SEMINARIAN AT ST. FRANCIS
July 2014
St. Francis Parish is pleased to welcome Diocese of Richmond seminarian Jamie Hickman, who has been assigned to the parish for the summer and who introduces himself to the parish:
Greetings in the Lord!
I am happy to be here at St. Francis of Assisi for the summer to share in the life of the Church with the community here in Staunton. The Most Reverend Francis X. DiLorenzo, Bishop of Richmond, assigned me to the parish. Father Wamala offers to me keen insight as a faithful pastor and disciple of Christ. The parish community continues to extend a warm welcome to me, and I am more than pleased to live in a beautiful small town with views of the mountains all around. Each day I am encouraged and humbled by the faithful devotion I see in the quiet prayer of parishioners sitting with our Lord in adoration late at night. I can see them leave the chapel from the rectory and I am thankful to belong to such a prayerful community of witnesses. Past assignments, which were also wonderful blessings, include Holy Trinity, Norfolk (summer 2012), Sacred Heart, Danville (summer and holy days 2013-14), Holy Comforter-Saint Cyprian, D.C. (fall and spring semester '13-'14).
To learn a little bit about me personally aside from what I said at the Masses for Pentecost Sunday, I direct you to the link below where you can also learn about other seminarians in our diocese, With hope one of my brothers will be here next summer. Please pray for my vocation and the other 24 seminarians we have in formation for the Diocese of Richmond.
http://richmondvocations.org/seminarian/jamie-hickman/
My hobbies include running, swimming, backpacking, and snorkeling. I enjoy SCUBA diving, but have not many opportunities to do that. While I have enjoyed making pilgrimage to sites in Europe, South America, and Asia, nothing compares to face-to-face visits with my family and time with the Blessed Sacrament. Traveling helps to gain perspective, but real life is in the family.
Although I was reared in the Catholic faith with 13 years of Catholic education, my spiritual awakening occurred during a month-long fellowship in Europe in 2003 just after I completed my Plebe (freshman) year at West Point. I attended the Prince of Liechtenstein Catholic Leaders Fellowship, which was mostly in France and Switzerland with a week-long pilgrimage to Rome at the end. There I met many distinguished leaders in various Catholic fields such as bioethics, business, theology, and philosophy. I was overwhelmed by how little I knew. This paired with daily Mass and at least weekly confession made for a powerful spiritual experience. During our week in Rome we were treated to a private audience with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, a general audience with John Paul II, and Mass on Corpus Christi at St. John Lateran, which concluded with a Eucharistic procession to the Basilica of St. Mary Major. I already believed in God and felt a call to priesthood, but my relationship with the Lord as a person became very real to me. I knew I could never turn back no matter how unpopular or difficult certain teachings might be. My faith was real and needed to be lived. Eleven years have passed and I continue to struggle and fall in my daily walk with the Lord, but through prayer and the grace of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession, I find that the Lord renews our relationship and heals the brokenness. This gives me great joy and compels me to share it with others.
Again, please pray for me. We have prayer cards for vocations that list most of the Richmond seminarians by name; however, the cards do not include the five newest seminarians. Our total number is 25 men.