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I Know that God is Good |
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U. S. A. | RESOURCES
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Fr Timothy Lyons, LC (United States)
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| P. Timothy Lyons, LC | |
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Ithink that God has spoken directly to my soul
only two or three times in my life, with the
kind of certainty that I know for sure it
was the Lord speaking. It occurred for the first
time when I was about 17, watching TV. An admiral
of the U.S. Navy was stepping off a plane,
and I thought, “It would be awesome to be him.
I should join the military.” Then, instantly, a flash
came, an epiphany: “But he’s not a priest. He
cannot celebrate Mass.” It was so sudden and clear I
actually laughed out loud, and said, “Lord, that was
not fair!”
Early Memories
I was born in Denver, Colorado
in 1977. Before I could remember, my father and mother
packed my four brothers and sisters and me into
our Volkswagen van and headed for Portland, Maine, where
I grew up. My family has always given me the
sense that God had his hand on my shoulder.
Memories of my childhood include a lot of little
things like baseball, Catholic schooling,
working in
the family business, cross country trips packed in a station
wagon, bike riding, snowfall five months out of the
year, moments on the Atlantic Ocean, fighting with brothers
and sisters, and even occasionally running away from home
(only for a few minutes at the most). Despite the
teasing that comes with being the youngest, I was
always thankful for every one of my siblings. To
make things even better, while I was still growing up,
my older sisters found boyfriends they later married, who
became like extra brothers to me. As a child,
when people like the nuns who taught us would say,
“God is good,” I can honestly remember thinking, “I
know he is good.” My parents are very good-hearted
and generous people. They grew up on farms, and
in families strongly and deeply rooted in faith and values.
They kept their priorities straight at home: God, family,
education, the pro-life movement, and helping those around us
as much as possible. To this day my parents work
very hard and touch many lives in their own
quiet way, much more than they are likely aware.
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/> When I was five, my father
started a small dry cleaning and laundry business: it was
not always fun, but none of the children has
ever been without food, or work for that matter.
Father always took a special interest in helping his employees
and customers learn something about the Faith, and early
on he decided to go against the pressure to
open his business on Sundays. My mother was always
around the house to care for us. I remember asking
her questions about God, starting from when I was
about seven, and she answered like someone who knew
God on a very personal level. That Red-headed Boy is Going
to Be Priest My brother Dave and I walked to St.
Patrick School every day, and there I think my
vocation began, simply by coming to know very good priests
and nuns. When I was eleven, I began serving
Masses for Fr Ansaloni, a great Franciscan priest. Every
once in a while, I heard voices—little old ladies, in
their eighties I think—whispering loud enough to be heard
throughout the church, “That red-headed boy is going to
be priest.” These comments annoyed me a lot, because
I did not think it would be “cool” to be
a priest, but naturally it started me thinking that
maybe they were right. No one else really brought up
the issue with me.
Our parents
spared no sacrifices to send us to Catholic schools,
so that we would learn our faith and have
good friends. The Sisters of Charity taught me when I
was young and were always happy examples of the
religious vocation. As teenagers, our father would drive us
every Sunday to Massachusetts to a private Catholic school
called the Trivium, where we would board during the week.
My oldest sister went on pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal,
after she graduated from high school, and she came
back with a small statue of the Blessed Mother. From
about this point on, if we were home around
9:00 P.M., my father would summon us all to
pray the Rosary together. Because of this, Mary’s presence was
truly palpable in our home, and I am certain
that I owe my vocation to her care.
A Blizzard of Graces
A
cousin of mine discerned his vocation to the Legionaries
of Christ, and I visited him once in the
seminary. He looked very happy, and I admired his generosity
and goodness. However, for me at the time, I
had my heart and mind set on being a
family man and starting a business one day.
In the mean time, other Legionary priests and
brothers occasionally visited my high school, and they were
chaplains of a sort to a little group my friends
had formed. Once a month, the group did outreach
such as visiting a nursing home, and periodically I
would also go. I was always impressed by the Legionaries,
especially because they were always optimistic and seemed very
happy in their vocations. This was rubbing off on
my friends. One day I made a joke about a
classmate, and the leader in the group did not
laugh. When I asked him why he did not laugh,
he simply said, “It wasn’t nice.” It was one
little moment among many others that sounded an alarm
in my conscience. God was calling me out of an
adolescent type of faith. It was time for me
to get beyond the “just don’t lose your soul”
stage.
The first step toward my
vocation was Jesus presenting me with two options: I could
continue being a believer, while drifting along pursuing my
own interests, wasting a lot of time and energy
on myself and being rather dissatisfied, or else, I could
let Christ change me the way he was changing
the others I knew, and start putting the Gospel
into practice on a daily basis, not just on Sundays.
This would mean using my time better, giving up
some bad music, speaking well of others, being a
better friend to others, and a better student. My family,
of course, had already set this kind of tone,
but God used my experience with other priests, friends,
and the Legionaries to confirm it. I do not think
when I was 16 or so I really responded
well to Christ’s invitation, but thankfully he did not
stop inviting me, and I always stayed close to him
in the sacraments.
After graduating
from high school, a couple of these friends went away
to volunteer in Legionary schools. The same one I
just mentioned invited me
to visit the
seminary with him for the Solemnity of the Immaculate
Conception. We got stuck there during a blizzard, and during
the extra day I was really struck by everything
I saw: young men enthusiastic about serving the Church,
devoted to the Eucharist. They played sports very hard and
put their hearts into everything they did. I went
home and told my brother-in-law it was great to
visit the Legionary seminary. He asked, “Are you going to
join the seminary?” “No, not me,” I said, and
at the time, meant it sincerely.
Why
Not Try the Seminary Now?
I
went to college at Franciscan University of Steubenville. A
Legionary priest came occasionally to offer direction to a
group of us who belonged to the Regnum Christi
Movement. He was an excellent preacher and confessor, and he
seemed to love saying Mass and working with college
students. He never insinuated to me anything about a
vocation—his advice was always on how to be a good
Catholic student—but seeing his example certainly made me think
about it. One day, I went to the library
to write a research paper. While I was browsing, I
came upon a book called the Biography of St.
John Vianney. It was the only book on the
shelf that was not an inch thick, so it jumped
out at me. I read it, closed it, and
as if some other spirit were working in me, I
went to the chapel, and said, “Lord, if you
want to, make me a priest.” I felt he heard
my prayer. I was certainly not sure where all
of this was going.
The thought of
marrying and having a family did not stop being
attractive, but it seemed to me that if God
wanted to call me to a supernatural vocation, he would
have to give me some kind of extraordinary sign.
The spring semester began. I was really in no
hurry to take the next step and discern, but I
wrote a postcard to a diocesan seminary. I never
got a reply back and took this as a sign
to keep other options open. Still, thanks to daily
contact with the priests, companions, and teachers, as well
as the Eucharistic chapel, I was drawing closer to
God. One night, I remember two good friends and I
talking a while about who we each wanted to
marry, each totally oblivious to what God was planning.
Ironically, just a few short years later we would be
studying for the priesthood together in Rome. As good
as marriage can be, Christ was calling us to
follow him in a more radical way. What an honor!
My freshman year ended, and I
took a friend’s good example and signed up to give
a year in the Legion’s volunteer program. In July,
I left home to be a college missionary. I
loved the experience of going door-to-door with others in New
York City, inviting Catholics back to church. One day
someone asked me: “Do you think God might be
calling you?” I said yes, that this was on my
mind for later. He then said, “If you think
God could be calling you, why not try out
the seminary now? Don’t you think God would bless you
for trying?” It was a second case of that
same epiphany in my soul, on the feast of the
Queenship of Mary. The following day was my 20th
birthday. I signed up for the summer discernment program
in Connecticut. It was not an easy decision, but I
am certainly happy God gave me the grace to
make it. I am convinced that God would still
love me and bless me, even if I had chosen
a different path. However, I feel that the priesthood
is precisely the kind of life he has made
me to have, and where I personally can serve him
best. Nothing could ever be better than God’s will.
It Is Not up to You; It
Is up to Him
My thirteen
years of preparation for the priesthood have been challenging
and at times difficult, but always happy. I remember
once being in a period when I thought I
might not be called, because I was not good enough.
This time, I really believe it was Mary’s voice
I heard in my soul, a single word that was
sudden, firm, and very sweet: “Relax. Jesus wants you
to be a priest even more than you do.
It’s not really up to you; it is up to
him.”
All these years in training
used to seem as if they would never end, but
now I can look back, grateful that I have
been able to experience so much to help me mature
in my faith and character. Besides the sacramental life
we enjoy, probably the greatest experiences and blessings have
been getting to meet truly inspiring people on a
daily basis: other religious, lay people, and diocesan clergy.
Thanks be to God for my parents, my brothers and
sisters, for all the great priests I have known,
and for my teachers and for my many “brothers” in
the Legion of Christ who have discerned God’s will
with me in different stages along the way. Thanks
to our friends and benefactors, the Regnum Christi members
who have inspired me and helped me persevere, and the
millions of people who pray for vocations every day.
That I am here as priest today is all
in some way because of each of you. FR TIMOTHY
JOHN LYONS was born in Denver, Colorado, on August
23, 1977. He grew up in Portland, Maine, but went
to high school in Massachusetts. He attended Franciscan University
of Steubenville for one year, before joining the novitiate
of the Legionaries of Christ in the summer of
1997. As a Legionary he completed studies in Connecticut, New
York, and Rome. He earned licentiate in philosophy and
a bachelor’s degree in theology. He has also spent
five years helping at schools and youth programs in San
Jose and Sacramento, California. He has four older brothers
and sisters and nineteen nieces and nephews. 
The vocation stories of the
Legionaries of Christ who were ordained in 2010 have been
published in the book "From the Heart of Christ." |
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PUBLICATION DATE:
2010-12-23
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