April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.

He follows dream into Jesuit order


By PAUL QUIRINI- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

Steven Moore was in elementary school when he first knew that the priesthood was what he wanted to do with his life.

"As early as fourth grade, when our teacher asked us what we wanted to be, I said, 'I want to be a priest,'" he told The Evangelist.

The parishioner of St. Mary/St. Paul's Church in Hudson Falls is fulfilling that childhood dream as a scholastic in the Jesuit novitiate program at St. Andrew Hall in Syracuse. He graduated from nearby Le Moyne College last May and entered the program in August.

Church involvement

Growing up in Hudson Falls, Mr. Moore attended public school but was involved in various types of parish ministry at St. Mary/St. Paul's, including altar server, lector and Eucharistic minister.

He even would type out Mass texts for Rev. Leo Marcil, former pastor of St. Paul's Church, and Rev. James McManus, pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary, as they grew older and had difficulty seeing.

Mr. Moore also was active in several diocesan programs, including the youth council, retreat team and Christian Leadership Institute. During his youth and adolescence, Mr. Moore received a great deal of encouragement from priests who knew that he wanted to pursue ordained ministry, including Fathers Marcil and McManus; Rev. Edward Pratt, former pastor of St. Mary/St. Paul's; and Rev. Richard Severson.

College years

Instead of entering the priesthood immediately after high school, Mr. Moore opted to attend Le Moyne, a Jesuit school. He initially was in the pre-med program; but with an eye toward a possible future in the priesthood, he decided to major in philosophy and psychology.

As a student, he was a lector and participated in the school's retreat program; he also taught Confirmation preparation classes at a Syracuse parish. He spoke with Jesuits at Le Moyne, including Rev. Raymond Bucko, SJ, and Rev. Paul Campbell, SJ, and researched information on the Jesuits and other religious orders.

During his junior year, he decided to give the Jesuits a try by joining their associates' program, which gives young men an opportunity to live in community and engage in work that the order's members commonly perform. In his case, Mr. Moore spent six weeks in the Bronx teaching eighth-grade boys.

Final choice

As his college years wound down, Mr. Moore remained confident that ordained ministry was his calling and that the Jesuits were the order for him.

"I hadn't really known Jesuits before I came to Le Moyne. It was there that I came to realize this is how I wanted to live out my priesthood," he said.

After graduating last May, he returned home to work at a camp in Lake Luzerne for children with cancer. In August, Mr. Moore traveled back to Syracuse for entrance day at St. Andrew Hall, the novitiate center where he and his fellow novices would spend much of the next two years as they prepared for full ordination as Jesuits. Mr. Moore's family and Father Pratt joined him for an emotional ceremony marking the beginning of his life in community.

Beginnings

For the next several weeks, Mr. Moore was on "first probation," a period that he described as "a time to step back and look at your life, and make sure this is what you want to do."

He couldn't receive phone calls or letters because the purpose of the probation was to give novices a chance to reflect upon their decision without outside distractions.

Since then, Mr. Moore has been taking classes in theology and Spanish, and learning about religious life. For two days each week, he performs apostolic work at Loretto Nursing Home. The novices also had an unexpected task last month, when they helped clean up the area around St. Lucy's Church in Syracuse, which had been damaged by severe thunderstorms.

Coming home

Mr. Moore will get his first chance to visit his family the day after Christmas. After one week with them, he will head off for a 30-day retreat in Pennsylvania, followed by a month at St. Andrew Hall.

Then, he departs for a pilgrimage experience in Mexico, where he will help parishes in impoverished areas and polish his Spanish. That assignment lasts until Holy Week; his next trip comes during the summer when he works at a hospital for cancer patients in the Bronx.

Classes resume in the fall of 1999, and Mr. Moore will spend the following spring as a novice in a "long experiment," a semester of teaching that will give him experience in this type of work and in the Jesuit lifestyle.

After completing his second year, Mr. Moore will take his first vows, which are perpetual.

More to do

All of that is only the beginning of his preparation for ordained ministry, however; he will spend another eight or nine years learning theology, philosophy and performing apostolic work.

The day Mr. Moore becomes Father Moore is a still long way off, but he has an idea of what he'd like to do after his ordination: Earn a doctorate and begin some form of pastoral work, whether on a college campus or at a parish.

Mr. Moore encourages others thinking of the priesthood to learn as much as they can about religious orders and the diocesan priesthood, pray about their decision and have a spiritual director who can offer guidance in choosing the life of a priest.

(10-15-98) [[In-content Ad]]


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