Father Bresowar plans a ministry of hope

Father Joseph Bresowar plans to use his gifts and passions as a spiritual father to change the worldly status quo thinking of many people to offer opportunities to hope.

Bishop Michael G. Duca ordained Father Bresowar along with Father Albert Blount at St. Joseph Cathedral in Baton Rouge on May 27.

Father Bresowar said his transitional diaconate internship at St. Margaret Queen of Scotland Church in Albany was a valuable experience in preparing for priesthood.

“It was one of the longest continuous (diaconate) experiences I’ve ever had. It gave me a lot of opportunities to get a little more rooted in the life of the parish and to get to know the people of the parish,” said Father Bresowar.

“Within the first couple of weeks I felt like I was part of the family,” he added.

Father Bresowar noted that he served under and was mentored by “the great pastoral presence” of St. Margaret pastor Father Jamin David and parochial vicar Father Paul Gros. Beginning July 17, Father David will assume full-time responsibilities as vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, and Father Paul Gros will take over as pastor of St. Margaret.

Among the things Father Bresowar was able to do at St. Margaret was help with family faith formation and give formation presentations.
 

“There’s a lot of hunger for the truth there, hunger to know what the church teaches and how to grow closer to the Lord,” said Father Bresowar.

As he returned to finish out his final year at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans Father Bresowar said, “I think one of the gifts that was definitely confirmed, and I would say developed and put to use, was to see just how the offices of preaching and catechesis function in actual parish ministry.

“I found that I really enjoyed preparing for it, and it did really seem to be a source of life for me in my ministry and and seeing the hunger and receptivity and gratitude people had for someone who was willing to put the work into really making the faith accessible to them; to do the preparation necessary to teach; to teach the beauty of the faith and the interconnectedness of all that we believe and how it is the one holy, Catholic apostolic church,” said Father Bresowar.

He pointed out spiritual fatherhood calls for nurturing people’s spiritual lives and helping their spiritual lives mature.

“That was a great gift that I could see the Lord working in my own life,” stated Father Bresowar. “I could see the Lord working, doing marvelous things based on my twopence, my ‘widow’s mite;’ that I could do marvelous things even with my own weakness, my own human frailties.”

Father Bresowar mused that upon returning to the seminary, much like the tales of the Wild West frontier, the returning transitional deacons were the ones who came “back from the brink” and had stories to share. The new seminarians had not gotten a chance to know them and wondered “who are you?”

“It’s always a fun time getting to see the way the seminary has grown and developed and realizing in a real way that it’s not my house anymore,” said Father Bresowar.

“I still lived there for one more year but those who live there full time and had several more years left to spend there, that really is their house. I was the servant,” said Father Bresowar.

That is when he learned to “provide an example to the house” of servant leadership.

“It was a gratifying challenge, I would say. But it’s a calling to a greater height of providing an example for others to follow,” the new priest said.

Father Bresowar said the last year is referred to as the “pastoral synthesis stage.”

“You have been trained in all these different areas of theology and spirituality and pastoral care and getting to know yourself,” emphasized Father Bresowar.

That’s when he completed a capstone project presentation on “watershed” moments for him during his time at Notre Dame Seminary.

The priesthood is a unique and beautiful vocation, said Father Bresowar. He said in one sense ordination day was about him but in another sense it wasn’t.

“It’s distinct from marriage in the sense that on the day of the wedding, the whole day is about the bride and the groom and everyone else is there to witness and celebrate that,” he said.

Similarly, there is a wedding happening during ordination, according to Father Bresowar.

“It’s a spiritual espousal that every priest enters into,” he said.

On the day of his ordination Father Bresowar came before the altar as the bridegroom and pronounced his definitive and total gift of himself to the entire church, not to a single individual. He pointed out that he and Father Albert Blount were laying down their lives for the people of God.

He said it would have been a huge mistake to think it was “his day” and he would not have entered the priesthood as Christ entered into his own relationship with the church.

“So pray for me because it’s going to be a wild ride,” smiled Father Bresowar.

Having developed a fraternal brotherhood with Father Blount, the two organized their schedules so they could attend each other’s first Masses of thanksgiving and celebrate. Father Blount’s first Mass was hours after ordination at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Baton Rouge and Father Bresowar’s was the following morning at St. Theresa of Avila Church in Gonzales.

Before he assumes his parochial vicar duties at Immaculate Conception Church in Denham Springs on July 1, Father Bresowar plans to be “on the road.”  One trip scheduled is with his family to Michigan to visit family and friends.

He also planned to join the St. Margaret youth group for their trip to Oregon for Mission Krewe, which pairs 14- to 19-year-old teenagers from the Portland, Oregon, area with their peers from St. Margaret in mission work.

Then he will dive into his parish priestly ministry at ICC.

“I’m excited to be working with (ICC pastor) Father Matthew Graham. He and I go way back. He was associate pastor at Christ the King (Church and Catholic Student Center at LSU) when I was at LSU for one year. It’s really a gift of God to be able to work with him now as a brother priest,” he said. “I could never have foreseen that from the beginning.

“And then the people there, I’m excited to get to know them, to be a spiritual father to them, for them to get to know me and as St. Mother Teresa says, ‘to do something beautiful together for God.’ ”