Diocese of Ferns - Vocations

My name is James Cullen. I am a seminarian for the Diocese of Ferns and I am now in my sixth year of studies for the priesthood. One more to go. I am from the parish of Castlebridge and the youngest of eleven children.

Castlebridge was a great place to grow up in and I would see that my love for God and my faith were nurtured at home in Garrylough. I am now 31 years old, so I did not come straight from school to seminary.

That seems to be the trend for most of the men in seminary at the moment; they would have spent some time in a job or at college before coming to seminary to discern diocesan priesthood. My own journey started, as I look back now, when I was about seven years old, around the time that I made my First Holy Communion.

It was at this time that I thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up, and among other things, priesthood was one. The next time I remember thinking strongly about the possibility of priesthood was in secondary school and especially towards the end of my time there.

But after school, I ended up getting a job in Enniscorthy with Datapac Ltd. It lasted about seven years and I gained a lot of experience there. What I noticed about myself was this - ok I had a good job and the pay was good, company car and company mobile, but there was something missing.

At the back of my mind and coming increasingly to the front of it was the idea of priesthood. I had decided to take time off work to go travelling and I took a seven-stop round the world trip with the main stop in Australia. That was in 2003.

I got back in October 2004 just before the tsunami hit South East Asia. I loved my time there, and I really enjoy travelling meeting different people and experiencing life the way they see it, not just as we do. When I got back from my travels I got in contact with the vocations director Fr. Jim Finn PP, and by 27 August 2005 I was on my way to Maynooth.

I was accepted to study for the diocese by Bishop Eamonn Walsh, the then Apostolic Administrator. I entered Maynooth with 22 others. For the first three years I studied Philosophy and Anthropology for a double Arts degree and I have a Higher Diploma in Pastoral Studies completed. As part of this course I was placed in a parish four days each week, St. Aidan’s Cathedral parish, Enniscorthy.
This year I have been back in Seminary doing my second year of a Bachelorate in Divinity. I have one more year of this Degree to do.

I have learnt over the years a lot about my faith, about church teaching, about the tradition of the church. Our subjects are wide-ranging in Maynooth, with emphasis on the four areas of formation -intellectual, spiritual, human and pastoral.

Formation is challenging and the current situation in regard to clerical sexual abuse makes for a trying time. But I believe in the message of Jesus Christ and I know that we come into contact with Christ by being in community. Investing ourselves in the Spirit, praying, helping others we can and will bring about the plan of God for our time. We have a duty to live out the vocation that we are called to and to hand on the faith to the next generation.

I think of my Ordination to the priesthood as a personal Pentecost when I will leave the seminary security of the Upper Room and spread the word to the Ferns people of my generation that I love. It’s a splendid challenge – I can only hope that I’m able to meet it.

James is currently studying at Maynooth College and our other students are Pat Duffy and Barry Larkin who are currently studying at Bede College in Rome.