Deacon and Brother find vocations fulfill them

Deacon Albert Schrempf is one of the latter.

Even as a teenager, he remembers "feeling the presence of God in my life." He spent a semester at a seminary but decided that priesthood was not the right choice for him. Instead, he attended LeMoyne College in Syracuse, where he met his future wife, Jeanne, who now heads the diocesan Office of Cathechesis and Evangelization. After college, they married and he began a 30-year career as an FBI agent.

Call to more

Then he heard about informational meetings on the permanent diaconate, a vocation for single or married men who want to dedicate their lives to God.

"My interest became established there," he explained. Moving to Albany, he attended a series of meetings and decided to apply to become a deacon.

That was 18 years ago. Deacon Schrempf actually completed his training for the diaconate while traveling about 80 percent of the time in his work for the FBI. For 12 years, he was assigned to St. Thomas parish in Delmar, where he could lend a hand whenever he was home.

Ministry

To get further training, he participates in a Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) class at Albany Medical Center.

He is also assigned to Holy Trinity parish in Cohoes, a position he took when the parish was merging from St. Agnes/St. Patrick's and St. Marie's into Holy Trinity. Having worked on easing the merger, he now does outreach to the homebound and serves on the parish council and on the prayer and worship committee.

Right place

"I believe this is really where God wants me to be," he told The Evangelist. "I'm in the niche I'm supposed to be in."

The diaconate, he boasted, is far from a "forgotten vocation" in the Albany Diocese: "They have been getting a fair number of applicants for the classes they offer."

Brotherhood

"I was impressed by the quality of the people -- their sense of generosity, their manliness, their teaching," he recalls. "I felt I wanted to be one of them."

While he admitted that his parents were "not too thrilled" at the idea, Brother James said he's never regretted his choice.

"You join the brothers because of the human dimension," he explained. "You stay because you grow into a real appreciation for God's message. You can be an ambassador."

Education work

Brother James does see the brotherhood as a forgotten vocation. "As we get fewer and fewer brothers, there's less chance of knowing what the vocation is," he said. However, "it's a wonderful vocation. Being a teacher and having the community life where you get the support of the brothers you live with is great!"

While Brother James entered his order after high school, today's religious brothers must have a college education before taking their temporary vows. Five or six years after their first vows, men take their permanent vows.

Community life

Best of all, he said, "there's a total commitment to the work of education. It's not a job; it's a life. You have a lifestyle that supports your prayerfulness."

(Contact the diocesan Vocations Office at 453-6670 and the diocesan Brothers Council at 453-6662.)

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