What is your full name?
Fr. Patrick Joseph Gonyeau

What is your current Assignment/Parish?
I am currently assigned to Corpus Christi Catholic Church in northwest Detroit.

What is the greatest gift about being a priest?
Undoubtedly, the greatest gift of the priesthood, in my opinion, is being able to offer the sacrifice of the Mass. Every day, I come to the altar of the Lord and pray the words of consecration, knowing that it is truly Jesus speaking through me. “Take this, it is my body given up for you” and “take this all of you and drink from it, this is my blood, which will be poured out for you and for many.” To say the words of consecration, which I have just paraphrased, is a magnificent experience day in and day out. To be able to hold up the Eucharist and gaze on the glory of the Lord under the disguise of bread and to hold Him up for others never ceases to amaze me. He’s been the most wonderful gift of the priesthood, in my opinion thus far.

What would you say to a young man discerning the priesthood?
To a young man who is discerning the priesthood, I would really encourage him to read the Scriptures daily, availing himself to listening to the word of God and seeing how the Lord is speaking to him. And also to pay close attention to how the Lord is speaking to him in the Word at Mass, whether it is on Sunday or during the week. And then, I would really recommend that he speak with a priest he feels comfortable with to engage in a conversation about the priesthood. Ask the priest about his experience of the priesthood and see in those conversations how your heart is drawn to the priesthood. Sometimes, just talking to a priest can help a young man discern if he hears something and if it really touches his heart deeply. I would also highly recommend to any man discerning the priesthood to place it in the hands of the Blessed Mother, daily praying the Rosary and asking Mother Mary to help him understand or hear if he’s being called to be a priest. I couldn’t highly recommend enough that the man pursue attending a Discernment Weekend and speaking with the Director of Priestly Vocations in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Lastly, I would really recommend that the young man pursue having a spiritual director, someone he can check in with on a regular basis about how his walk with the Lord is going in his discernment of the priesthood.

How can people at your parish best support you?
As a priest, I believe the parishioners can best support me, their parish priest, and priests in general by praying for them every day, truly praying for them. To be quite honest as well, I would highly recommend for any parishioner who wants to help their priest is to not gossip. Be a brother or a sister in the family of God in your local parish community who doesn’t have any taste for gossip and when gossip arises, seek to bring peace and truth to that conversation. If something needs to be addressed with the priest or the staff, identify it and bring it in a mature and holy way to be dealt with appropriately and to not gossip because gossip creates room for the devil to work. And a priest truly wants his parish to be a place where the Holy Spirit can work, so avoiding gossip and being someone who can help others who might be frustrated about something deal with it in a right way and bring it to the priest or the staff is very helpful to the life of a priest.

How do you see the Holy Spirit working in the Archdiocese of Detroit?
My perception of how the Holy Spirit is moving in the Archdiocese of Detroit is that we are indeed being formed into a missionary diocese from the time that the Joy of the Gospel was released by Pope Francis, we have only been gaining more momentum in the New Evangelization. Former auxiliary bishop Michael Byrnes once held up the Joy of the Gospel at a presbyteral council meeting and said, “this is our playbook.” And he of course had been delegated by the Archbishop to help lead at that time the Archdiocese’s efforts in the New Evangelization. So, we’ve seen the Synod come and pass, bringing amazing graces to our diocese as we entered into the Unleash the Gospel initiative that the diocese is engaged in. I think Unleash the Gospel, the pastoral letter, is one of the most amazing documents that I’ve ever read. Composed by a bishop, it provides a prophetic vision for the Archdiocese of Detroit, a path forward in the Holy Spirit, growing as parishes, families, and individuals into missionaries.

I think the Holy Spirit is lavishly pouring out the new Pentecost on the Archdiocese of Detroit and that those living in these days are truly blessed to receive this outpouring similar to that which permeated the early Church as described in the Acts of the Apostles. I think, as of 2021, we are on the cusp of something very special. If we continue to press in to the Holy Spirit and believe that God is truly forming us in the Holy Spirit to be these joyful missionary disciples, we are going to see the local Church of Detroit rise up in the splendor of the Holy Spirit which permeated the early Church. I think it’s critical that in the Families of Parishes initiative that priests and laity alike keep their eyes on the prize, which is living life fully alive in the Holy Spirit and not being discouraged by some structural changes.

We need to stay prayerful and hopeful in the Lord while passionately growing in our relationship with God. We will continue to have a deep conviction that we have the greatest gift anyone can ever receive, Jesus Christ, and regardless of organizational structures, we’re going to live with our hearts on fire. And those are the kind of evangelists that I believe the Holy Spirit is raising up in the Archdiocese of Detroit. But there’s a conscience choice people need to make. I will protect my heart and my mind from pessimism, unnecessary negativity, and dwelling on things that are frustrating, choosing to bring any disappointment to the Lord and allowing the garden of my heart to be a place where the fruits of the Holy Spirit bloom. We don’t have time to sow into negative energy; the Lord is calling us, regardless of organizational structures, to be on fire disciples. If we have that heart-to-heart commitment to Jesus, we will be just fine, as we develop new organizational structures. Focus on the main thing: being in love with Jesus and sharing Him with the world.

Describe the first moment you knew God was calling you to the priesthood.
The first moment I experienced God calling me to the priesthood was amazing and yet a little confusing. I was 25 years old; I hadn’t been to church in years. I was living an alcohol addiction in a dark period of my life, and one day, I sat down and started to read the Psalms. And for the first time, I heard the Lord speak to me, “You can give me your life.” And then I had an image of the priesthood pop into my imagination. At that time, I really didn’t know all that the priesthood represented and meant because I hadn’t been practicing the Catholic faith for years and had a limited knowledge from my childhood. The offer at the time seemed amazing, and it was a happy day. But the next day I went back to living my old life, and it wouldn’t be until two years later that I heard the call again and was ready to say “yes.”

What should all young people know about discerning a vocation?
To all the young people, I would say that your vocation is part of your destiny and discovering what it is is one of the greatest things you can do in your young life. The Scriptures say in Romans 8:29: “But we are being conformed to the image of the Son.” A vocation is a call from God; we’re called by God to be so transformed by His love that we look like Jesus. So our first call from God in this life is to be a disciple. There’s nothing better you can do with your life than make Jesus the center of it every day. Next, seek to find out from the Lord what path He is calling you to walk down as a disciple of Jesus. What will be your vocation as a disciple of Jesus? It is again one of the best things you can do in your life as soon as possible because Jesus is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life” for you, and He wants to show you the path He will lead you down as His disciple which will contain the abundant life that He came to bring us. It will contain the joy of knowing that you’re fulfilling God’s will in your life. Discovering your vocation as a disciple of Jesus is discovering the “Way, the Truth, and the Life” of Jesus that He’s calling you to share with Him. In my own experience having been called to be a Catholic priest and following this call, the words of St. Catherine of Siena are true. She said, “All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, ‘I am the way.'” Discovering your vocation by revelation from God is you prayerfully discerning not only the way that will be the path to heaven but also the path of heaven as you walk with Jesus as He’s called you to in this life. Don’t pressure yourself, but don’t be complacent for “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be satisfied.”