Portrait of a priest: Fr. John Petravicius

Fr. John at St. Mary's Church in Cluny, after a visit to the Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park.

​To celebrate St. John Vianney's feast day this month, I sat down with Fr. John Petravicius (retired from the Diocese of Calgary) to gain some insight into his call to the priesthood, and what it means to live a Christian life in his vocation. Here’s what he had to say.
 
How did you discern your vocation?
The Grace of God!  I was doing a commercial course at the old Mount Royal College downtown (Calgary).  Once a week, Fr. Greg McLellan, who was the associate at Sacred Heart, would come in to do something with the Catholics, who were a minority in the place.  On one occasion, he asked “Well, what can we deal with?”, and somebody came up with the idea to cover the religious communities in the diocese, what they were doing and so forth, and I think that triggered something that I’d been thinking of way back when.  I think the essence was there, it just needed to be triggered by something, and Fr. Greg’s presence was that trigger.
 
How have you seen your share in Christ’s priesthood change and shift through these years?
Basically, nothing has changed:  the priesthood is what it has always been.  How the priesthood has functioned, how a priest did things has changed, not what they did. The celebration of the Mass and the Sacraments is all the same, essentially. The rituals changed, not the realities.  You are given a task of service to people, and so you do what you can in a given situation, and hope it is somewhat adequate.
 
What spiritual practices have sustained you throughout your years as a priest?
One of the most important things in developing and maintaining the Christian life is spiritual reading.  One needs ideas and support, and one is going to get that from reading; it gives motivation to all the other things — the ministries, the liturgy of the hours, etc.  There are areas in which it’s important to read:  first of all, the Word of God is number one, then biographies — the lives of saints (these people lived out the Christian life in a special way), and then spiritual theology.  In reading, we need a variety of things.  We had an old English priest, supposedly teaching English in the seminary.  He had a quote he’d toss out quite often:  “Reading maketh a full man”.  That is particularly true of reading having to do with our relationship with God.
 
For a long time, there has been the promotion of prayer in the presence of the Eucharist.  That is probably a very, very good place to pray, perhaps the very best — the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
 
What advice would you give to a young man or woman discerning priesthood or religious life?
First of all, prayer is very important. Prayer for the grace to follow up this idea according to the will of God.  It is possible that the idea is mine and not God’s, and so if someone was to join a religious community, and no community will accept them, that says that they don’t have vocation to a religious community. So, things tend to work out in substance.
 
If there is one, what Sacrament do you love celebrating the most?
The greatest Sacrament is the Eucharist — the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That is beyond everything!  It may not be particularly “satisfying” in the sense that you don’t see things happening — but that’s THE great sacrament — the presence of Christ!
 
Does St. John Vianney’s example play out in your life?
His life speaks very loudly to a lifestyle of simplicity. There’s a certain charm and effectiveness in simplicity:  energy and time are not wasted on peripheral things, and the things that need to be done get done, not only work-wise, but self-care-wise.  He spent a fair bit of time in prayer, a reminder that our relationship with God is the root source of effectiveness, otherwise we can wind up being very effective individuals in a service kind of way, getting a lot of things done, but not accomplishing very much. The result, in the case of St. John Marie Vianney, was that his effectiveness was what it was because of the quality of his life.  We see that in lesser ways: people who are serious about something are taken seriously. Someone who wants to do a good job of something is respected as a model, and encourages others to do the same — to do things that one needs to do, and try to do them well.
 
What are you up to now in your retirement?
There’s time for things like a little extra prayer, a little more time to read, to see people occasionally.  Time goes by, and it’s not very boring. Retirement gives the opportunity to be more aware of the Christian life, not doing a bunch of things and keeping so busy that you forget what you’re doing! All of us are called to live out the Christian life; the things that we do should fit into that mould — the motivation.  We don’t do it for prestige or money —  if that comes, that’s fine — but to do what we do because it seems to be the will of God to do it.

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Fr. John at St. Anthony's Church, Calgary

Fr. John's home parish:
​St. Cyril’s, Bellevue, Alberta

Year of ordination: 1959

​Pastoral assignment: 

• Sacred Heart, Raymond (Missions at Magrath, Cardston and Whiskey Gap); 
• St. Patrick’s, Medicine Hat; 
• St. Michael’s, Bow Island; 
• Corpus Christi, Calgary; 
• St. John’s, Calgary;
• St. Mary’s, Beiseker; 
• St. Mary’s Cathedral, Calgary,
• Retirement resident at St. Anthony’s, Calgary.

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Interview and transcription: Solomon Ip.
​Photos courtesy of L. O'Hara & Solomon Ip.