Nicholas Gilroy: Our Lady and the Guardian

By Father Stephen Gemme and Deacon George O'Connor

Since he was in the first grade, fourteen-year-old Nicholas Gilroy has felt that God might be calling him to be a Catholic priest. To determine whether he has a vocation, he applies and is accepted as a freshman at Saint Peter’s High School Seminary.
Nicholas, who has been homeschooled, is overwhelmed by the size of the building. He is also intimidated by the vice rector, Father Stephen Reynolds, who, from Nicholas’s perspective, should be in the marines and not in a seminary. The young man soon develops a friendship with Jose and Luke, two other freshman boys, which helps him to achieve success on the football team and to enjoy his new life at Saint Peter’s. But when Nicholas signs up for an after-school program to help tutor children in the inner city, he finds himself thrown into an adventure that puts his life at risk and changes him forever.
In this novel, a teenage boy enrolled in a seminary participates in an after-school tutoring program in the inner city and comes face-to-face with life-changing danger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Apr 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781480844865

Father Stephen Gemme

Father Stephen and Deacon George, co-authors, taught in Catholic schools and are members of the Regina Literary Guild.  Father Stephen taught history and social studies to students in high school.  Deacon George taught math, science and religion to students in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades.

Book preview

Called by God to Serve

I t was an unusually warm September morning, however the young man walking along the driveway was protected from the bright sun by the giant oak trees on either side. Nicholas Gilroy’s whole body gave a shudder as he paused before entering the massive building. The fourteen-year-old boy stood in awe at the giant structure—the white brick and marble stone building of Saint Peter’s High School Seminary. All he could think of were the model medieval castles that he built when he was younger, but this was no model. Saint Peter’s was built one hundred and fifty years ago, for a very special reason: to educate the hundreds of young men, just like himself, who felt that they were being called by God to be Catholic priests.

As he stood in the driveway looking up at the massive structure of Saint Peter’s, Nicholas was overcome with apprehension, so he reached by instinct to his front left pocket. Taking out his rosary beads, he silently began to pray. When he was a small boy, Nicholas’s mother taught him to pray, and the first prayers he learned were the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Entering this place of mystery, Saint Peter’s High School Seminary, was the beginning of Nicholas’s journey to become a priest, which he had dreamed about for years. Now he turned to the comfort and hope only the Rosary of Our Lady could give him.

His mother’s words echoed in his mind: Our Lady will always bring you to Jesus, and He will love and guide you to His Sacred Heart. Pray the Rosary every day, for you belong to Jesus and Mary.

Nicholas felt in his heart the call by Christ to be a priest since he could remember.

As young as four years old, he was asking questions about the priests who celebrated the Masses that he and his family attended each Sunday morning.

One of his earliest memories was of his parish priest on Easter Sunday morning, dressed in his flowing silk chasuble, stole, alb, and cassock. With the swirl of incense so sweet and distinct filling the air of the small parish church, six altar boys dressed in white robes processed down the aisle, followed by the priest. Four-year-old Nicholas asked his mother, Is that an angel?

Now, ten years later, the words of Saint John Vianney went through his mind: The priest, the priest, it is always the priest. Without the priest, there is no Eucharist—and without the Eucharist, there is no Church.

Am I worthy? he thought, holding his rosary beads even tighter. Can I do this? Please, dear Jesus, help me, he prayed.

At that moment, he heard a voice say, Wow, that is a big building. It looks much bigger in person than the pictures on the seminary’s website.

Standing next to Nicholas was a young man who appeared to be about his age. Carrying a backpack like Nicholas, he was wearing a light-tan jacket, a white dress shirt, black pants, and black shoes, just as the seminary’s guidebook had recommended. Nicholas could tell by this boy’s friendly smile, the sparkle in his clear brown eyes, and the excitement in his voice that he was going to like this young man, even though Nicholas did not know him.

Any doubt or apprehension that Nicholas may have had quickly vanished. His prayers for peace of mind had been answered by the presence of this fellow disciple that shared his vocation to the priesthood.

The blue crystal rosary beads that Nicholas held in his hands shined in the morning sun and caught the eye of the young man. Hey, he observed. Nice rosary beads.

Yes, Nicholas replied. My mom gave it to me when I was little.

I love the Rosary. Maybe we can pray together sometime. By the way, my name is Jose Romero. He extended his hand in friendship to Nicholas.

And I am Nicholas Gilroy.

Orientation

N icholas and Jose sat next to each other in the Saint John Vianney grand hall with all the other students who were entering the freshmen class. Over one hundred young men had applied, but due to the limit of students in a class, only thirty-five were accepted as first-year students at Saint Peter’s High School Seminary.

All the boys were dressed in a house cassock, less the clerical collar, for that honor was reserved for upperclassmen. The dress code at Saint Peter’s was strict for class days and for any public or formal events. The only time a more relaxed dress code was tolerated was on weekends, when the freshmen had free time or were in their dormitory. Nicholas thought, At least freshmen do not have to sleep in their cassocks.

The grand hall was as old as the seminary itself. It was designed to accommodate gatherings of all the students with the specific intention of drawing their minds to the glory of God. A giant mural of the Last Supper by the renaissance artist Vicente Juan Masip adorned the front wall of the hall that the boys, seated as a class, were facing.

The room was silent, a respectful pause in the busy day—for this space had a similar feeling to that of the main chapel, as if it were sacred. Tall windows lined the left side of the room, giving the students a spectacular view of the five-acre front lawn of the seminary’s property. To the right of the grand hall, more windows revealed an inner courtyard. In the center of this courtyard was a ten-foot-tall marble statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which was surrounded by four fountains with small marble angels around each fountain. It was clear, even though Nicholas had spent only a short time inside Saint Peter’s, that the Blessed Virgin was greatly loved and honored by the seminary’s administration, and this made him feel at home.

Suddenly, the students’ focus turned to an elderly priest as he entered the hall. One could sense that kindness and holiness surrounded this priest. The ideal image of one’s grandfather, Nicholas thought. Wearing clerical clothes, the Roman collar with a black dress jacket, the priest was smiling as he stood before the assembled incoming freshmen.

Good morning, boys, he said cheerfully.

Good morning, Father, they responded in unison.

"My name is Father David Kelly, and I am the rector of Saint Peter’s High School Seminary. Some of you know me already. For some of you, this is the first time that we are meeting.

"First, let me welcome you to the house. I call it that because for the next four years this is going to be your home, at least for most of you. Some of you will leave. That is a natural part of this process we call discernment. You applied to Saint Peter’s and were accepted because you shared with your pastor, or a parish priest, or a religious order priest, that you feel called to be a priest yourself.

"I commend all of you for coming here to follow the call to serve Jesus Christ in the vocation to the priesthood. Every vocation is a special gift from God. You and I have a responsibility to support and guide and help every vocation to the priesthood and religious life grow and find its full potential.

"We have rules, as any good family does, and in a few minutes the vice rector will explain some of them to you as part of your opening day of orientation. I came