Seminarian tells his vocation story

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

There’s more to the story.
Peter Bui shares part of his vocation story in this year’s Partners in Charity video, and Bishop McManus added his piece at Partners kickoffs.
Last week Mr. Bui and others told The Catholic Free Press how he ended up in the video that informs people about the $5 million annual appeal that supports 28 ministries and agencies in the Diocese of Worcester.
“I experience a lot of joy … as a seminarian, because I’m able to meet a lot of different people,” Mr. Bui, 27, says in the video for this year’s appeal, which bears the theme Generate Joy. “We’re able to grow in relationship with God together; we’re able to learn with one another.”
The video says that a donation of $85 per month sponsors a seminarian’s education for a week.  
Partners in Charity fully funds the recruitment, formation and education of seminarians, according to Father James S. Mazzone, director of the diocesan Office for Vocations.
Mr. Bui said he’s blessed to be at Theological College in Washington, D.C., where seminarians receive formation, pray, eat and “hang out” together. He said he studies at The Catholic University of America.
“Our location is referred to as ‘Little Rome’ because of all the religious places and orders” there, he said. Recently he learned about conducting retreats from a Franciscan classmate.
He said he’s in his second year of pre-theology studies and would like to stay there for his theology, but defers to the bishop’s wishes.
“It’s really learning to deny your own wants and desires,” he said. “Once we’re able to do that, we can love better.”
In the video he talks about love.
“I want Christ to be my life,” he says. “I want to be a priest because I think that’s the best and most genuine way for me to love other people how they deserve to be loved.”
Fleshing that out for The Catholic Free Press he said, “I am able, through the grace of God … to bring people the sacraments … most importantly … the Eucharist … I think we forget God is constantly walking with us … but the sacraments remind us that he is there.”
Mr. Bui’s training includes preparing people for the sacraments.
“I teach RCIA with another seminarian from the diocese – Zachary Sullivan – at George Washington University, with their campus ministry,” he said. “I love it … being able to work with the young adults, answer their questions and share the Good News.”
At Partners kickoffs at the Chancery Bishop McManus expressed gratitude that Mr. Bui is preparing to do this as a priest. The bishop said that when he came to the diocese in 2004 he was “blown away” by the faith at Our Lady of Vilna Parish, where the Vietnamese Catholic community worships. Parishioners suffered for the faith in communist Vietnam and kept it after coming here.
“Fifteen years ago I began to pray that God would send a Vietnamese seminarian,” the bishop said. Mr. Bui is the diocese’s first Vietnamese-American seminarian; the Vietnamese priests immigrated from Vietnam and were ordained before Bishop McManus came.
Mr. Bui said he was born in Worcester, baptized and received his first Communion at St. John Parish and confirmed by Bishop McManus at Our Lady of Vilna. His parents, immigrants from Vietnam, were involved in the Vietnamese community, which worshipped at St. John’s before moving to Our Lady of Vilna.
During his childhood, they took him and his sister to Vietnam to visit relatives there, he said.
“I remember people waking up very early to go to Mass every day,” he said. “This summer I’ll be going to Vietnam by myself to study the language.” He said he understands and can speak some Vietnamese. Father Mazzone said Mr. Bui may need to use it in his ministry.
“I think the seed of my vocation was planted with the death of my godfather, Father Phuong (Nguyen),” Mr. Bui said. Father Nguyen, previous pastor of Our Lady of Vilna, drowned on Good Friday in 2004. As an altar server at Father Nguyen’s funeral, young Peter was awed by the procession of priests.
“To me they looked like superheroes,” he said. “So I think that’s when the seed was planted. I think because of their robes and their ministerial presence – like a brotherhood, that they were all coming together.
“However, growing up I was very hard of heart about being open to the vocation of priesthood,” Mr. Bui continued. “You have your own goals. The noise and distractions pull you away from what God is calling you to do.”
He said he got his bachelor’s in psychology and master’s in business administration from Assumption College, and became a business analyst for a bank.
“I really just wanted to get a good job and raise a family,” he said. “But the more I examined my conscience, I realized that God was asking something different of me.”
He said he contacted Father Mazzone, whom he’d met on vocations retreats that his parents first told him to attend, and he later chose to attend. In the fall of 2017 he entered seminary.
Father Mazzone said Raymond L. Delisle, chancellor and director of the diocesan Communications Ministry, asked him about featuring a seminarian in the Partners video, so he invited seminarians to contact Mr. Delisle.
Mr. Bui did so, and was filmed at the Holy Name of Jesus House of Studies in Worcester.
“The House of Studies is important to us because it’s where a lot of our seminarians live and it’s where we hold our spaghetti suppers for men who are discerning a priestly vocation,” Mr. Bui said. “It’s like a safe place for us to get together, hang out and talk.” He said he never lived there, but visits.
“After I did the initial video, Ray reached out to me again,” seeking another video clip, Mr. Bui said. He had fellow seminarians videotape him speaking to people here from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., and outside Theological College, with a statue of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom in the background, to show “that she can help us during our formation.”
“I did not get a private showing” of the video, Mr. Bui said. “I searched it up online myself. It’s weird watching yourself on screen. I don’t think it’s in my personality type, but I do it for God and for the diocese. … I’ve heard Father Jim (Mazzone) say that people liked it.”
Now he has a request: “I ask people to pray for me.”

– To see the video go to https://partners-charity.net and click on the “Partners in Charity 2019 Parish Video” picture.