Highlights of 27 years of vocational ministry in Canada

By Fr. Mike Traher, S.F.M.
September/October 2012

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In the middle of my first sabbatical (1984-85), I was asked if I would stay in Canada to promote vocations for Scarboro Missions across Canada. I said “Yes!” never thinking it would be for 27 years. Thanks to our recently elected General Council, I am being given a new sabbatical in preparation for my next assignment in mission. Asked to share a few highlights from my experience in vocation ministry, I am happy to again say “Yes!”

Fr. Mike Traher in the Philippnes where he served for 10 years until 1984

When I first started out, I have to admit I felt a real anxiety about going to universities and colleges to invite Catholic students to consider a missionary vocation. Having done all my studies in philosophy and theology at St. Augustine’s Seminary next door to our own Scarboro seminary, I was unfamiliar with university campus life. I feared I would be looked upon as coming from another planet. As I prepared to make contacts with bishops of dioceses and chaplains at universities, I prayed each day: “Lord, help me to find my way!” And the response I always got back: “Trust me!”

As I started out in August that first year, God came to my rescue through a friend who introduced me to a national conference of Catholic university students being held on campus in London, Ontario. The students and chaplains welcomed me warmly and invited me to join them in their prayer, workshops and social activities. The conference of several hundred students proved to be an exciting experience. Carried by the flow of all their youthful energy and enthusiasm, I soon realized that it was a great opportunity to make contacts for future visits to other universities. Having taken the plunge, I found that the water was fine.

My first weekend directing a Scarboro “Come & See” vocation retreat for young adults was held in a retreat centre in Victoria, British Columbia. I had brought a set of talks prepared by Scarboro’s Formation Education Department. However, I found that, most of all, everyone wanted me to share stories of personal experience in mission. “What drew you to become a missionary? What did you experience while in mission? What sustains you as a priest?” They were seeking to discover what resonated in their hearts that might reveal to them their own path in life. I gladly shared the joys and the challenges of my 10 years of mission in the Philippines where so much had happened and at that time was still happening under martial law. I talked about a widening civil conflict and a heroic Church that included martyrs at every level.

Walking with students

As I traveled from university to university my anxiety about what I was to do disappeared and I began to discover my role. It was first to present the invitation of Scarboro Missions to join us as priest and lay missionaries, and secondly to walk with those who were discerning their future. “Walking with” meant carefully listening and asking appropriate questions to help young people discover where God and their heart’s desire might be leading them. For most it would eventually be marriage or a lay vocation, but for a few it could mean a vocation as a religious Sister, Brother, or a priest. I realized how important it was to support and encourage students at this pivotal time in their lives, helping them to clarify and understand their dreams and aspirations.

To share in the spiritual journey of others one must look within your own heart and share from your personal relationship with Christ and your own journey. Discerning young people seek authenticity, and in their very honest and openhearted searching, the students I met challenged me likewise to be authentic. Accompanying such students enabled me to deepen my own vocation. I came to appreciate even more how Christ is alive and at work in each of us, certainly in my own life as a priest.

Fr. Mike at Scarboro’s booth during a Vocations Fair at Paschal Baylan Parish, Thornhill, Ontario. 2010

Hospitality

Throughout the years of vocation ministry, I have appreciated the welcoming hospitality of university chaplains who introduced me to their students and to activities related to campus ministry. They provided opportunities for me to preside at Eucharistic celebrations with student faith communities, and to give presentations on Scarboro Missions and our work. I especially enjoyed weeknight dinners sponsored by chaplaincy, which offered an open invitation to students to hang out and have a meal together. In these smaller gatherings I would share some of my stories and personal experiences in mission, which led to engaging dialogue with students on being involved in cross-cultural mission. Being invited to lead “twilight” evening retreats offered an excellent occasion to be with students for prayer and quiet reflection on our baptismal call to mission, on the option for the poor, and on making a difference in the world. In the past few decades many university students have become engaged in short overseas volunteer experiences working with the poor and marginalized in the world, which for many has been a transforming experience.

The joys

My greatest joy as a vocation director was to walk with young people who were discerning and then to see them make a choice where they felt their heart and God’s call came together. It was wonderful to see them move ahead in life by way of marriage (for most) or by choosing a vocation to the religious life or priesthood. One young person had originally attended a Toronto Area Vocation Directors discernment retreat and was filled with a lively, persevering faith and lots of energy. For more than a year I journeyed with her as she pursued a vocational call to join a religious community that she had visited in Peru when she was a university student. I asked her one day why she chose this community over others and she said, “Joy! I found them to be so joyful.” She is now in Peru having made her first vows with the community. It was great to see her again recently while she was home for a visit with her family.

Another student whom I met at a university in Western Canada joined Scarboro and served for nearly 10 years as a lay missionary in the Dominican Republic. He developed a program for high school students to come there for a week to learn about the global South, experiencing Dominican hospitality while living with a local family, learning firsthand about issues affecting the people. The program included time for prayer, reflection, and fun. After concluding his commitment as a Scarboro lay missioner, Dean Riley continued to oversee the program he started. It continues to be a popular choice with teachers and students from many Canadian high schools in learning about themselves as well as their hosts, and in contributing to their making genuine life choices in service to our global community.

Fr. Mike Traher and participants at the closing mass of a retreat at the Newman Centre, University of Toronto.

The hardest part

Over the years, Scarboro has welcomed a good number of laity, single men and women as well as married couples, to be involved with us in mission. Yet, very few young men I met along the way expressed the desire to become a missionary priest with its challenge of a lifetime commitment. This has always weighed on me and I often wondered if I could be doing things differently or better. Did our Society need to do a better job presenting the invitation to consider a missionary vocation? Some in our Scarboro community wondered aloud why we were not getting vocations to priesthood, which we need in order to carry Scarboro Missions into the future. Often in prayer I felt God’s reassuring consolation inviting me to let go of my expectations and just continue to be faithful in my commitment to vocation work. Eventually I came to understand and accept that vocation to ministry is not so much what I do as what God does in the hearts of those whom God chooses. On my part I felt the need to persevere as humbly as I could, always trusting in God’s life-giving Spirit. Today in Scarboro we are blessed with two priest candidates, one of whom was just ordained to the diaconate and the other who will enter the third year of theology. We look for more young men to join them.

World Youth Day

Surely one of the greatest moments in my life as a vocation director was World Youth Day in the summer of 2002. A once in a lifetime event, WYD-Toronto was a phenomenon of downtown streets filled with the joy and shared faith of young people from around the world, generated and inspired by the presence of Pope John Paul II.

One major highlight was the hosting of the largest vocational exhibit ever put together in Canada. It showcased a multitude of religious communities and other Catholic volunteer organizations. Scarboro Missions invited several other missionary communities to join us with their displays in a large common booth under the theme, “Walk with us as missioners!” More than 150,000 young people passed through this exceptional representation of a variety of religious communities and vocational opportunities in our Church.

Vocation promotion

Vocation directors are a unique cast of characters who need ongoing support as we do our ministry. Those of us in the Archdiocese of Toronto created TAVDA (Toronto Area Vocation Directors Association), which has proven to be a wonderful source of life and support as we work together to promote a new vocation culture in the Canadian Church. TAVDA has provided opportunities for friendship, prayer, vocation discernment retreats, school visits, vocation fairs, and liturgical season retreats with university students. There are also moments when we celebrate together socially, at Christmas and at an early summer barbecue.

Out of our World Youth Day experience, TAVDA members fostered the creation of a national vocation website: Vocations.ca. This website features information and links to most of Canada’s religious communities, some dioceses, diocesan seminaries, and many resources of vocational information to assist anyone wondering where to start in discerning a vocation. For nine years I enjoyed being part of the committee that ran this site until the National Association of Vocation Formation Directors (NAVFD) recently took over. We never kept records of how many vocation seekers went on to pursue a vocation to religious life or priesthood; however, www.vocations.ca was a stepping stone for many to get started in discerning this path.

As a Scarboro lay missioner working with Dominican youth, Dean Riley developed a short-term overseas exposure program in the Dominican Republic for Canadian high school students. For information, email: encuentro.dominicano@gmail.com

Scarboro Missions TV

Over the years Scarboro Missions has advertised for vocations through Catholic newspapers and other print media, including Scarboro Missions magazine, and has produced videos about what we do as priest and lay missionaries and how the mission of Christ is being witnessed and lived today. A special highlight for me has been the completion in March 2012 of a set of 12 short videos on Scarboro produced by Villagers Media and featured on our Scarboro Missions website, www.scarboromissions.ca. High school students and their teachers are the target audience.

As I look back, I am filled with gratitude for the many students, chaplains, teachers, and pastors throughout Canada whom I have met, and for their wonderful hospitality as I traveled among them. I admired their questions, ideas, and fresh enthusiasm that was always there. Through the years of the dark clouds of sexual scandal and betrayal of trust by some in leadership positions in our Church, I found that young people continued to be just as idealistic as I was in my younger days, always eager to change the world for the better.

Finally, I am grateful to Scarboro Missions and my fellow missioners who have continually prayed for vocations. May God’s many blessings be with Fr. Ron MacDonell who with his team brings lots of fresh enthusiasm to this vital task of vocation ministry. I believe that the Spirit of God is very much at work among us, seeking open and generous hearts for the greatest Divine project in the world. May we continue for many years (Ad Multos Anos) to serve the reign of God through the mission of Christ.

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