Love illuminated priest's path

Virgin's message at Medjugorje led teen to search for God's love for him

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
St. Paul

His dream came true on his 30th birthday June 14, when Bishop Luc Bouchard ordained him a priest at St. Paul Cathedral before 800 parishioners, guests and family members.

He will serve as assistant pastor at St. Paul's Cathedral for at least the next two years.

"For me, this is a new chapter in my life," he said hours before his ordination. "This is where I can begin to serve the Lord as a priest and to me that type of thing is just breathtaking. I want to serve him. I want to be a servant of his reconciliation, of his reaching out to people."

Jubinville believes priests have to be "rooted in the faith" and, accordingly, he will make prayer, the sacraments and service to the people of God the main focus of his priestly ministry.

"Priests have to know what is the most valuable thing, and in our case it is the faith," he said. "We have to be ambassadors of the faith, ministers of the faith and everything else will fall into place."

Father Roger Sicotte, the cathedral rector, said although Jubinville will work with youth in the cathedral parish, he will also be involved in all pastoral aspects of the parish. "I think he'll make a fine priest," he said.

Born in Edmonton, Jubinville and his two brothers grew up on an acreage outside Morinville and studied in St. Albert and Penticton, B.C. His parents were devout Catholics who taught their children to pray the rosary at an early age and took them to Mass every weekend.

This led to a vocation of service in the parish, where the Jubinville children would attend Sunday school, serve as altar boys and get involved in all type of activities.

"We have to be ambassadors of the faith, ministers of the faith and everything else will fall into place." - Fr. Martin Jubinville

"When I was a kid in Morinville, me and my twin brother Mario (who is currently studying for the priesthood with the Ottawa-based Dominicans) used to serve as altar boys every Sunday and we kind of liked it because we are matching twins and it was so symmetrical, " he recalled.

"You have the priest, you have two twins; it looks okay. We served. It was definitely a good faith background for me."

As a child, Jubinville admired the priests he served and dreamed of the time he could do the same.

But those were just childhood dreams.

He and his family moved to Penticton in 1987, where he completed high school and then enrolled at Okanagan College with the view to become a chiropractor one day.

But it seems God had other plans for him.

The seeds of faith planted back in Morinville had begun to grow.

While in Grade 11 or 12 he felt a call to conversion, which he describes as a call to enjoy "a richer depth of our faith. It's just enjoying a better presence with God and I needed that at the time.

"Religion became for me more an aspect of discovering our wonderful Lord and not so much just practising certain things."

Shortly after that, he began to get involved with youth groups, eventually becoming a youth leader at his parish.

He also began to be more interested in God and in theology and became "profoundly moved by our Blessed Mother."

The Virgin's message at Medjugorje, related to him by an uncle who had visited the site, had a profound impact on the young Jubinville.

"I was moved by that. I needed to hear about God's goodness, God's love for me."

As he began to pray, "I began to be able to hear and have a sense of God's call," he said from St. Paul.

"But for me (the call) didn't come in dreams," he explained. "It was not very clear at first. I wouldn't say it was exactly one exact second or moment or one epiphany or anything like that.

"It was in the context of growing in God, of growing in prayer, of growing in serving God.

"It became stronger as I began to respond."

Convinced of his vocation, he stopped dating and contacted his parish priest in Penticton, who immediately put him in touch with Bishop Peter Mallon of Nelson, B.C.

When Jubinville returned to Alberta, Archbishop Thomas Collins, then bishop of St. Paul, offered to support him in his seminary training.

Jubinville spent seven years studying for the priesthood at St. Peter's Seminary in London, Ont., except for the year 2000, which he spent in Morinville doing his pastoral internship.

He moved to St. Paul last May.

Jubinville predicts the priesthood will be "busy" for him, but he is ready for it.

"The cathedral is a great place to serve for a young priest because they have a good relationship with the schools and the youth," he said.

"I'm very excited. It's the beginning of my ministry, of my new life. It'll be awesome.

"I know it's going to be lots of work at the beginning but hopefully there'll be a time for me to just be faithful to what I believe in."

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