QUEENSLAND seminarians William Brennan, Michael My Van Tran and Bradley Davies felt blessed writing out the invitation lists for their upcoming ordinations to the transitional diaconate in November and December.
Mr Brennan said going through each name on the list really hit home how many people had come into their lives, from their earliest ages all the way up to a few months ago, and had each played a part in getting them closer to ordination.
Brisbane archdiocese seminarians Mr Tran and Mr Davies will be ordained first at Holy Spirit Chapel at the Australian Catholic University Banyo campus on November 17.
Mr Brennan, who is discerning for Townsville diocese, will be ordained at Sacred Heart Cathedral on December 7.
The three men joined Queensland’s Holy Spirit Provincial Seminary in 2017 each coming because of different driving factors but all united in their sense of service.
Born in Vietnam, Mr Tran remembered being seven years old serving at the altar and looking up at the priest’s vestments in awe.
“It was a very innocent idea,” he said with a laugh, “But I remember thinking, I need to become a priest one day so I can wear the vestments like him.”
His attraction to the vestments, innocent as it was, planted a seed that matured in Vietnam’s prayerful culture.
In 2016, his bishop in Vietnam was approached by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge who was looking for young men to pursue a vocation to the priesthood.
Mr Tran accepted the call.
The last seven years had been a learning curve both in the language and in the culture of Australia, but also learning about himself.
Mr Davies, born and raised in Brisbane, was training as a teacher when he first heard the call to priesthood.
It was at the archbishop’s annual vocations dinner when he first heard the call.
“That was the first time I’d ever heard anyone tell me they thought I’d be a good priest,” he said.
“Someone actually affirmed a calling in me that they saw that I perhaps didn’t.”
As he approached his ordination day, Mr Davies said he had a strong sense of peace about where he was on his pathway.
Mr Brennan comes from Charters Towers and felt a call to the priesthood when he was in senior years at secondary school.
In Years 11 and 12, he said, we all get asked what do we wanted to do with our lives.
He was looking at a couple possible career paths – pharmacy and engineering.
The weekend before he was going to sit his Year 12 QCS exams, Mr Brennan took up an invitation for a Quo Vadis weekend at Holy Spirit Seminary.
“I met other young men who are also thinking the same thing and I’ve never really properly met any other guys who were discerning priesthood,” he said.
“It all became a real possibility for me – this is something I can do.”
Read the full story in the upcoming November edition of The Catholic Leader.
