Over a cup of tea at tea time this evening, in Narsipatnam, we (the Community of St John's Kondadaba) were treated to an amusing vocation story of the Parish Priest, Fr Varghese. He narrated to us how he came to be a Diocesan Priest today, something which he never even dreamt of in his earlier days. He joined the MSFS formation house, intending to be a Salesian of the MSFS congregation. It was then customary that the MSFS send two vocations from its batch to the Diocese of Visakhapatnam. It so happened that in the year Fr Varghese joined, there was no one willing to join the diocese. So the Rector announced that the ones who joined last would be for the diocese. So it was Fr Varghese and a certain VJ John. The latter found it difficult to cope up with studies and was detained for a year. Fr Varghese did his studies well and was promoted. The best was this: All those of his 'MSFS' batch left within the next three years... all 35 of them!!
We found this narration very amusing and strange. One was demoted and survived, the other promoted and became a diocesan while those 'on the track' never persevered! Hearing of the number 35, I was reminded of my vocation camp too. We were exactly 35 who joined the aspirantate after the vocation camp in 1993 at Gunadala. Of those, I'm the only one surviving!!
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