On
August 16, Don Bosco’s 203rd birthday, the New Rochelle Province welcomed Bros.
Dan Glass, SDB, and Tom Junis, SDB, as new members consecrated by temporary vows.
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| Bro. Dan Glass, SDB |
The
two new brothers pronounced their vows before Fr. Tim Zak, provincial, during a
Mass celebrated in the Marian Shrine chapel at Haverstraw, N.Y. It was an
intimate Salesian gathering of 35 concelebrants (including two priests from
Philadelphia, friends of Bro. Dan), 2 deacons, 12 coadjutor brothers, 8
clerics, our 2 prenovices, 9 Salesian Lay Missioners, and numerous family
members and friends of Bros. Dan and Tom.
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| Bro. Tom Junis, SDB |
The
new brothers had made their novitiate in Richmond, Calif., under the guidance
of Fr. Tom Juarez, master of novices, and his assistant Fr. John Puntino.
Bro.
Dan and Fr. Tom are the first newly professed in the New Rochelle Province
since 2015.
Bro.
Dan Glass’s Vocation Story
Bro.
Dan was born in 1988, the son of David and Maryann Glass. He was raised in
Malvern, Pa., where the family are members of St. Patrick Parish. His pastor greatly
influenced his vocation. He says, “Fr. Chris Redcay’s dedication to serving the
parish and his love for the parishioners was a beautiful example of what it
means to be a pastor, to be devoted to Christ and the service of our brothers
and sisters.”
Dan
served as a Salesian Lay Missioner in South Sudan in 2012-2013, first at Wau
and then at Maridi. He came to know Don Bosco and the Salesians through the SLM
discernment process, orientation, and living in community with and ministering
alongside the Salesians for a year.
Continued
discernment after his return from South Sudan led Dan to apply to join the
Salesians. He was accepted as a candidate and entered the formation program in
Orange, N.J., in August 2015. He says: “At first it was the apostolate that
attracted me to the Salesians. I loved the missionary focus and my time in
South Sudan. I also loved working with young people while I was the director of
religious education at St. Patrick Parish.
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Bro. Dan Glass makes his profession, backed by
his parents Maryann and David Glass.
Deacon Juan Pablo Rubio and Fr. Dominic
Tran served as witnesses.
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“As
I continued to learn what it means to be a Salesian and what the spirit of a
Salesian is, in addition to the apostolate, it was the joy, loving kindness,
and prayer life that continued to inspire me.”
The
novitiate in Richmond is adjacent to Salesian College Preparatory High School. So,
in addition to doing what novices do—learning to pray, studying the
Constitutions, living the vows, etc.—he found tremendous joy in “spending time
with the students and feeling at home in the school environment. In a year that
gave me extra time to pray and explore the Salesian Constitutions, it was a
huge blessing to have Salesian College Prep next door to help me see the spirit
and joy of the Constitutions come alive. With the students present each day, we
were able to see everything that we had been learning come to life.”
Bro.
Dan is thinking of eventually returning to the foreign missions. He says, “It
is my hope to appeal to the Rector Major as a missionary to the nations; to
help build the Salesian Congregation where it is in most need, to bring the
Gospel and to serve the young and the poor who are most vulnerable and in
need.”
Bro.
Tom Junis’s Vocation Story
Bro.
Tom is the youngest son of Mitch and Margie Junis. He was born in Bloomington,
Ill., in 1992. The family are members of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in
Bloomington.
Bro.
Tom earned a degree in early childhood education from Illinois State University
in Bloomington before becoming a Salesian candidate at Orange on January 1,
2016. His education studies had already led him to St. John Bosco, whom he took
as a patron for his educational efforts. In college, he says, “I really found
my passion for working with young people and finding God in them and wanting to
give my life to God.”
The
influences in shaping Bro. Tom’s vocation were his parents, the religious
sisters at the ISU campus Newman Center, and the late Msgr. Greg Ketcham, a Salesian
Cooperator.
The
sisters at ISU also urged Tom to contact the Salesians at the University of
Illinois Newman Center in Champaign. He did so and started meeting monthly with
Fr. Bill Bucciferro to learn more about Don Bosco and the Salesians. Fr. Bill encouraged
him to go on the Don Bosco bicentennial pilgrimage to Turin in 2015 as part of
his discernment. That pilgrimage was decisive; he prayed that Don Bosco let him
know whether he was called “to offer my life to God and the young … as a
Salesian.” On his return to the U.S. he learned of his acceptance as a candidate—the
sign he desired.
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Bro. Tom Junis makes his profession, backed by
his parents Margie and Mitch Junis.
Frs. Abe Feliciano and Bill Bucciferro
served as witnesses.
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For
Bro. Tom reports that “the best part of novitiate was accompanying the students
[of Salesian College Prep] when we had free time and really finding God in them
and trying to be a sign of God’s love to them, and the friendships made with
them.”
Eventually,
he says, “I would like to work at a boys and girls club or youth center to be
able to use my gift of working with younger kids and use what I learned from my
Early Childhood Education degree. I would also love to specialize in college
campus ministry; it was something I enjoyed during my time in college, and I
know our Salesian charism would bear great fruit in a college setting in helping
students discern their vocation.”
Our
Life Project: To Share God’s Love
Fr.
Tim Zak’s homily pointed to Don Bosco’s encounter with Bartholomew Garelli on
Dec. 8, 1841, as a key moment in his discernment of his life’s project of
making service to the poorest young people his apostolic passion. The lessons
that John Bosco learned from his mother—God’s presence all around him in nature
and in daily life—and his training at the Convitto Ecclesiastico in how to be a
priest assisted him in this discernment of what God was asking of him.
Fr.
Tim said: “As it was for Don Bosco, so it is for us and the young today. God
calls each of us, with all the specificity and peculiarities of our lives. This
is an action of God’s grace, to which we respond with our gifts and our
limitations.” As indicated in the first reading of the Mass (from Isaiah 44),
Fr. Tim continued, God calls Israel and us with a personal love; he calls us to
be his “darlings” and to convey his love also to others who “are waiting for
the announcement of the Good News, for someone to share with them the living
water [of the Holy Spirit]. Our vocation is oriented toward mission. We don’t
live for ourselves. . . . God’s love is to be shared with them also.”
This
is the vocation of Bro. Dan and Bro. Tom and of every Salesian, as it was Don
Bosco’s.
More
photos from the celebration: https://pix.sfly.com/k5Rgg5
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Newly professed Bro. Dan Glass (2nd from left)
and Bro. Tom Junis (2d from right)
with (l-r) Deacon Eddy Chincha, Fr. Tim Zak,
Fr. Tom Juarez, and Deacon Juan Pablo Rubio.
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| Salesian priests and brothers gather around their newly professed confreres after Mass. |
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