From oil rigs to Rome
Vocations
As he starts his ministry as a deacon in the Port Pirie Diocese, ANTHONY DUNS reflects on his vocation journey.
In 2019 I had reached a lull in my working life as a diesel mechanic working for an oil service company and I began the process of discerning my next career move.
I had been working for my company for more than 10 years, and when the oil price crashed in 2015 almost all the people in my company lost their jobs.
Only about 12 people, including me, out of 150 were retained.
My normal daily routine of busy days working was exchanged by long periods of isolation and menial tasks with a lot of the time spent by myself in hotels, planes, airports and on oil rigs. I started to ponder where this job was leading me as I was not being fulfilled in it anymore.
I was thinking that a job back in Streaky Bay where I had been living for the past 10 years would be the path I would take; I began to pray about it.
Shortly after this resolution I had an encounter with the (Port Pirie Diocese) Vocations director Fr Harold Camonias who had come to Streaky Bay for a few days.
Fr Harold invited me to dinner where we had a talk about what I was doing and by the end of the meal Fr Harold asked me if I wanted to be a priest.
My first reaction was to laugh, and I thought to myself that my time had passed to join the priesthood as I was in my mid-40s then and that the thought of returning to study and a career change was quite daunting. But I told Fr Harold I would put it to prayer.
The next week I flew back to work and the first day at work a colleague came up to me, someone who I did not have much to do with generally and he asked me ‘do you go to Church?’. I was quite taken aback as this is something not generally discussed at work. I answered ‘yes’ and the questions kept coming.
‘Are you a Catholic, what do you believe etc’. By the end of the week I had enough of explaining my faith to him and told him that at some point it was up to him, and if he wanted to, he could accept Jesus into his life and start his own journey of faith.
He went home for the weekend and on the Monday, he came back and said, ‘after talking to you on Friday I went home and suddenly felt a calmness come over me’. He then went on to say ‘you should be a priest’.
I was quite taken aback as this was only a week after Fr Harold had asked me the same question, I stated to think that maybe this could be the pathway that God is asking me to take.
Over the next few months I began to discern more intently the path that God was leading me on. About five months later I was in Perth again and the Australian Catholic Youth Festival happened to be on.
I knew Fr Harold was in town with a group from the Port Pirie diocese so I called him and we met up after the Mass and went for dinner.
Fr Harold asked me how my discernment was going I told him that although I had many things that were pointing me in the direction of priesthood, I felt that I did not have a definite call.
I told Fr Harold that I would put it to prayer one last time before I would consider moving on to other options in my life.
By this stage the Rosary had become a daily prayer for me and by the end of praying it that night I asked God that if he wanted me for the priesthood, he had to make it clear for me.
Two days later I boarded a flight home from Perth to Adelaide – I was flying back to Port Lincoln for a diaconate ordination of a friend. As the plane took off from Perth I began to read a book and settle into the flight when I was overcome by what I can only describe as the Holy Spirit, and an intense sense of love and heat washed through my body.
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I felt the words ‘you are a priest’! I was completely overwhelmed and as my heart raced I began to ask how this would be possible and what I had to do next. I arrived at the Adelaide airport and waited for my connecting flight to Port Lincoln, still wondering how and what direction to proceed from here.
I began to pray again and as I did Bishop Greg O’Kelly SJ came walking down the airport terminal toward me. I did not need any more signs, this was enough. I ended up flying to Port Lincoln on the same flight as the bishop and decided to meet with him when I had calmed down a few weeks later; that was the start of my vocation journey.
I have spent the past three years studying in Rome and have just been ordained a deacon in St Paul’s Outside the Walls Basilica.
My journey continues and with one more year of studies in Rome and God willing after that, I will be ordained a priest back in the Port Pirie Diocese.
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