Restlessness and saying ‘yes’ led Father Kevin Wojciechowski to ordination

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Before he entered the seminary, Father Kevin Wojciechowski wasn’t sure God was calling him to the priesthood. He prayed for, in his words, a “blatantly obvious sign,” but it never came. 

“I just continued to have this restlessness that wouldn’t go away,” he said. “I kept having this inkling that I needed to just step out in faith and join seminary and see what happened.”

While studying at Saginaw Valley State University, Father Kevin’s faith deepened and he felt a desire for something more. He began attending Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, what he calls “giving God [his] initial ‘yes’ and then that daily ‘yes’ ever since then.”

Those daily instances of saying ‘yes’ to God’s will culminated with Father Kevin’s ordination to the priesthood on Friday, May 14 at Holy Spirit Parish in Shields. Bishop Robert Gruss celebrated the Mass, which included the laying on of hands and Prayer of Ordination, during which time Father Kevin received the strength of the Holy Spirit. 

Bishop Robert Gruss and Father Kevin Wojciechowski
Bishop Robert Gruss ordains Father Kevin Wojciechowski to the priesthood through the imposition of hands and prayer of ordination.

During the ordination Mass, Father Kevin vowed to "discharge the office of priesthood with humility and love, hold fast to the mystery of faith, proclaim this faith in word and deed, embrace the celibate state and pray for the Church and the whole world." The rite also included a promise of obedience to the bishop and his successors. 

The liturgical rite is also rich in symbolism. Father Kevin was vested in his priestly garments— a stole and chasuble— by Father José María Cabrera. Bishop Gruss anointed his hands with sacred chrism oil, symbolizing his distinctive participation in Christ's priesthood, and placed bread and wine into Father Kevin's hands, pointing to his duty of celebrating the Eucharist and following Christ crucified.

“Just as you have received the cross of Jesus Christ in your own baptism, you are now being sent to proclaim the cross of Jesus by your life, by your ministry. Every priestly vocation flows from his cross and leads back to his cross. It’s at the very heart of the priestly ministry. The Lord is asking you to place all of your gifts at the service of his Church,” Bishop Gruss said in his homily.

Bishop Robert Gruss and Father Kevin Wojciechowski
Father Kevin Wojciechowski takes a chalice and paten offered to him by Bishop Robert Gruss, symbolically pointing to his duty of celebrating the Eucharist and following Christ crucified.

Both Bishop Gruss and Father Kevin acknowledged Jesus’ words:  “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you” (John 15:16). 

“Your vocation, as Pope Francis so often speaks, is born of an encounter with Christ himself, whose resurrection you are called to give witness to before the whole world,” Bishop Gruss told Father Kevin. “[Jesus has] formed your heart, he’s formed your very being for this moment and prepared you for this from the beginning of your life. … You must continue with great diligence and active prayer life so Christ may continue to form you into the priest he desires you to become.”

Father Kevin believes his journey to the priesthood has already revealed the way in which God has made him and called him to serve his people— even if he didn’t get a “blatantly obvious sign.”

He described this time in his life as “wanting Jesus to yell at me from afar what he wanted me to do.”

“All Jesus said was, ‘Just come closer to me. Come closer to me.’ And it was in drawing closer to his Sacred Heart that he could reveal to me from up close, he could whisper to me an affirmation of that calling to the priesthood. That calling was affirmed when I was ordained a deacon of this diocese— on the feast of the Sacred Heart,” he said. “I’m looking forward to serving for the rest of my life in this diocese as a priest of Jesus Christ.”

Father Kevin will serve at Holy Spirit Parish until July 1, when he will begin his new assignment at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Saginaw.

“I'm so grateful to God that he's called me to serve him and the people of the Saginaw Diocese as a priest,” Father Kevin said after his ordination. “The overwhelming support from family, friends, and brother priests over the years and in these last few days have been such a gift.”

Father Kevin Wojciechowski and Parents
Father Kevin Wojciechowski is the son of Mike and Anna Wojciechowski of Davison.
Father Kevin Wojciechowski and his Mother
Father Kevin Wojciechowski hugs his mother, Anna, following his ordination Mass.
 

Father Kevin will celebrate the following Masses of Thanksgiving:

Watch the Ordination Mass at www.vimeo.com/549386321 or https://tinyurl.com/wt7v8y3b

Look for more coverage of Father Kevin Wojciechowski’s ordination and ministry in the next issue of FAITH Saginaw magazine!