Fr. Peter Giroux, F.P.C., who led the
Lenten Day of Recollection for Religious
of the Diocese of Providence

In a recent “Headline of the Week” received on March 21, the first full day of spring, from The Preservation Society of Newport County, CEO Trudy Coxe wrote, “The turning of the seasons prompts us to anticipate warmer weather.” I had just completed a 9-day solo road trip for vocations work through Connecticut, a drive coinciding with the beginning of the sugar maple tapping season, generally in late March. The most striking visual signs I saw of the “anticipated warmer weather” were the many stands of sugar maple trees already tapped for the collection of sap to be used in the production of maple syrup. While some farms still utilize the old-fashioned metal pails attached to trees, a more advanced collection method employs long thin plastic tubing connecting many trees, through which the sap runs into large sap tanks. Though my drive prompted many memories and recollections, this modern method I saw for the first time in Connecticut with its brightly-colored tubing was far less evocative of Norman Rockwell than the old metal buckets. For me, the turning of the season from winter to spring this year meant the middle of the liturgical season of Lent, and prompted my visits to several educational institutions, including the Seminary & College of Humanities of the Legionaries of Christ in Cheshire, Fairfield and Sacred Heart Universities, both in Fairfield, and The Regina Pacis Academy in Norwalk, a pre-K to 8th Catholic school offering a classical education.

I kept noticing flyers and announcements for Lenten Days of Recollection, reminding me of our own “Lenten Day of Recollection for Oblates and Friends,” held on Sunday, March 9. Like my trip, it too had focused on vocations. The main presentation had been given by a Form VI student who resides on campus with his family. John Paul Devaney ’25 is one-half of the set of identical twins in the family of Stephen and Stephanie Devaney, both members of the School’s faculty. The family, with its seven children, relocated to Portsmouth two years ago from Massachusetts. The title of John Paul’s talk was “Discerning a Religious Vocation” and expanded upon a Church Talk he had given to the School in October (published in full in The Current of October 13-19). Abbot Michael had written in his introduction: “It was delivered with a great deal of confidence and was more articulate than most adults could have managed. But the student who gave this talk received a standing ovation, and great encouragement from his fellow students throughout the day. It gives us great hope for the future, not only of this monastery, but of the church and the world.”
John Paul Devaney ’25 at Day of RecollectionNow, it is one thing for a young man to make known his call to a religious vocation, but a rare thing, in these increasingly secular times, for a young man to feel a call to a specific order and monastery. But this is what John Paul made clear in his Church Talk when he explained, “Every decision I have ever made has led me here to Portsmouth Abbey. I believe I have a vocation, a calling to be a Benedictine monk here for the rest of my life. It is my desire, and I believe God’s will, for me to pray, live, teach, and coach here until the end of my time.” We asked John Paul to speak to our oblates and their friends to avail them of the opportunity to hear him explain this in his own words, from his heart. He was just as articulate and confident on our Day of Recollection as he had been with his fellow students. A thoughtful Q&A session followed in which he shared some of the colleges to which he has been accepted for the next four years.
The Devaney Family (missing eldest son, Francis, who is away at school)A follow-up speaker then stepped to the lectern, an unannounced but invited “surprise guest” who had driven up from Bridgeport, Connecticut, accompanied by his wife, Teresa. Oblate Edward T. Giegengack ’62, who graduated a full 63 years before John Paul’s expected commencement this May, shared his own schoolboy call to a religious vocation, prompted by his reading of the text of John Paul’s Church Talk in The Current. In an e-mail to me, Ed wrote that he hoped to share the experience he had as a Priory 6th former decades ago with our oblates. Feeling that he “had a probable vocation,” Ed had met with the prior, Dom Aelred Graham, to discuss his intentions. The advice he received may well echo that given to John Paul, to go off to college, “date and meet others,” and after those four years, “if I still wanted to join the Priory, to come and ‘just bring a toothbrush.’ The monastery would accept me and take care of anything else I needed.” He continued, “I know today is a very different time in our culture. I’m also rather sure this PAS senior is a lot more mature than I was then.” Our Day of Recollection enabled the two men to meet, with Ed offering his own advice to John Paul: “As you grow, let your religion grow as well.”
Edward Giegengack ’62 at
Day of RecollectionAnother Lenten Day of Recollection bookended the month. On Saturday, March 22, at the Jeanne Jugan Residence in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, home of the Little Sisters of the Poor, the day included Mass celebrated in the spacious house chapel at 11 a.m., followed by lunch, confessions, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction, adjourning by 3 p.m. Over fifty religious women and men participated in the event which had as its theme, “The Holy Rosary and Religious Life.” We were hosted by Mother Patricia Mary Metzer, L.S.P., a council member of the Bishop’s Office for Religious in the Diocese of Providence, with Sr. Elizabeth Castro, H.M.S.P., organizing the day’s activities. I was accompanied by long-time Abbey guest, Brian Cullen, who was visiting from Bellingham, Massachusetts. The main speaker was Fr. Peter Giroux, F.P.C., rector of the Holy Rosary Shrine in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Established in 2021, the shrine is modeled on the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei, Italy and is administered by the Franciscans of the Poor Christ. Fr. Peter encouraged us to pray the rosary in public, saying that it can be a strong witness, though he acknowledged, “it can become very routine, and you might just want to get through it to get to sleep at night.” However, “Holiness is doing God’s will with a smile.”
Mr. Brian Cullen, Fr. Peter Giroux, F.P.C., and
Fr. Jacob Raju, H.G.N.Let’s hope that our anticipation of warmer weather, and the fruits of our Lenten recollections, will help us discover more of those smiles.

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