Year for Priests
Essay & Poetry Contest
Winners named in Year for Priests Essay and Poetry Contest
Twenty-three students gathered for a pizza party with Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Wednesday, February 3 at Casa Carbone Restaurant in Raleigh. The party was in recognition of their winning entries in the Diocesan Year for Priests Poetry and Essay Contest, coordinated by the Diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis and Catholic Schools Office.
Students throughout the Diocese were encouraged to write reflections on the Priesthood. Some opted to tell stories of a Priest who was a family friend, while others shared their thoughts about Priesthood, and a few wrote about their pastors.
A winning entry was selected from one parish faith formation program in each of the Diocese’s eight deaneries. A winner was also selected from one school in each of the deaneries that have Catholic schools. Several students combined their efforts in submitting an entry, as was the case with a group of four students from St. Jude the Apostle Church in Hampstead, who wrote about their pastor.
Winners included Ambriel Bunn, Albemarle Deanery; Emily Bakke, Sam Luchansky, Cris Schroder, Gabby Vitagliano and Emily McCormick, Cape Fear Deanery; Dasha Hillary, Katya Hillary and Marshall Parker, Fayetteville Deanery; Robert Gasperson and Sasha Buslovich, New Bern Deanery; Samantha Casey, Newton Grove Deanery; Natalie Darveaux and Emily Bailey, Piedmont Deanery; Jessica Henion, Angela Conley, Szu-In Lim, Heather Elliott, Holly Wiggin, John Hebert, Becki DeLaRosa and Christopher Rouleau, Raleigh Deanery; Michelle Titus, Tar River Deanery.
Speaking to the students and their families, Bishop Burbidge explained that Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the Year for Priest to help priests become spiritually renewed. “We need God’s grace and help,” Bishop Burbidge said, “and the help of our people. The Holy Father asked that the people pray for our priests.”
Calling the poems and essays a source of great comfort to the priests of the Diocese, Bishop Burbidge said, “Your essays have indicated how priests have touched your lives and the lives of your families. God is using you as a special instrument to talk to his priests. It is a message that they need to hear; that they are loved and prayed for by you.”
Bishop Burbidge then told his own vocation story and asked the young people to pray for vocations. “Pray that they come from your parish, your school, your faith formation program. It could be you,” he said. “If it is, don’t be afraid.” He reminded the students how some of Jesus’ disciples questioned why they were being called, but they responded to that call.
The Bishop told them to ask God, “With my gifts and talents, what do You want me to do, Lord?” He said, “God will tell you. All you have to do is listen and if you do, you’ll be happy.”
In her essay, Katya Hillary, a parishioner at St. Mary Church in Laurinburg, wrote, “Since Christ is High Priest, the priest represents Christ through his ministry in the Church and to the faithful. The priest, at his ordination, is marked with an indelible mark showing that he is chosen to serve God in a special way. When the priest celebrates the Eucharist, he is not offering Jesus but Jesus is offering Himself.”
John Hebert, a student at St. Thomas More Academy in Raleigh, began his essay with the words, “The call to the priesthood is the call to spiritual leadership. This leadership requires humility, and love for others above oneself, and it comes with the gravest responsibilities a man can have.”
Ambriel Bunn of St. Anne Church in Edenton wrote, “I see a priest as a friend to help guide you along God’s path. Someone who is there to explain what God wants you to do. Don’t view a priest as a Sunday acquaintance, make him your friend and path to find God.”
John Lewis, an 11th grade student who attends St. Therese in Wrightsville Beach, explored the Vocation of Priesthood. “A priest is a guide on our trip to salvation,” John wrote. “He is a divine figure who performs the most amazing miracle everyday at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Like St. John Marie Vianney, Cure of Ars, states, ‘How great is the priest! He will only rightly understand himself in heaven. To understand the priesthood on earth would make one die, not of fear, but of love. The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.’"
Above: Bishop Michael F. Burbidge celebrating with the winners of the Year for Priest Essay and Poetry Contest.