BILOXI – This summer, the Redemptorist community of East Biloxi hosted five seminarians.

The summer assignments, which lasted approximately two months, gave the men a small glimpse of what it’s like to live and work in a parish.

“This summer they have worked with our teenagers in the summer work program and currently are working with our pre-teens in the parish’s Vacation Bible Camp, said Father Steve Wilson, C.S.s.R, pastor of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos and Our Mother of Sorrows Parishes.

“In addition to working with the parish youth and involvement in our liturgical activities, the seminarians have already begun working in prison ministry and will soon be involved in the parish’s homeless outreach.”

Two of the seminarians had previously been assigned to Biloxi, while the remaining three were getting their first taste of Southern hospitality.

Ever Baca

This was Ever Baca’s third summer in Biloxi and the 33 year-old native of Mexico, who is currently in his third year of philosophy at St. John University in Queens, NY, said he has grown more comfortable with the people here with each visit.

 “This is my third year, so I know most of the people,” said Baca, who has spent a great deal of time working with some of the coast’s Hispanic Catholics.

“It’s been easier for me to work with them because I already have a background and they know me.”

Baca and fellow seminarian Mario Gonzales spent part of the summer preparing a group of Hispanic youth from Our Lady of Fatima Parish for their first communion.

“We also do Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and different kinds of activities (for the Hispanic community),” said Baca.

Baca said the fact that he is not a newcomer to the area has been most helpful.

“I think everything is going very good for me because we have no conflicts with what we are doing here with the Redemptorist priests and at Fatima with the Hispanic community,” he said.

Baca spent one Saturday in Laurel working with Hispanic children.

“Just being with the kids is a lot of motivation for us because we see all the energy and all the efforts they’re making to live their faith,” he said.

“We get all that energy from them and, at the same time, we share with the experiences we have as seminarians. It’s a great thing when they ask us what it’s like to be a seminarian One of the kids in our classes is kind of interested in the priesthood. It makes you feel proud because, somehow, you are a motivation to them and that’s a great feeling.”

Mario Gonzalez

Mario Gonzalez is entering his first year of theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

The 34 year-old native of Mexico said this was his first time in the sweltering heat of the Deep South.

“It’s been nice, despite the humidity and the heat,” said Gonzalez. “It’s been a good experience working with the program.”

Gonzalez said it helps not to have to go it alone and to have the camaraderie of his fellow seminarians and the four Redemptorist priests who live at Blessed Seelos and Our Mother of Sorrows. In addition to Father Wilson, Father Choung Cao, Father Jim Keena and Father Warren Drinkwater also serve the two East Biloxi parishes. Father Jimmy Pham, pastor of Vietnamese Martyrs Parish, also lives in community with the other priests. However the seminarians worked primarily at Our Mother of Sorrows and Blessed Seelos.

“Ever and John have been here before and they can explain things when I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” he said.

“Every time we do ministry, we live in different communities like Biloxi with three or four priests and they’re always open to us. They always give us things to do.”

For example, each of the seminarians traveled to the local jail with Father Steve each Tuesday and assisted him with Mass.

In addition to enjoying the heat of the sweltering sun, Gonzalez said he is also attracted to the warmth and hospitality of the people of the Mississippi Coast and the Pine Belt.

“It’s been a great experience to be working for them and with them,” he said.

“There’s a good saying of the Redemptorists that we are called to work with the people and for the people and I think has been a good experience because the ministry to the people of Biloxi has been a great ministry for the Redemptorists.

Kevin Zubel

Kevin Zubel, 31, is beginning his second year of philosophy at St. John.

The Austin, Texas native said what ultimately led to his becoming a Redemptorist seminarian was “the really nice balance between a very active, social justice-minded mission and a very beautiful and defined spirituality.”

“I think that balance, when I was discerning, was a very big attraction because the Redemptorists do tremendous work with the poor and the abandoned. Plus, there’s a very Aphasia spirituality that’s very beautiful and very affirming. It’s very joyful,” he said.

“Seeing that whole balance, I recognized in my own discernment that, if I was going to continue discernment in religious formation, it was going to require a lot of help in the area of spirituality. So, I talked to the Redemptorists and I realized there’s a lot of work that’s done in the field and done with the people and it’s driven by this very beautiful and traditional spirituality.”

Zubel grew up in a Paulist parish.

“I wasn’t saying no to the Paulists by going to study for the Redemptorists,” he said. “About three years ago, I actually came in contact with a Redemptorist stationed in san Antonio and he was a good friend of my uncle’s for many years and my uncle asked if he could send my name and number on to him. I said yes and those conversations over coffee and dinner just sort of led to me asking myself the hard questions and, all of a sudden, here come the applications and the interviews and I was packing up everything and moving to the Bronx.”

This was Zubel’s first summer in a parish.

“I spent a month at our parish in Memphis and I came down here in early June,” said Zubel. “The neatest thing about the summer experience has been that you see the work going on out in the parish but, at the end of the day when you’re gathered around the dinner table, the conversation continues,” he said.

“You’re talking about individual kids, individual families, things people are going through and, to me that has really helped with my discernment with the Redemptorists because I see that it’s not a 9 to 5 job. They care for people on an individual basis, on a relationship by relationship basis, that carries back into the rectory. It’s very personal and very special to them and it’s something that they bring back home with them. That’s been very inspiring, but it can also be very exhausting because these guys work! There’s no golf at 3 pm.”

Thanh Nguyen

This was also Thanh Nguyen’s first summer in a parish.

“It has been great,’ he said. “The Redemptorist community is special for the seminarians and it’s special for Biloxi and it has given me an opportunity to reach out to the people, especially the youth, and the opportunity to minister to the prisons. It’s also helped us to see the Redemptorist charism in action. I think that has been a great experience for me – not only do we study theory, but we also go out and put our charism into action.”

Nguyen, 34, the second youngest of seven boys and two girls and the only one of the children to pursue a religious vocation, said that, after the Fall of Saigon, his father left Vietnam to find a new home for his family.

In the process, he was separated from his dad and brothers and would remain so for 18 years.

Throughout that whole ordeal, Nguyen and his family prayed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help for their safety.

His prayers were answered in 1992 when he was finally reunited with his dad and brothers.

His family currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Nguyen said the Redemptorists of East Biloxi are very supportive of the seminarians, especially comes to nurturing their spiritual lives.

“Every morning, we have prayer and that helps us to continue to build up our spiritual lives,” he said.

“We also have the community meal every evening and we watch movies together. We look at them as not only a model but also as brothers for us. They’re always available for us to share our struggles and our difficulties with them.”

John Tran

A lot has changed on the Mississippi Gulf Coast since John Tran was last here in the summer of 2009.

The biggest change has been the invasion of the massive oil slick.

“Before I came here, I heard about the oil spill and was worried about the people living here,” said Tran, who is in his third year of priestly studies at St. John.

“Last year, I met some Vietnamese fishermen and I talked to them again this year and they said they cannot go out. I just worry about their livelihoods. What can they do if they can’t go out and fish?”

This year, Tran, 27, will move to a novitiate, so this will be his last summer in Biloxi on official assignment.

He said he had the option of going home to visit his family this summer or going to work in a parish.

“I preferred to work because, if I go home, I would miss the people that I’ve gotten to know here the last two years,” he said.

For Tran, Biloxi has become sort of a second home.

“I have a good relationship with the people here,” he said. “I worked with a youth group the past two years and, this year, when I came back, I saw them all grown up and more mature. I was so happy to see them.”

Tran said he learned a lot this summer.

“Father Steve has really guided me,” he said. “Yesterday, he took me to a (homeless family shelter) and we went to the prison. We didn’t do that the last two years, but this year he let me go with him to celebrate Mass with the prisoners.”