Gay community and Divorced Catholics, I began working
in it while also teaching and parish duties.
In 2001, at age 67, I decided that it was time to stop teaching teen age children and move back to Massachusetts closer to my family and children.
When I returned here I found there was not much being done ministering to the LGBT community or Divorced Catholics and felt that a ministry to them was badly needed
but no parish in the area that would sponsor one. While on retreat at the Weston Priory in Vermont I came across the Icon of Saints Sergius & Bacchus and upon reading
their life I felt it was God’s way of telling me to start a ministry even without church approval.
Since 1980 when I was ordained a Deacon I had been submitting my records for consideration to various religious orders but always received rejections because; “You
are over our age limit for admission” “You are still married and would need to get an annulment” ( I was divorced in 1973 and neither of us ever remarried); but I still
continued my quest.
I began Mission Saints Sergius and Bacchus as a ministry to those who have been rejected by the church because of their being divorced or sexual orientation or other
reasons.
Shortly after starting the ministry I received an acceptance letter from the Servant Franciscans of the Immaculata which has since become the Franciscans of the
Annunciation of the Infinite Love of God and is based in Canada.
They had reviewed my records and transcripts, conferred with bishops and decided that I was worthy, not only to be a member of their order but also to be ordained a
priest.
What I did not know at the time was that they were an Old Catholic Franciscan Order not Roman but that did not matter as I again took it as God’s plan and on August 15th,
the feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, I was ordained a priest in Washington DC.
My first public Eucharistic Liturgy was on September 17, the feast of my patron Saint, Robert Bellarmine and of The Stigmata of St. Francis.
Again I believed this was a sign of Almighty God’s blessing and acceptance, especially since I always had a deep affection and devotion to St. Francis from the time I was a
child and often visited the Franciscan church here in Boston. I even remember a psychiatrist Franciscan Priest, Fr. Fulgence, my mother dragged me to when she
discovered that I was Gay.
He told her that I was well grounded and living my life in a wholesome way, not being promiscuous, and had respect for the gift of sexuality that God had given me.
Now here I am, entering my 76th year of life, realizing that every thing has been a part of God’s grand plan. I also realize that all my past life experiences have made me
better able to be an honest and better servant of God than if I had been ordained back in 1957.
I have to admit that my heart becomes heavy when I see and hear children of God being turned away from participating in giving God glory and praise within a faith
community, being denied the Eucharist because they are divorced or have been created by Almighty God with a same sex orientation.
Sadness fills me when I see dedicated men and women being rejected to serve God because they are married, or worse still, just because their gender is female.
I thank God daily that I have been given the opportunity to be his humble servant and especially that he led me to be a follower of St. Francis whom God told “rebuild my
church”.
I realize that I would not have been prepared to minister to all those that I am encountering in this ministry if I had not had the life experiences I have had.
What ever time God gives me to remain on this earthly plane, I totally give over to him. As the prayer I wrote back in the 1980's says; “Let Your will be done in me, I ask no
more than this” or as Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane “Not my will but your will be done”
I pray that I may be able to be a small part of reunifying and rebuilding The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church as it was in the beginning, welcoming and serving
everyone who asked to partake of and know the infinite mercy and love of Almighty God.
I pray I may be able to reach out and bring back into the Mystical Body of Christ all those who have felt rejected, unwanted and alienated from Almighty God by the dictates
of mere humans who act like those Christ admonished with these words; “But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of heaven
against men” (Matthew 23:13)
As I enter these Autumn days of my life I pray for forgiveness for all the mistakes I have made and I pray that any that I may have hurt along my journey down the road of life
will forgive me.
I ask God for the strength, courage and the resources to go where I am needed and to be a humble servant to all those that seek to know, love and serve God.
I give myself totally over to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His Almighty Father our creator to proclaim the Good News of Salvation and always do their will with the
grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
With the words; “Your are a priest forever like Melchizedek of Old”, a person goes from being a simple follower of Jesus Christ to an individual whose live must be totally
dedicated to serving God and all His children as Christ would have..
It is an awesome responsibility, shepherding all God’s children. You need to be there to give solace and comfort to those in pain even when you yourself are not feeling
well.
You need to remember to always affirm God’s love, mercy and forgiveness even when confronted with distain, lies and vitriol.
This can only be achieved as St. Padre Pio said; "Pray, hope and Don’t worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayers. Prayer is the best weapon we
have, it is the key to God‘s heart”
So with that in mind I ask everyone who reads this reflection on my 75 years of the journey here on God’s great planet earth, please pray that God will continue to bless me
and give the ministry what it needs to be of service to all those that have looked to our humble mission for spiritual enrichment, solace and hope.
I sincerely hope that my experiences of the last 75 years help you understand my faith, trust in God and the perseverance with which I have pursued these last 6 years
attempting to proclaim, to all who would listen, how much God really loves us and why we need have God at the center of our being allowing Him to work His way with us.
Please remember me often as you pray and remember also that this ministry and all ministries are not the work of one individual but the work of the entire Faith community,
their family, relatives, friends and friends of friends who believe in the objectives and work the ministry is attempting to achieve and who desire to be a part of the service
to Almighty God.
May God continue to bless this ministry, all the Bishops, priests, brothers, benefactors, and all who read this story of my life excursion and this most humble simple
servant as the journey continues. AMEN