CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte is blessed with 45 men currently enrolled in study and formation for the priesthood: 24 men at St. Joseph College Seminary in Mount Holly, 20 enrolled in major seminary, and one taking a pastoral year.
Luke Martin, a parishioner of St. Mark Church in Huntersville, is among those studying at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Cincinnati. He entered the diocese’s seminarian program in 2017, first attending St. Joseph College Seminary.
To help the faithful of the diocese come to know him and how his call to discern the priesthood has unfolded, the Catholic News Herald recently asked him about his discernment process:
CNH: When did you first hear the call to a vocation to the priesthood?
Martin: I first heard the call when I was 8 years old. I received my first confession and first Holy Communion, and I began to start altar serving. Everything about being a priest, serving on the altar, and serving God and His people just made sense to me, and it seemed like what God would want me to do.
CNH: Who did you first talk to about your vocation?
Martin: I first began talking about my vocation when I was 8 years old with my parents, different priests at the different parishes, and with my friends.
Some feedback that I usually was told by priests – which I still hold highly today – is that a priest should develop a very loving devotion to our Blessed Mother and to the Most Holy Eucharist.
CNH: How did you go about discerning where you felt called to explore your possible vocation?
Martin: I went about discerning my vocation in many ways, the most important of which were altar serving, going to Daily Mass, volunteering in the parish, going to Eucharistic Adoration, praying the rosary almost every day, spending time with priests, visiting the seminary, and going to the diocese’s summer Quo Vadis Days retreat.
CNH: How and when did you reach out to the diocesan Vocations Office?
Martin: I was blessed to grow up in an environment knowing the Vocations Office clergy, but I got in touch with Father Christopher Gober (diocesan vocations director) officially in December of my senior year in high school.
CNH: Tell us about your discernment process in the seminary.
Martin: Some of the practices I have incorporated into my life to continue to discern my vocation and to enter into a deeper relationship with Our Lord are making a daily Holy Hour, spiritual reading, spiritual direction and a daily rosary.
CNH: What advice do you have for a man who might be thinking about the priesthood?
Martin: Advice I would give to a young man discerning the priesthood would be fortitude, devotion to Mary our Mother (especially through praying the rosary), finding a spiritual director to assist in his discernment, serving at the altar, going to daily Mass if possible, and entering into a group of solid Catholic guys who would support him.
CNH: Looking back on your discernment journey to this point, what do you think has helped you the most to discern God’s will for your vocation to the priesthood?
Martin: What has helped me the most over the past few years in discernment is prayer and fasting. These two together have brought about the most amount of clarity to my prayer life and to my discernment than anything else.
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
Your DSA contributions at work
Seminarian education is funded in part by the annual Diocesan Support Appeal.
Learn more about the DSA and how to donate online at www.charlottediocese.org/dsa.
KANNAPOLIS — Redemptorist Father Fabio Marín Morales celebrated his 35th anniversary of ordination June 13. During the Mass at his parish, St. Joseph Church in Kannapolis, he gave thanks to God for “these 35 years He has led me by His hand.”
Father Marín was born in Neira, Caldas, Colombia, on Oct. 3, 1959. He is the youngest of three children of Juan de Jesús Marín and Margarita Morales. His family has a deep Catholic faith, and he was baptized on Oct. 10, 1959, confirmed at the age of 3, and celebrated his first Holy Communion on Aug. 14, 1966.
From an early age he was inclined to the priestly life, but during his teenage years the idea disappeared from his mind. However, the call to the priesthood returned in a strong way when he graduated from high school.
On Jan. 6, 1980, he professed vows with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer of the Redemptorist Missionaries. He studied philosophy at the Center for Pastoral and Philosophy in Bogotá, Colombia, and theology at the International Redemptorist Seminary of Mexico and at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He had postgraduate studies in spiritual theology at the Teresianum in Rome.
On June 13, 1986, at the Redemptorist Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in Manizales, Colombia, he was ordinated to the priesthood by Bishop Bernardo Arango Henao, S.J.
Father Marín has served as a vocations promoter in central and northern Colombia; pastor at St. Alfonso Maria de Liguorio Parish in Bogota; Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Popayán, Cauca; vicar for consecrated life and institutes of apostolic life for the Archdiocese of Popayán, Colombia; director of the Villa Marianella House of Spiritual Exercises in Chinauta, Cundinamarca, Colombia; administrator of San Alfonso University Foundation; and now in the United States serving in Hispanic Ministry and serving as pastor of St. Joseph Church in Kannapolis.
“Every day I feel more and more grateful to God for having called me to the priestly ministry. Despite my fragile humanity, the Lord has sustained me during all these years so that I may continue to accompany, on the way to salvation, the portion of the people where He Himself has placed me,” Father Marín says.
“It amazes me to see the constancy and generosity of so many people in maintaining their religious principles, to see so many people full of God, who with their lives bear witness to the presence and love of the Lord,” despite all the challenges of recent times, he adds.
“The apostolic work has put me in contact with the harsh reality of each day, with a world that sometimes seems thirsty for God and sometimes forgets Him,” he says. “It has led me to fully enjoy my dedication to the Lord. This is where I find the greatest meaning in my priestly life. Despite the constant sufferings of the world today, the human being remains hopeful, full of faith.”