Boston, Mass., Nov 9, 2017 / 05:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- When Brother Jim Peterson, OFM Cap., was in middle school and high school, he felt like every time someone prayed for vocations, they were praying for him.
“It was always kind of like, they’re talking about me,” he told CNA.
That was his first inclination that he had a religious vocation, though at first, he assumed he was being called to be a priest.
Although the call was always somewhere in his heart, Peterson said that he finished high school, and then college, and was struggling to find a job when he wondered if he should answer that call.
“But at the same time, I wasn’t sure if it was just me running away from something, so I decided to see if I could make my way in the world before making a decision like that,” he said.
It wasn’t until he finished law school, and worked for a few years as a lawyer in Pennsylvania, that he decided he couldn’t ignore God anymore.
Today, Peterson is a Capuchin brother with the Capuchin Franciscans of the St. Mary Province, which encompasses New England and New York. He spoke with CNA about the vocation of a religious brother during Vocations Awareness Week, an annual week-long celebration sponsored by the United States bishops’ conference, dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education.
Becoming a Brother
It was during his time in law school and as a lawyer that he really wrestled with his faith, and what God could be asking of him, Peterson said.
Working as a lawyer, he had several “a-ha” moments that made him realize he might be called to a different life.
“One moment was when…I was given the task of evicting somebody from a piece of property that one of our clients owned. And so I got a phone call from the guy I had to evict and he said, ‘Don’t worry, you don’t have to go to court. I’m leaving, you can have your property back’,” he recalled.
“So I went and told my partner and he said, ‘Well, let’s just hope all of our problems aren’t solved so quickly.’ And this was a good guy and a good partner, but what he was saying was that we’re making money based on other people’s problems.”
“I realized then that there are a million lawyers in the country, anybody can take my place, but not everybody could respond to the call that the Lord has put before them,” he said.
Peterson decided to talk to a priest who was a good friend of his family, and who also happened to be a Capuchin friar, about this call he had been experiencing. They met and talked for two hours about the life of Capuchin friars, and afterwards, Peterson decided to attend a vocation retreat the next month, where he got to see the life of the friars firsthand.
“At the beginning of the weekend I was like this is crazy, what am I doing here,” he said.
But after seeing the friars in action, “by the end of the weekend…I said this is what I want to do with the rest of my life.”
The difference between priesthood and brotherhood
Peterson said that over the years, the call from God had evolved from what he thought was a call to the priesthood into a call to be a Capuchin brother. Part of the reason for this, he said, was that he felt that he was also called to continue being a lawyer, and Capuchin friars often continuing working in the fields in which they were working before they joined the order.
“In the Franciscan world, when St. Francis started the order, you did what you did before, you just did it now as a religious,” Peterson said. “So the priests who were already priests were now Franciscan priests, and the carpenters who came in were now Franciscan carpenters…so now I’m a Franciscan lawyer,” he said.
“I don’t feel called, and frankly my gifts don’t mesh well, with presiding at the sacraments, so while I love the sacraments, I love participating in them, I don’t feel called to lead them. But at the same time I do feel called to the Capuchin Franciscan life, the life of a brother,” he added.
One of the main components of being part of a religious order is living in community, Peterson said, which can be both a challenge and a grace.
“You’re living with people that you don’t get to choose, so you’re talking about different generations of folks, different interests, and the little things like people leaving crumbs behind and not picking up after themselves – things that I think any family struggles with,” he said.
“And so it has its challenges, but there’s also some really neat things,” he said, like the rivalry between the Yankees fans and the Red Sox fans within his own community. Another gift of community life is the universality of the community – there are about 11,000 Capuchin friars all over the world.
“The idea that you have something in common with people you don’t even share a language with is something I’m kind of still in awe of,” he said. “You find ways to share that commonality despite all the differences.”
Together, the community shares common prayer times, including Mass and meditation, in the morning. During the day, each brother serves in his particular ministry, which might take place outside of the friary, as is the case for Peterson, who works as a canon lawyer for the Archdiocese of Boston.
Other brothers serve within the order, either in forming younger friars or other ministries. In the evening, the brothers return home and again have dinner and additional prayer time together.
“Priests are a little bit more independent, they don’t have to live common life, they don’t take the three vows that a religious takes of poverty, chastity and obedience. They promise obedience to their bishop, but they don’t take vows of poverty. They are called to perfect continence but they don’t vow that, although it is one of their obligations,” he said.
“A lot of people will ask me why aren’t you a priest? You’re smart enough, and so on,” Peterson said.
Ultimately, he said, it comes down to the call from the Lord, who knows what will make each person happy.
“I’d rather be a happy brother,” Peterson said. “I think the world is better served by a happy brother than an unhappy priest.”
What to do if you’re discerning
Peterson said that if he could advise other young people discerning religious life, he would tell them to take their time.
“I think too often we accept people who aren’t ready – they’re either too young or they’re not mature enough yet or they haven’t found their way in life,” Peterson said.
He encouraged young discerners to learn how to be independent, in order to better learn how to be interdependent within a community.
“That was an interesting part of the journey for me. My whole life I’m learning to break away from my family and support myself, and now I have to ask permission to take a car, or I’m given a limited amount of money for the month, things like that,” he said. “So it’s learning to become dependent on others, but in a healthy way, not in a childish way.”
Furthermore, he said, maturity and independence are important in order for new members of a community to be able to contribute to the community.
“They often come looking for something rather than being ready to offer something,” Peterson said. “It’s ok to be looking for something but you have to be able to put your gifts and talents at the service of the community.”
He also encouraged anyone discerning to attend vocation weekends, or to read more about the saint or the charism in which they’re interested, to see if it is a good fit for them.
“Once I started reading about St. Francis, it was clear to me that this was the guy I wanted to follow, he understood what religious life was about and was following what Christ was about,” he said.
Ultimately, though, he said he would offer encouragement to those discerning, because following God’s call is the key to happiness in life.
“You can really find fulfillment,” he said. “Obviously if you’re called to something else then that’s where your fulfillment is. I’ve told people before that your happiness and fulfillment is tied up in your vocation, the two are interchangeable.”
“That’s not to say that there won’t be challenges, it’s definitely not going to be easy, but I don’t think the Lord would call us to something where you’d be unhappy,” he said.
He said the life of a brother has been a pleasant surprise, in terms of the freedom he has experienced in what he thought would be a more limited way of life.
“Being a celibate, you have much more freedom to interact with a wide variety of folks, you don’t have that one person that you’re tied to, and as a result, I’m able to be with a lot of different people, and I’ve met some amazing people along the way,” he said.
“It’s a blessed life.”
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How would this be different from prolife folks being accosted?
Years ago I was praying with members of our church outide a clinic that performed feticides and a man repeatedly threatened us with a large pair of scissors. He would come right up close to us and make stabbing motions. The police said because he didn’t actually stab us there was nothing they could do.
From what you have set forth, the man is guilty of an assault that is against the law, so the police either directly lied to you (likely) or were ignorant of the law (unlikely). In basic legalese, one definition of assault is a seriously threatening action to do unjust physical harm to another, such as in your circumstances. Battery is the actual physical act of unjustly harming another. In common everyday language, the word ‘assault’ is used for physical attacks on people, and so the legal distinction between assault and battery is unknown to many, but not to the police. Perhaps the police deemed that their presence was enough to prevent further incident, but if so, this does not excuse them from wrongly advising you that they could not intervene when anyone is confronted by a legally defined assault against them.
Supplement to my response to mrscracker: in some states, battery is simply included in various kinds of assaults such as ‘simple assault’ and ‘aggravated assault’ without a separate offense known as battery.
Nevertheless, the threat to do bodily harm is indeed an actionable assault in all states if it can be inferred from the manner of the threat that a person or persons so threatened reasonably fear for their bodily safety.
Thank you for sharing that Doc. It happened over 3 decades agi and I remember going to court later as a witness but nothing came of it. I believe civil charges had been filed against the man with the scissors.
It was really disturbing because I had a baby in a stroller when we’d been threatened that way.
Such an upside down world we live in. As I see it the praying man was confronting three people, two mothers ready to murder their children as well as the escort who was their accompanying accomplice. The praying man attempts to stop the murder only to be arrested and threatened to jail, parole and fine. To be objective, the article did not mention if there were other witnesses to prove either way. Since he was released by the judge and declines to comment it is further unclear. Sounds like the judge may have not had enough evidence to prove him guilty since he released him which makes me think that the abortion folks may have lied.
As I understand it, the PP escort repeatedly verbally accosted Houck’s minor son. Also, Houck was never charged by police and the escort never showed at the civil trial. Looks like a non-issue until someone decided to go federal with it. And what a criminal show of force from the FEDS.
You have a lot of incorrect information. Take this as somebody very familiar with the case. Unprovoked attack, nothing to do with his son. Don’t want to say more at the time, except you have bad information.
You have false information. No communication at all about son. Volunteer was just trying to escort women in the building. Also wrong about the trial information. Get better sources. Lots more I could say since I know all the details of the case, but the now 73 year old man doesn’t need to be assaulted again, so please stop spreading false information and victim shaming.
Okay, Bob. Why can’t you say more? Looks like a cop-out. You wouldn’t actually be the “escort” (BL), would you?
In any case, since Mr. Houck has been doing his peaceful protests for years without incident, why should we believe your story that he was not provoked, and that it did not involve his son? According to you, Houck simply lost his cool for the first time and decided to attack a 73-year-old man. Also, what does the age of the “escort” have to do with anything, and how do you know how hold he (or perhaps you) are? Did Mr. Houck know the “escort’s” age, and that’s another reason why you claim he shoved him? Or are you trying to drum up bogus sympathy for such an “escort” because of his age?
Sorry, Bob. If you can’t elaborate on your remarks with supporting evidence or you simply choose not to do so, your assurances of knowing more about the case is just hearsay on your part that nobody should accept based only on your unconvincing “I know more than you, but I won’t say what” about the case.
By the way, was the case thrown out or dismissed in a civil court? If so, why did this occur if your claims are correct?
If you really had information about what happened instead of only denying what has been reported you could inform us. You are essentially claiming it was an unprovoked attack. But what is your source for that?
Even if I took your word for it that “Lots more I could say since I know all the details of the case,” and I don’t, it wouldn’t matter. It could not justify an early-morning armed raid by a couple dozen agents, screaming and pounding at the door.
How is it that a man who was in a small shoving match could get ten years in prison when those who are murdering people and doing drug deals that kill people on the streets of N.Y, Chicago and in California are all being let back out on to the streets? This is insanity. You only get out if you are a danger to society and are left in prison if you try to defend the unborn. It won’t be long before the Warning comes.
It’s not a shoving match when one person shoves another to the ground while the other doesn’t lay a finger on them. It’s an assault, and given where the assault happened and under the circumstances, it is a more serious offense. Mark should have kept his hands to himself.
Again, Bob, your writing suggests that you may indeed be the ghoulish “escort” identified as BL. You write not as a witness, but one directly involved. For instance, the following are a bit peculiar in your comments spread over a couple of posts:
Bob: “the now 73 year old man doesn’t need….”
Who would emphasize a person’s age change if not the person himself? If you were merely a witness, you would only refer to his age at the time of the incident, which was apparently 72.
A witness probably wouldn’t mention the possible future impact of a rhetorical assault on another person, but a person whining about such being possibly visited upon himself would write in this manner…just as you have done.
And a witness probably wouldn’t write that “Mark should have kept his hands to himself,” but a person shoved by Mr. Houck would write in this manner.
Also, what’s with the first name basis?
Since you work/volunteer for your fellow ghouls of Planned Parenthood, I suspect that Mr. Houck has been known and detested by you et al., and so this whole thing smacks of a set-up on your part with the help of the compliant DOJ to try to stop Mr. Houck from saving lives that you enjoy helping others murder.
Lastly, the cry of “victim shaming” also suggests you are upset with being called out as a ghoul who helps women murder their babies. Anyone who helps a woman murder her unborn child brings shame upon themselves regardless of whether or not they are called out for their shameful behavior.
That’s correct. Regardless of the specifics, if you take a 20,000 foot view of the situation you see the clear discrepancy in the way justice is carried out. Even if the defendant is guilty of assault and wasn’t defending his son, he could’ve been picked up without incident by his local Sheriff’s Dept. Instead, he and his family were SWATted. I mean, you’d swear it was Summer 2020 and the Houcks were in the act of assaulting folks, looting, and burning down buildings or something (hypothetically of course) the way the police made contact with them. Regardless of assault vs self defense) then the way he was apprehended wasn’t about him and the level of risk he posed. No, it was a show of force for the rest of us.
Meant: “Regardless of assault vs self defense, the way he was apprehended wasn’t about him and the level of risk he posed.”
… and we should accept your “account of events” at face value? I guess this is another of those anonymous sources named “Bob”. Keep in mind that if you are an eye witness, you will get your day to tell the truth in court. If not, then you are just guessing about the facts third hand like the rest of us.
There are some facts that are undisputable, however. For instance, Abortionist Powell typically kills 20 people a day at that clinic and no one gets arrested. On the other hand, those protesting those murders get arrested. That my friend, is the definition of insanity.
More Garland gestapo nonsense. First off, the FACE act is strictly designed to chill protest rights at kill mills. Second, the response from “multiple agencies” is grossly unneeded and was clearly designed to embarrass and intimidate others. Sure, charge the guy with assault. This is nuts.