Called to God

By Fr. Tony Marsh, S.F.M.
December 2007

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I have always felt called by God to my missionary vocation. Like the psalmist says, “From the womb before the dawn I begot you.” I believe that my vocation to overseas mission was with me from my infancy when at baptism I became a “child of God” and was given the name: Joseph Gordon Anthony.

Photo L-R: Our congratulations to Frs. Tony Marsh (Caribbean) and Lionel Walsh (Dominican Republic) who celebrated their 50th anniversary of priesthood on December 3, the Feast of St. Francis Xavier, patron of Scarboro Missions. This Jesuit missionary first evangelized areas of South Asia, India and Japan from 1542-52.

My mother had the custom of calling her newly born children after a leading figure in the community, religious or lay, whose life would serve as a guide and an example for us. At the time of my birth, that person was Protestant minister Reverend Gordon, pastor of the United Church. In those days Catholics and Protestants were not on the best of terms, but my mother was a woman of vision, a woman ahead of her time. For her, there was no “Jew or Gentile,” all were one in Christ and all drank of the same Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13). And so, drinking of the same Spirit as the Reverend Gordon, she gave me the name Gordon.

Looking back, I can see how the Lord was directing me from an early age to walk along unknown paths and reach out to people of other faiths and practices. My elementary education was at a Catholic school under the guidance of religious Sisters, except for Grade Three when I found myself in public school, mixing with children of other religious traditions. My brother, younger in age but bigger in stature, would refer to me as his “little Protestant brother.”

In high school I again returned to public school and formed wonderful friendships with people of different religious backgrounds.

As a boy I accompanied my mother as she knocked on doors to solicit funds for the Propagation of the Faith and distribute their magazine. I enjoyed helping her support the spread of the Gospel in other lands. These and other events in my life pointed to my missionary vocation without me even realizing it.

All this, however, could not have brought me to where I am without the influence of my parents and my brothers and sisters in our home where there was constant prayer, good example, and encouragement to pursue my course. It is in the home where the seed of our vocation is nurtured, matures and comes to fulfillment, so that I can now proclaim, “O praise the Lord, all you nations; acclaim him all you peoples! Strong is His Love for us; He is faithful forever.” Psalm 117:1

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