Paulist Vocation

Fr. Jim and I both "graduated" in the Spring of 1967, he with ordination and me with my MBA.  We both moved to Chicago for our first full time jobs.  I first encountered him at a weekday mass at Old St. Mary's in downtown Chicago.  His brief homilies would speak to some unattended parts of me, or some unsolved issues.  Well into my second year in Chicago I asked to meet with him.  We sat on park bench, so it was during Chicago's all too brief summer.  I said, "What is the meaning of my life? What is my purpose?"  I had asked this question of fellow employees at Standard Oil of Indiana and they felt their life as worker, husband, parent was plenty for them.  They were full.  I was not.  Fr. Jim took my question seriously.  He did not play the answer man like so many young priests tend to do nowadays.  In fact he asked the question of himself as well.  What was the purpose of his life as a priest?  I got two things out of this about the Paulist Fathers.  One, they can connect well to the laity.  They can be where we are, entering into our world though they are priests.  The second thing is that within their vocation, they search for their unique work.  Though priests of a corporate church they are individuals. Within two years, Fr. Jim was transferred to Boston where he began work with divorced and separated Catholics which was cutting edge and not very acceptable in main line church circles at that time.  His work became the "North American Conference of Separated and Divorced Catholics."  Eventually it became ecumenical.  A Paulist priest: connects with the laity in their world and looks for what needs doing while still being a sacramental priest.  Still ravaged by my shortcomings, these are my goals.