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ABOUT FATHER JAMES ARWADY, ASSOCIATE PASTOR

Hello My Dear Brothers and Sisters of St. Thomas a’Becket,

I am the Parochial Vicar of St. Thomas a' Becket, commonly known as the “Associate Pastor.” I prefer to be called “Fr. James” as our baptismal names are related to our vocational calls. I always find it somewhat entertaining to look up our name etymologies. My name is derived from Jacob, which means, “holder of the heel,” or “supplanter.” Other theories say my name means “may God protect,” which I’m kind of partial to (understandably so).

Anyway, speaking of vocational calls, I never set out to become a priest in life. I actually planned a career in automotive engineering, receiving my Bachelor of Science in Engineering and my Master of Science in Engineering Management from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and then thought I would end up married with a bunch of kids someday, just like the way I grew up in my family of seven children.

I was actually an engineer for six and a half years before discerning that God was calling me to enter seminary (that’s “seminary,” where candidates for the priesthood go to be formed, not “cemetery” where we have died). I was talking with a child once about being a seminarian, and asked, “Do you know what a seminary is? And the child replied, “Yes, that’s where they [seminarians] go to die.” I don’t think the little one new how profound a statement that was since all seminarians do die a spiritual death over and over again in order to rise a new, just as all Christians are called to do likewise in the day-to-day living of the Christian Spiritual Life repeating the death and resurrection of Our Lord in our own lives … except for seminarians, it’s much more intense since we have to get all our dying and rising done not over a lifetime, but about six or eight years. Anyhow, as the old saying goes, “out of the mouths of babes” comes the truth about life.

I heard my vocational call at Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Sterling Heights from a Slovak Pastor. Yep, I never saw that coming. Saints Cyril and Methodius is where I first began to serve at the altar at the age of twenty-six! I thought it was a strange idea until I learned that a seventy-some-year-old grandfather served as an “altar boy” too. It’s a different arrangement then what most parishes in the Archdiocese are used to, but the vocations are booming out of there, so they must be doing something right.

I spent eight years in the seminary (two more than I planned on – it’s that “God’s Will” thing working again). I received my Bachelor of Philosophy degree in two years from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, and then moved to Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit for theological studies. In six years at Sacred Heart I have completed a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Theology, and passed a cumulative exam to receive a Bachelor in Sacred Theology through Sacred Heart from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. I just wanted to get it all done and be ordained a priest, but God had a different plan. I can see now why all that education was important, I’ve used all of it right here in my first assignment at St. Thomas a' Becket (and I’m still adding to it – we never stop learning!).

In all that seminary time we did have some opportunities to serve at some parishes. I was a seminarian intern at Saint Raphael’s in Garden City from January through August of 2006, and then again at Holy Family Church in Novi from late August through December 31, 2008, and then served as a transitional deacon at Saint Lawrence in Utica from May of 2009 through May 2010.

Priests are always ordained a “transitional deacon” just before their last year of Formation and Graduation, and then are ordained to the Priesthood at the end of their final year. Archbishop Allen Vigneron ordained me on May 22, 2010, and the year before that he ordained my brother. I guess that’s one more thing you may want to know about me. I have a twin brother who is also a priest, Father Ray Arwady, who was ordained in 2009 and is serving in the Archdiocese of Detroit as well. At one point, before entering seminary, I remember trying to talk him out of becoming a priest, but then I ran out of reasons why I shouldn’t do it myself.

It’s funny, awkward, and of course, mysterious, how God works in our lives. If we let Him work His Will in our lives, then we will be happy. If we’re too busy about trying to make up our own plans for our lives, then we’re going to mess up His, and be miserable. When I finally became convinced that God had a great plan for me, I stopped doing the driving and let Him take over, and I’ve never been happier since.

I am happy to be with you, even happier to be a priest.

God Bless You All,
Fr. James

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