New priest's life entwined with other priests

                    By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

A young man to whom local priests ministered is preparing to evangelize college students in New Hampshire, as a priest himself.
It’s a story of multiple interactions and sacraments.
You could say the story started on Dec. 4, 1994, when a baby named Ryan Sarasin was baptized at Immaculate Conception Church in Fitchburg by the pastor, Msgr. Richard E. Collette.
“After I baptized him, I put my hand over his head and said, ‘Lord, send this boy a vocation,’” recalled 94-year-old Msgr. Collette, now retired. He said he thinks the Holy Spirit inspired him; he never did this at other baptisms. He didn’t know if those present heard his prayer, and didn’t tell them about it, he said.
Last month he was part of the answer to that prayer as he participated in the ordination of that young man, now Benedictine Father Aloysius Ryan Sarasin.
“He anointed my head at my baptism,” Father Sarasin said. “To have him lay hands on my head at my priesthood ordination was a continuation of what he started 27 years ago.”
“I prayed (for) a vocation, not knowing what it was going to be,” Msgr. Collette said. “We needed priests in the diocese … but I’m very happy he’s where he wants to be.”
Both places gained priests. On June 18, the Bishop of Manchester, Bishop Peter A. Libasci, ordained Father Sarasin in the St. Anselm Abbey Church at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. That same day, Bishop McManus ordained seven men to the priesthood for the Diocese of Worcester at St. Paul Cathedral.
Msgr. Collette said it was “very exciting” to attend Father Sarasin’s ordination, and his first Mass the next day. A former Immaculate Conception parishioner, Gary Glenny, brought him to the Masses.
“I had my walker and my cane,” and a wheelchair as a backup, Msgr. Collette said.
Another priest from the Worcester Diocese also participated in Father Sarasin’s ordination – his friend Msgr. Robert K. Johnson, pastor of Holy Family and St. Stephen parishes in Worcester. And, of course, Father Sarasin’s family came.
On June 22, Father Sarasin returned to the Worcester Diocese for Msgr. Collette’s 70th anniversary of ordination. For that occasion, the new priest celebrated Mass at Southgate at Shrewsbury, where Msgr. Collette and other retired priests live. Others concelebrated.
“It still really hasn’t hit me that I’m a priest … after thinking about it for 15 years,” Father Sarasin told The Catholic Free Press a week after his ordination. “I believe this is the Eucharist, but I’m the one who’s consecrating the Eucharist. … I love it!”
He’d also heard confessions and, at Msgr. Collette’s urging, anointed his grandmother, Gladys Sarasin, who attended the ordination after being released from a rehabilitation facility.
Msgr. Collette knew Mrs. Sarasin from Immaculate Conception and Notre Dame High School in Fitchburg, where she worked, and was friends with the family. He had attended the wedding of her son Robert Sarasin and his wife, Dianne, parents of Ryan (the new priest), Michaela and Noah.
In 2003 Ryan received his first Communion from Msgr. Collette at Immaculate Conception.
Later, the family transferred to another Fitchburg parish, St. Anthony of Padua, where the children attended St. Anthony Elementary School.
Ryan became an altar server for the pastor, Father Robert D. Bruso, and at age 12 started considering priesthood, but didn’t tell anybody.
“Father Bruso brought it up,” when Ryan was a sophomore at St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury. “I said, ‘Absolutely not!’” Father Sarasin recalls now. “I was shocked that somebody noticed, and I was denying it. I realized several months later it was true and came to terms with it. Not many 16-year-old boys drive themselves to church on Sunday, and extra (Masses) during Lent.”
He contacted Father James S. Mazzone, then the diocese’s vocations director, who introduced him to Michael Hoye. Both were considering priesthood, and ended up being ordained the same day, Father Hoye for the Worcester Diocese.
Father Sarasin said he considered college seminary. But, at Father Bruso’s suggestion of an ordinary college, he attended St. Anselm. He was drawn to the Order of St. Benedict that founded the college, impressed with the monks’ community prayer and life, and their distinctive attire – a habit, which he saw as a means of evangelization.
Shortly before graduation in 2017, he entered their monastery. In 2018, after formation in novitiate, he began studies at St. Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad, Indiana, where he got his master of divinity degree in May 2022. While he was there, Msgr. Collette corresponded with him.
Father Aloysius made his first vows on July 7, 2018, and his solemn vows on July 11, 2021, the feast of St. Benedict. Father Bruso died on Father Sarasin’s second anniversary of vows (July 7, 2020) and was buried on July 11, 2020. So, Father Sarasin said, this year on his anniversary of first vows he planned to offer a private Mass for Father Bruso.
Msgr. Collette said he was sorry he didn’t get to be present for the solemn vows.
Father Sarasin said Father Dennis J. O’Brien came, however, just before his death on July 17, 2021. As Worcester diocesan minister to priests, Father O’Brien had been trying to arrange for Msgr. Collette to attend Father Sarasin’s ordination to the transitional diaconate, which Msgr. Collette did on Aug. 14, 2021, at St. Anselm Abbey.
This August, Father Sarasin is to become program and club sports coordinator in St. Anselm College’s Office of Student Engagement and Leadership. That will involve coordinating non-varsity sports and organizing various programs with students, he said.
He said this will be the first time a monk and priest worked in that position. He asked for the job because “it’s a good evangelization opportunity in an area that’s not religious.” He said he thinks the key to today’s evangelization is “forming authentic relationships in Jesus Christ,” when what students know about relationships is communicating through social media.
“We have made (evangelization) our number one goal in all offices that have monks in them,” Father Sarasin said.
“God is blessing us with vocations,” mostly alumni, he said. “As we get more monks into the college, more monks are seen, more monks are known. It’s kind of like a domino effect.”