By John Rohlf
The Message assistant editor
Two days before over 80 runners and walkers participated in the Evansville Half Marathon and 5-mile race as part of the Diocese of Evansville’s Race for Vocations group, participants, family and friends gathered at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville for a pre-race Mass and dinner.
Bishop Joseph M. Siegel celebrated Mass Oct. 3 at St. Benedict Cathedral ahead of the first Race for Vocations in the Diocese of Evansville. Diocesan Vicar General and Rector of St. Benedict Cathedral Father Alex Zenthoefer and Diocesan Director of Vocations Father Tyler Tenbarge concelebrated the Mass.
At the beginning of Mass, Bishop Siegel thanked those in attendance for their support of the diocesan vocations program through the Race for Vocations.
The first Race for Vocations happened in large part due to the work of Anna Bragin, a parishioner at St. Benedict Cathedral. A few months ago, she approached Father Tenbarge about the diocese possibly starting a Race for Vocations. Father Tenbarge had helped with a Race for Vocations in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis when he was a seminarian back in 2009.
“I said I’d love to have one here but I definitely don’t have the time to run it,” Father Tenbarge said in his homily during the Oct. 3 Mass. “She decided to meet with me anyway, knowing I was probably going to ask her to do all the work. And she happily and boldly said yes.”
Father Tenbarge said back in the early stages of planning for the event, he would have been thrilled if they had gotten two dozen participants for the first year. As of the Oct. 3 Mass, they had about 80 people signed up, Father Tenbarge said. They had a total of 86 participants in the first Diocese of Evansville Race for Vocations.
“That’s larger than any year they had in Indianapolis,” Father Tenbarge said. “So obviously God’s providence made this all possible tonight for us.”
Father Tenbarge said as he was training for the Oct. 5 race, he would notice himself getting tired at certain points of training and thought he would just walk. He then remembered prayer intentions shared in the group’s emails, including for someone’s son and his vocation decision next year, for someone’s children that they grow up holy and happy, for the safety of the participants and for peace in the community and world.
“These petitions, these requests of God were offered for one another for us to also offer them up in prayer and in sacrifice as we ran,” Father Tenbarge said. “And the only thing that can ever make all the sacrifices worth it is an actual belief in providence.”
They celebrated the Mass on the Feast Day of St. Theodora Guerin. Bishop Siegel said St. Theodora Guerin came from France to be a missionary to help establish schools in the diocese. Without her, we might not have what we have today, Father Tenbarge said.
“All of us can take heart and great hope that our God who is present to us in every Mass to sustain us bodily as we go forth to serve in our vocations is likewise with us providentially in every moment too,” Father Tenbarge said. “I didn’t think a few months ago this event would have been possible, nor nearly this big. Or that we’d be having Mass on the anniversary of the feast day of our very own State of Indiana saint, Theodora Guerin. But God sure did. And thank God we believe in Him.”