My Experience at Blessed Sacrament

My time of the parish assignment here at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament is finishing, and I would like to share with you a little bit of my vocational story and my parish experience. As you may know, I am originally from Poland and you might think that I have to come from a good Catholic Polish family. But this is not the case. My parents unfortunately divorced when I was still a child, and my family did not practice its Catholic faith. How is it then that today I am in the seminary? Well, when I was about 16, one of my classmates died in a car accident and his death questioned my life. I did not know what I was living for and what was the meaning of my life. At this moment of my life, I met a priest who brought me back to the Church, helped me with confessions and spiritual direction. He was in many ways a father whom I did not have during my teenage years. My life started changing because of God’s grace and mercy. This priest, in turn, recognized that I might have a vocation to the seminary, but when he told me that, I was not able to accept it. I had my plans for my life: an IT career, getting married, and having children. I could not imagine that I can be happy without accomplishing those goals. However, a few years later, after I have joined the Neocatechumenal Way, the Lord moved my heart to find and meet my father. At that moment I did not see my father for 11 years, and when we met, the Lord gave me the grace to reconcile with him, pardoning him his violence and alcoholism, but also asking him for his forgiveness for my hatred against him. After that, I saw that God can do the impossible for reconciliation with my father was something that I never have imagined. This caused a deeper sense of gratefulness to God for His presence in my life. This event opened my heart to God’s call. I left my girlfriend, my job, my studies and joined the seminary in 2015. Today, after almost 6 years of formation and this short period of parish assignment, I am still grateful for what God is doing with my life.

As you can imagine, the life in the seminary is quite different from that in the parish, and in these last 8 weeks, here at Blessed Sacrament, I had an opportunity to taste the life to which I hope God is calling me. I felt very much welcomed by the Blessed Sacrament community and Fr. Foley and resident priests. I have witnessed a bit of the hard work that is done behind the scenes, so that this parish may serve its purpose. Moreover, it has been a great opportunity for me to see how the parish comes back to normality after the restrictions have been lifted. This process of coming back to the parish is still in progress, but it was a great experience to see Masses with full assembly. I want to thank everyone for having me here, for working together with me, for all your patience and kindness. I ask you to pray for me since I have still a good number of years in my seminary formation so that one day, I might serve this diocese with a dedicated heart.

~Marcin Szpot