Running with God

Phillip Gordy struggled for years to discern his vocational call until he understood that God was expressing his desire that he be completely free and happy saying: “You choose.” 

Gordy turned to the Lord and is on the path to becoming a Benedictine monk at St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict.

Gordy received the name Brother Lazarus when he made his first temporary vows as a religious brother on Sept. 14, 2021 at St. Joseph.

Brother Lazarus grew up in West Feliciana Civil Parish and attended Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in St. Francisville. Born into a devoutly Catholic family, as a young boy Brother Lazarus replied “a priest” to inquiries about what he wanted to be when he grew up. 

Numerous people affirmed his desire to pursue a vocational call.

After graduating from Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, Brother Lazarus entered St. Joseph Seminary College in St. Benedict and graduated in 2014. Before continuing on to Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, he was certain he still had a vocational call, yet aware God was calling him to step out of formation for a while in order to grow spiritually.

That summer he went on an eight-day retreat to the Institute for Priestly Formation, based at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. 

“I was praying with the Gospel reading of the raising of Lazarus, and I was particularly praying about some of the things that I most deeply regretted in life and other things that were most painful to me,” said Brother Lazarus. 

In a profound way the Lord spoke to Father Lazarus through the part of the passage where Jesus was outside of Lazarus’ tomb and raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. Know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” 

Brother Lazarus realized that all the things that he had been praying about happened so he would know God sent Jesus into the world to save him.

“It was out of that experience of prayer that I received the name Lazarus,” said Brother Lazarus. “I thought I had been called to work in a Catholic school but it became clear that was not God’s will.”

Brother Lazarus then went home to spend time with his family and “work on relearning to be a good son.”

Discerning next that God was telling him to “go out,” Brother Lazarus worked for five summers in North Carolina at Camp Chosatonga, a traditional mountain summer camp with Christian ideals.

“I gained a lot of good experience and regained confidence that comes through leadership positions in that I was teaching boys and leading them through very challenging situations in natural terrain and being a friend and a mentor,” Brother Lazarus said.

During that period of time, he had a conversation with a friend which helped him realize that he was not completely free spiritually.  

By reflecting on this conversation, Brother Lazarus developed an appreciation that God was asking him to choose his vocation freely. He understood that God was telling him, “You don’t have to do this because I want you to be free.”

That appreciation of the role freedom played in his vocational calling helped Brother Lazarus grow spiritually.

He worked summers at the wilderness camp and the rest of the year at Our Lady of the Rosary Church and School at Greenville, South Carolina.

While there he worked with OLR pastor Father Dwight Longenecker a Benedictine Oblate and well-known writer and media personality. Brother Lazarus said the thriving parish community had recently built a new church and were working on directing the school toward academic excellence and a strong Catholic foundation.

“(Father Longenecker) prea-ches and seeks to establish amongst the parishioners a stability of commitment to the parish by building a stable community, with the liturgical life of the parish being the center or the heart that keeps everything going,” said Brother Lazarus. “A lot of these things are based on the Benedictine principals.

“Being a part of that reminded me of what I had experienced here at the abbey during the time that I was in seminary here.” 

Everything in Greensville “was as good as it can get for a Catholic man in the world,” Brother Lazarus said. Yet, he believed God was offering him more.

He had ongoing discussions with Father Longenecker, who gave him a vocational prayer which challenges those who have been in a vocational discernment for a while to “move on” with their discernment and give God a certain time frame by which they would do so. 

Brother Lazarus concedes he prayed the prayer, gave a time-limit and then promptly forgot about it. But God didn’t. Within a month or two, he was certain that God was calling him to monastic life at St. Joseph Abbey.

Joining the monastery was a longer process than Brother Lazarus anticipated, but it only fueled his desire to join. In May 2020, he was finally able to enter the abbey.

“I had two sets of clothing and my one box of books and a few things needed to be moved in, and my parents who had driven me dropped me off,” said Brother Lazarus. “And I turned around and looked at the church. And I said to God, or maybe he said to me, perhaps we said to each other, this line from the Song of Songs, ‘Draw me after you! Let us run together!’ ”

Since arriving at the abbey, Brother Lazarus refers to this imagery in his communal life of running toward the Lord.

As part of that, Brother Lazarus runs twice a week with Brother Ignatius, who professed his first vows along with him. They talk about their hopes and struggles and push each other to grow.

“It’s really given us an opportunity to be brothers,” said Brother Lazarus.

After approximately three years of formation and living in communal life, Brother Lazarus will be given the choice to “go back to the world” or, upon acceptance of his petition, make his solemn profession and live the monastic life at the abbey for the rest of his life.

“Seeing how the future will unfold is exciting to me,” said Brother Lazarus.

Those discerning a possible vocation to become a Benedictine monk at St. Joseph Abbey can call Father Jude Israel OSB, vocation director, at 985-867-2249 or email him at [email protected].