The following was written by Brother Ron Mac Intyre. Brother Ron was born in Dominion, Nova Scotia, Canada on February 02, 1930. He was invested with the Capuchin Habit on August 21, 1959; professed first vows on August 22, 1960; Professed solemn vows on August 22, 1963; and was ordained to the priesthood on October 23, 1965.
My Vocation Search
By Brother Ron Mac
Intyre OFM Cap.
It
caught me by surprise. The very thought of my vocation was never in my mind.
From my birth in Cape Breton Nova Soctia, until a dark night in Ontario Canada,
I had never really though about any permanent vocation unless it was to get on
the stage and sing.
Life
for me and most of my friends was simply playing some game of ball, or hockey
or some other game we put together ourselves. For me and my very close friend,
his first name was Michael; there was nothing greater then a sports game with
our friends. We scraped together bits of money to buy “finger mits” so we could
follow our dreams and playing our favorite game, Baseball, for our favorite
team. Imagine! Two kids from Dominion, Nova Scotia, Canada head over heels,
longing to play on the home field of “the Cards.” I can close my eyes and still
feel the urge that filled my young head back when Michael and I were only
twelve years old. Those early days of my life in this world, could not have
been better for my friend and me.
In our
poverty (no one told us we were poor) we were simply a group of kids who
organized our own world of fun and sport games. I was gifted with good friends
and a great desire to be on the ball diamond, on the hockey ice, or simply make
up like “steal the cap”. After the first game of steal the cap we never had to
explain the rules to others. When Michael and I were old enough we would look
for ways to make a few dollars (a fortune to us) in order to buy a new glove
(finger Mit in our lingo) with the stamp of the endorsing player’s name on it.
This life of exquisite joy went on for most of my childhood. I never thought it
would end.
Amid
all the fun and games we were sent to classes for the purpose of receiving the
sacraments of the church. It may be in the going to church for our classes that
the twinge I would feel was the beginning of my vocation to the priesthood, but
I said nothing to anybody about this feeling. I simply went on with my great
life of games and friendship, that even today brings nostalgic feelings of what
were “the good old days” of friendship and Joy. (The Cards really missed two
good players.)
Too
soon life changed and the time came for me to think about getting work so that
I could help out with the feeding of the ten kids. Part-time jobs became my new
life. My best friend and I would try to make fifty or seventy-five cents in
order to help out at home. Then at age sixteen Michael was sent to collage
where he would eventually earn a master’s degree in science. He became a
teacher. He was a good teacher who always put his students first. There was a
somewhat different education in store for me.
At age
sixteen I applied for a job in Ontario. I and a couple of others applied for
jobs in Ontario. In September of my sixteenth year, I and four others were
accepted. The deal was that the company would pay our train fare and we would
agree to repay the company by working for one full year. We agreed to this and
ended up in the city of St. Catherine’s, just a short distance from Niagara
Falls. We were paid sixty cents an hour, and worked from six o’clock in the
evening until six o’clock in the morning, with a half hour lunch break at
midnight. I worked for them for a few years, but some of the others did not
stay. After a few years I started to look for a new job. This search led me to
working on lake boats’ auto motive factories, foundries and the railway in
Toronto.
This
was the beginning of my ‘dark night’, which lasted until I was accepted into
the Capuchin order. In Ontario I came very close to losing my faith. When I
arriver in St. Catherine’s I was a very faithful church goer. I went to mass
every Sunday. However, my interest in other things like bowling and dancing
(square dancing) soon distracted me. My regular mass attendance started to
slip. It was no anything horribly bad I just gave up going to church.
How I
got back into going to church is nothing short of amazing. I had the idea of
becoming an actor. I took lessons in voice production for a couple of years and
joined a theater group. I was given small parts in three or four productions
put on by the guild. Then the most amazing thing happened. I was cast in a play
with a couple (a man and his wife). The cast was set and we began rehearsal of
the play. What happened next, I can only attribute to the Lord!
I can
only think of what follows as my call to the priesthood. One Sunday we were
rehearsing when the wife of the couple who were in the play with me approached
me during a ‘take ten’. She came to where I was on stage and asked me where I
came from. She said she detected an accent. I was somewhat embarrassed and told
her I came from Cape Breton. (get ready for this) She said “you must be
Catholic if you’re from Cape Breton.”
I said “yes I was.”
She replied “Oh then since we are
in this play together, you can come over to our house and have breakfast with
us and our family.”
That
was the start of the road back to the church. She and her husband would not
take any answer from me but yes. I went to their house every Sunday for three
months. After the play was finished I continued my breakfast routine.
I
changed jobs for better pay. I took the eleven to seven in order to try and
save some money to send back home. One thing I did soon after the play had
ended was return to regular Sunday mass attendance with my beautiful new
friends, for whom I still pray and thank God for.
The bus
I took home from work stopped at the church door. I started to think about
going to mass more often. So when the bus stopped, as it usually did, I would
get off and attend mass every day. I began to think about the priesthood. When
I looked at my past I thought that I never could or would be a priest. I can
not explain the struggle I went through thinking of my call to the priesthood.
Finally I knew I had to act and started to enquire about how I could become a
priest. I went to several places but may lack of education was a problem. I was
twenty-two at the time and only had a grade nine education. The vocation people
found this a major problem, and they were unwilling to take a chance on me.
Then
one day I read the Canadian Register where I saw an ad for the Capuchins. At
the bottom of the ad was a line that changed my life forever: “Late vocations
encouraged.” I hitched-hiked from St. Catharine’s, Ontario to Blenheim,
Ontario, and the moment I stepped on to the friary grounds I knew my search had
ended. I joined the Capuchin Friars and as they say, “the rest is history.”
Thank you and God Bless.
