First Thursday program promotes priestly
and religious vocations among youth

By Sean Gallagher

GREENWOOD—For the past year and a half, a growing number of children and youth from several archdiocesan parishes have been gathering on the first Thursday of each month at Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish in Greenwood to pray for and learn about priestly and religious vocations, and to grow in their love of the Eucharist.

Inspired in part by the traditional devotion on first Fridays to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and on first Saturdays to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, First Thursday is founded on Holy Thursday, the day on which the Church teaches that Jesus instituted the Eucharist and the sacrament of holy orders.

Led by the parish’s associate pastor, Father Jonathan Meyer, First Thursday is a combination of devotional prayers, athletic activities, meals, catechesis, group discussions, eucharistic adoration and Mass.

On Nov. 3, approximately 30 boys in grades four through eight gathered at the parish at 5 p.m. Father Meyer led them in praying a decade of the rosary and then asked them some Catholic trivia questions.

Following the trivia game, Father Meyer let the boys take advantage of an unusually warm autumn day and go outside to play touch football for a while.

“My hope is always to support and nourish vocations because if there is a vocation that is not being nurtured, that vocation can die,” he said. “It’s like any other thing that needs to grow. If it is not being nurtured, it very well might die.”

After the football game, Father Meyer gave a presentation in the church on examining one’s conscience, offering the boys practical advice on applying the Ten Commandments to their daily lives.

At the end of his presentation, Father Meyer opened up the session to general questions.

“How do you know when God calls you?” asked Zach Pacuch, a sixth-grader at Our Lady of the Greenwood School.

Father Meyer told Zach and the other boys that God can call a person in many ways, including through the suggestions of other people.

In the dinner that followed, Zach said that he has enjoyed coming to First Thursday.

“It’s fun and at the same time you’re learning about God,” he said.

The meal that night was prepared by Carla Zachodni, a member of Our Lady of the Greenwood and the chairperson of the parish’s vocations committee.

In an interview with The Criterion before the November installment of First Thursday, Zachodni spoke about its participants and one of its goals.

“Until you talk to some of these kids, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish them probably from any other kid …,” she said. “It’s not like we’re trying to snatch them out of the world. We’re trying to help them be able to transform it from the inside out.”

After the young boys’ dinner was over and their parents picked them up, a smaller group of teenage boys and girls gathered in the parish’s perpetual adoration chapel for a holy hour devoted to priestly and religious vocations.

A few minutes after it began, Brian Heath, a Roncalli High School senior and member of St. Barnabas Parish in Indianapolis, walked into the chapel wearing a Roncalli T-shirt, his hair still wet from swim practice.

It had already been a long day, but rather than go home and relax, or do homework right away, Brian said praying and talking about the priesthood at the First Thursday program “brings a little bit of peace” to his week.

“I think it’s a really awesome thing that we’re doing here,” he said. “We need more priests. And it’s Jesus in there. I’m struggling with my own vocation so I need to pray a whole lot about that. It gives me an opportunity to set an hour or two aside just solely for that.”

When the holy hour was over, the young men and women gathered separately for Evening Prayer and a meal.

The section of First Thursday for teenage girls began only a few months ago after several young women expressed a desire to participate and learn more about religious vocations.

Katie Berger, youth minister of St. Barnabas, along with Suzan Giel, youth minister at Holy Name Parish in Beech Grove, lead the young women in their prayer and discussion.

During a break in the program, Berger spoke about the openness of the teenage girls in the program to religious vocations.

“It surprised me at first, but then I think that’s so typical of this generation of youth,” she said. “They care so much about the Church and have a hunger for the truth. I think through that they’re open to what God wants for them.”

After dinner, during which they discussed Franciscan spirituality, the young women prayed a rosary together while walking to various places on the parish grounds.

At the conclusion of their prayer, Jessica Szamocki, a member of Our Lady of the Greenwood and a homeschooled high school junior, spoke about valuing the

fellowship she shares with the other participants.

“Everyone else here is thinking the same thing so it’s helpful to talk about it with each other and bounce ideas off of each other because not too many people think about it,” Jessica said. “So you kind of feel alone, but you’re all alone together.”

First Thursday ended close to 11 p.m. with the celebration of Mass in a packed adoration chapel.

Although only a year and a half old, this vocations-promotion program has already had a positive impact upon the six men who are now seminarians and who are former First Thursday participants.

One is Kristen Casey, a member of St. Barnabas, who is a freshman at Marian College in Indianapolis and a resident of the Bishop Bruté House of Formation there.

Casey was a First Thursday participant for approximately four months during the latter part of his senior year at Roncalli before affiliating as a seminarian with the archdiocese.

“When I went there the first time, I was completely blown away by the fact that there were so many other guys who were actively discerning the priesthood,” said Casey, who noted that approximately 10 other young men were participants with him at the time.

He believes that what is done with First Thursday at Our Lady of the Greenwood can happen in other archdiocesan parishes.

“All it requires is young men who are open to the possibility of the priesthood and having a priest there who is willing to help get vocations,” Casey said. “And the Holy Spirit is going to do the rest.” †