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 Fr. Vincent Benoit, OP
Greetings from a 99.44% Seattleite. Although I was not born in this
fair city, I arrived when barely a month old and lived here almost
continuously for the next 23 years. My cradle Catholic upbringing
included Catholic elementary and secondary education. Although my
mother was born and raised Lutheran (as her family remains), she
became Catholic long before I could even begin to understand there
was such a thing. My father was raised Catholic and even attended
the same grade school as my sister, brother and I attended. Catholic
schooling put me inside church almost daily, and I recall actually
liking it. I was never an altar boy (flunked out of altar boy
school), but I did sing for a while in a boys chorus, until my voice
mysteriously changed.
In high school
I was still a frequent daily Mass attendee, whenever I could force
myself to move in the morning (I was never great at wake-up calls).
I was perpetually thinking of labor saving inventions and other
nifty gadgets, including improved food products (I actually thought
of Peanut Butter and Jam mixed together long before it was
commercially available (and they messed it up!). As an awkward
gangly youth, I found it difficult to walk and chew gum at the same
time, thus my sports career was stunted by an unbelievable rejection
by team coaches throughout the years <grin> . I did try to play
baseball and was becoming a fair wrestler, but obviously I had not
found my slot.
I was more or
less a normal cradle Catholic with the required Catholic parents and
siblings. We went to Church together through the first years of high
school, we prayed together (often the rosary), and made the great
sacrifice of attending 6:30 a.m. Mass together during Lent. Of
course, after-Mass-incentives of breakfasts and special packed
lunches encouraged us in our piety.
By the end of
high school, I discovered the wonder of the Charismatic Movement
through a good friend. It did not stick very well and a few
years after high school I drifted away from God and Church.
In an effort
to bring me back to Himself, God took me on a very convoluted
journey. A journey that caused me to re-evaluate my values and
goals. Eagerly studying to become an engineer, I fostered a deeper
relationship with God and Church and renewed my association with the
Charismatic Movement. All I did was place my desire to become
an engineer, marry, raise a family, and live a simple life in the
hands of God. It seems that if you enter a deep life of
prayer, your prayers are bound to be answered—be careful about the
content of your prayer <grin>. With power and wonder, God
settled everything by awakening in me a profound vocation to the
priesthood and religious life.
Although it
took a bit of work, and what seemed an endless series of interviews
and paperwork, I placed the vocation possibility in God's hands.
If it was to be, then God would open the doors. If not, I was
happy with whatever happened. In the end, the doors opened and I
experienced a wonderful community, fraternity, liturgy and tradition
of study. I am sometimes taken by surprise, even now, that I was
chosen and given this awesome gift within the Church, the Dominican
Order, and the Western Dominican Province.
I have been
and continue to be filled with happiness, that I am who I am before
the Lord. The people of God are an inspiration and a great blessing
to me, no matter where I serve. I have been a stage hand,
parochial vicar, Newman chaplain, director of our retreat center,
and a high school teacher. Every community has been unique and
a true blessing to me. I experience many blessings day by day,
because our God chooses to save. He is giving each of us new
life in Jesus Christ, and abundantly filling us with the gifts of
the Holy Spirit.
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