Marian Helper Spring 2014

24 M arian H elper • S pring 2014 •  www.marian.org Y ou may suspect you’re in for a heck of a ride when Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, walks into the first conference of your vocation retreat (said conference called “Battle Breed: The New Generation of Priests”) carrying a life-sized replica of Lord of the Rings character Aragorn’s sword Andúril and says, “All right. Now we separate the men from the boys.” A group of five men attended a retreat led by Fr. Donald, the Marian Fathers’ voca- tion director, the weekend of Dec. 6-8 at the Marian House of Studies in Steubenville, Ohio. Hailing from Oregon, California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, they represented a wide range of life experience and education. They also had diverse faith journeys to share, includ- ing that of young Damon of St. Mary’s Parish in Plano, Ill., who converted to Catholicism two years ago; those of the reverts Mike from Pennsylvania, Dustin from Oregon, and Jim from Downers Grove, Ill.; and the lifelong Catholicism of Michael from California. But all the retreatants came with certain things in common, according to Fr. Donald. “Each has grown up in a culture that has been classified by recent Popes as a culture of death,” said Fr. Donald. “There are wolves out there, demons that want your soul. The last 100 years or so in the history of the Church and the world have been unlike any other. “I’ve been a vocation director for years now, and almost every single guy I talk to who’s discerning a vocation is orthodox,” Fr. Donald said. He’s also encountering a lot of guys who, like him, had a past before they became committed to the Catholic faith. “They used to be a friend of the darkness, but they’ve been given a grace to see the right from the wrong. Something’s happening. They’re the Battle Breed. This is a generation that knows right from wrong, but has com- passion, because it has fallen.” Through a weekend of regular, frequent prayer, conversations with Marian priests, brothers (including seminarians), and pos- tulants living at the House of Studies, and conferences with Fr. Donald, the men were given a taste of the essential elements of the Marians’ spirituality and community life. In his first meeting with retreatants exploring a Marian vocation, Fr. Donald Calloway, MIC, (far left) brought a replica sword to the table. “A priest is a warrior, a knight, and a soldier,” he said during the retreat. C hris S parks by Chris Sparks R allying cry for a ‘B attle B reed ’ Vocation director challenges retreatants with his vision of the Marian call.