July 19, 2026 | Vocations Update
Jesus Christ: Yesterday, Today, and Forever ~
Vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are super important to us. Today I’m giving you an update on some of the young people from our parish family that are pursuing religious life.
Timothy Phelps: grew up a parishioner at St. Joseph Parish to our west, attending their parochial school and Central Catholic High School in Portland. About the time he left for college four years ago, his parents joined Holy Redeemer Parish. He graduated from college this year, and this week he will leave for the De Lasalle Brothers, a teaching order of religiously professed brothers. Timothy will need our prayers especially for perseverance. I’ve attached a picture and write up from Timothy at the end of this pastor’s column.
Grace Varsek: Grace Varsek is a college graduate from St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, returned to college campuses over a year ago to evangelize college students through a program called FOCUS. She will continue to do that for the coming academic year, too. While Grace isn’t in a religious order pursuing vows (I would love to see that one day), she is doing amazing work on college campuses and needs our prayers and some financial help too. You can do that by visiting Grace’s giving page (with a brief story of her conversion) at https://focus.org/missionaries/grace-varsek/
Grace Varsek
Here’s a thought-provoking article on vocations due to FOCUS: “More than 1,000 people have entered the seminary or a religious house of formation after involvement with FOCUS”https://focus.org/about/news-press-room/recent-press-releases/focus-offers-hope-through-increas e-in-vocations-to-religious-life/
Here’s a snapshot of some of our vocations and where they stand now.
A. Seminarian Evan MacKenzie: Evan is entering final year of seminary. Hopefully he will be ordained to the transitional diaconate this December, and to the priesthood in June 2027.
B. Seminarian Ayden Anderson: Ayden completed his first year, six to go!
C. Daniel Foster: A previous Columbia River Catholic intern, recently graduated college and taught at CRC Pre-K this last year. He will green shirt at Ignite NW 2026, and be a youth ministry intern in the Bremerton Parish Family this coming school year. He hopes to join the Dominicans in 2027.
D. Hunter Reichel: Hunter’s parents are parishioners at Our Lady, Star of the Sea Stevenson. He was a green shirt at Ignite NW last year and this year, and is joining Daniel as a youth ministry intern in the Bremerton Parish Family for the coming school year. He too hopes to join the Dominicans in 2027.
Remember, Satan and the fallen angels actively oppose religious vocations from their inception to the death of the professed. They are supernatural vocations, and they need the supernatural grace our prayers and penances provide. We are realistic about those who pursue religious life, many don’t make it to ordination or final vows. In the last two-week period, it was made public that Brothers Gabriel and Anthony, two monks on our vocations board and on our prayer cards, have left or will leave their respective monasteries. Please keep them in prayer.
I have attached below a letter from Timothy Phelps, who will leave this week for religious life. He’s only 22 but writes as well as me (56). The De LaSalle Brothers are getting a treasure in this guy.
In the Love of Jesus Christ,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
Fr. Nathe
Timothy Phelps
Timothy Phelps Vocation Story
This summer, I will be entering postulancy with the De La Salle Christian Brothers, also known as the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Founded by Saint John Baptist de La Salle, the patron saint of teachers, the Christian Brothers are a Catholic religious institute that has served the Church through education for more than 300 years.
The Brothers are not priests, but vowed religious men who live in community and dedicate their lives to education, faith formation, and service to young people, especially those most in need. As I begin this first stage of formation, I will live in community and serve at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory in San Francisco, California. There, I will teach two freshman religion courses and a senior seminar, while also assisting with campus ministry.
My desire to engage my faith tangibly began in middle school through altar serving and religion classes, where I first experienced faith as something active rather than something I simply observed. Those early experiences drew me in and made me wonder what a life fully devoted to faith and the Church might look like. Looking back, I can see that the same desire that first drew me into altar serving, the desire to live my faith actively and concretely, is the desire that now draws me toward life as a Brother.
At the same time, my understanding of faith was still narrow in many ways. Through my coursework and experiences at Saint Mary’s College of California, I have been pushed to encounter Jesus not as distant or confined to ritual, but as deeply present in human suffering, joy, and complexity. Like many of my friendships, my relationship with God is marked by presence. I talk to Him throughout the day in fleeting moments, asking for help when I am distressed, guidance when I am making decisions, or simply acknowledging that He is with me. My faith continues to mature as I learn to live with greater vulnerability. I increasingly see my life as an ongoing opportunity for God’s love to grow within me, shaping me gradually into the person I am called to become.
For many years, I thought my desire to live a life closely united to the Church and devoted to serving others might lead me toward the diocesan priesthood, though I never really felt drawn to parish ministry. I tried to see myself in it, but it felt like forcing a square peg through a round hole. As I continued to discern, I realized that what I had been searching for all along was not the priesthood itself, but a vocation rooted in shared community, the ministry of education, and a life of faith lived concretely in service to others.
At first, I resisted discerning this vocation to be a religious Brother. How could I go down this path and not have sacramental faculties? That question began to shift after a retreat with the Benedictines at Mount Angel the summer before my sophomore year of college, where I first began to see the beauty of consecrated life and ministry as a religious Brother. While monastic life did not feel like the right fit, the experience opened me to the possibility of a life rooted in prayer, community, and service. That possibility was strengthened through later conversations with the Christian Brothers, whose joy and authenticity helped me recognize that what I had been seeking had been right in front of me all along.
What struck me from the very beginning, and continues to strike me, is the Brothers’ overwhelming authenticity. Being a Brother does not mean leaving who they are behind. Rather, they are fully themselves: quirky, funny, knowledgeable, and genuine. Observing this has shown me that vocation is not a limitation but an opportunity to live life more fully, growing into the image of God in which I was created.
All of this brings me back to the guiding question of my discernment: where I feel most at home. The Brothers have shown me that home is not a building but a community. Through summer ministry, dinners, conversations, and walks, they have helped me feel at home in their lives and work. My interactions with them are moments of God confirming my vocational call, opportunities to grow closer to Him alongside a group committed to living out the Gospel. Taking the next step toward postulancy and initial formation feels natural, like dipping my feet into a life I have only glimpsed. I understand postulancy as a way to step into ministry as a Brother, test my sense of vocation, and better understand how God is calling me. It is a chance to be formed in a tradition that places spiritual and human growth at the forefront, shaped by a commitment to the young people in their care.
Of course, I am nervous about the future, and I know I still have much to learn. But I feel ready to say yes to this next step in formation and discernment, trusting that God will continue shaping me through community, ministry, and the life of a Brother. Please pray for me as I begin this next step, and know that I will keep you in prayer each morning.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle…pray for us!
Live Jesus in our hearts…forever!
~ Timothy Phelps
