Diocese of Ferns - Vocations

Born in the Parish of Rathnure, Enniscorthy, on 20 June 1945, Bishop Brennan was ordained on 31 May 1970 at St Peter's College, Wexford. He was appointed to the House of Missions in 1970 and Administrator of St Senan's Parish, Enniscorthy from 1986 until his appointment as parish priest of Taghmon in 1997. He served as Vicar Forane for Wexford Deanery and as diocesan delegate charged with child protection. He was ordained Bishop of Ferns on 23 April 2006. “I have only one ambition today, to walk with you, the people, religious and priests of the diocese in your joys and your sorrows. Sometimes I may be able to help you, sometimes I may need you to help me.” More ....

Bishop Denis writes:

If you are reading these lines you may be thinking of priesthood. I wish you well. Choosing a path in life is a big decision.

A vocation or a call to the priesthood is a mysterious thing, it is an affair of the heart, don’t expect it to always make sense, don’t expect to always understand or control it.

Vocation is all about choosing and being chosen. That is why it is such an adventure, it is not all about us, it is also about what Pope Benedict has called “an intertwining of love between the divine initiative and the free human response.”

The late German theologian Fr Karl Rahner put the challenge of discerning vocation very well when he said “everything beautiful and noble, everything that is or would be possible in itself cannot be crammed into one life simultaneously. We cannot try all the alternatives. We cannot explore each and then start over in order to live the ‘right’ one.”

We can never be sure if the choice we make is the right one. No decision is perfect. It is simply a fact that at a certain time in one’s life a decision must be made … and then life changes from moving towards that decision to living it out.

If you feel called to priesthood, pray about it, talk about it with a priest you know, and … don’t be afraid!

Ultimately, the only way you will know for sure if the call you are hearing is real is to test it … by following it. I wish you well.