Soon-to-be priests of the diocese share vocation stories.
By Observer staff, The Observer
ROCKFORD—Transitional deacons Ryan Nooraee and Ian André Ordoñez Herrera are all set to be ordained priests for the diocese of Rockford on June 7 at the Cathedral of St. Peter. In letters they wrote to The Observer, they share their vocation stories with the people of the diocese, whom they look forward to serving.
Rev. Mr. Ryan Glenn Nooraee
As ordination approaches, Deacon Ryan Nooraee looks back on the “long road” to priesthood, which “feels like it has flown by.”
“What a great gift those years have been!” he says.
He shares his journey to the Rockford Diocese and the priesthood in this letter:
“I was born on the East Coast in Lowell, Massachusetts, to my mother Marie and my father Morgan Justin (birth name Mohammed). My mother had lived in New England all her life and my father had immigrated to the U.S from Iran in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. My brother, Ted, was born a couple years later.
“In those early years we moved around a bit. We came to Crystal Lake shortly after my brother was born. I attended Woods Creek Elementary but before my final year we moved out to Lodi, California. I completed fifth grade at the local public school but entered sixth grade at our parish’s Catholic school. At the opening of my seventh-grade year, we moved back to Crystal Lake, and I finished the year at St. Thomas the Apostle School and the next year completed middle school at Lundahl Middle School before attending high school at Crystal Lake South.
“It was those high school years when the Lord really began to work on my heart. I became involved with youth ministry and began to feel God’s call to the priesthood. I remember that during Lent, one of my practices was to attend Tuesday night adoration after track practice. It was during those hours of prayer when I would go back and forth with Jesus, asking Him what He wanted me to do, but also wrestling with the conflicting things that I wanted.
“Eventually Jesus, instead of convincing and convicting me that my vocation was the priesthood, simply and gently presented the next step: to enter seminary. I remember the phrase that kept coming up over and over again was ‘You’ll never know unless you go.’
“And so I surrendered and cast off. When I graduated from Crystal Lake South in 2017, I joined the diocese as a seminarian and attended college seminary at St. John Vianney at the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota, and afterward completed theological studies at Mundelein Seminary.
“It has been a long road, yet at the same time it feels like it has flown by. But what a great gift those years have been! God has worked so much in me, convicting me of His great love and allowing me to fall in love with this great vocation. I am so excited to be a priest and to serve the people of this diocese!
“My great hope is that Christ can continue to form my heart to be more like His, so I can better receive and love the people He will put before me.”
+Jesus, Mary, and Joseph+
(Soon-to-be) Father Ryan Nooraee
Rev. Mr. Ian André Ordoñez Herrera
Deacon Ian André Ordoñez Herrera says he wishes “my diocesan brothers and sisters ‘Pax et Bonum’ (Peace
and Goodness).”
After June 7, he adds, “you may call me Father Ian, Father Ordoñez or simply just Father.”
He shares a little about his life in this letter:
“I was born in Puebla, Mexico, to my wonderful parents, Marco and Anabel, who lovingly raised me, my older brother, Marco, and my two younger sisters, Andrea and Brenda. We grew up in Woodstock, a quiet town known for their Groundhog Day celebrations, right at the center of McHenry County.
“Growing up, my family and I would attend Spanish Mass at SS. Peter and Paul in Cary, St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake, Holy Apostles in McHenry, and at times at St. Joseph in Harvard and St. Mary in Woodstock. In retrospect, it was a gift to experience the various parish communities of our diocese even if from the same McHenry County Deanery.
“Ten years ago, when I was 20 years old, I moved to Madison to finish my last two years of my undergraduate studies at the University of Wisconsin. I studied molecular biology and English (Creative Writing).
“While I was up there, I was blessed to encounter and involve myself at the St. Paul Newman Center. Much like our own diocesan Newman Center at Northern Illinois University’s campus in DeKalb, St. Paul’s was a place for me to re-encounter the faith through beautiful liturgies, personal and intentional discipleship with the Lord, intellectually enriching fraternity, and service initiatives to those in need.
“It was during these first two years in Wisconsin that I adopted the Catholic faith for my own and, at the same time, I began to hear a call that would persistently follow me wherever I found myself: the Lord’s call to discern being His priest.
“After graduating, I stayed in Madison for two years to work as a monitoring technologist for cardiac anesthesia at the University of Wisconsin hospitals and clinics, while at the same time preparing for physician assistant school.
“During these two years I tried to ‘discern on my own,’ which, by the way, is never a good way of discerning. I would meet with Father Mark Miller, my spiritual director at that time, and Father Gregory Ihm, the vocation director for the Diocese of Madison. Every time I met with one of them, I always hoped that at least one would tell me that God was not actually calling me to be a priest, but instead, they both were certain that God was calling me to enter the seminary, that is, the proper and indicated place for (1) a man to discern with Jesus a vocation to the priesthood and (2) his necessary formation to live it well.
“After two years of wrestling with the Lord, I was certain that God was calling me into the seminary.
“After meeting and getting to know Father Kyle Manno, then-vocation director for the Rockford Diocese at that time, I filled out my applications, was accepted by Bishop Malloy and entered seminarian formation at Mundelein Seminary in the Fall of 2019.
“What I was expecting and hoping for was for the Lord to tell me: ‘Thank you, Ian, for giving me a chance, but I’m not actually calling you to be a priest.’ Instead, what I began to hear clearly and resoundingly was: ‘Yes, Ian. I have chosen you to be my priest. Follow me.’
“During these first four years of seminary formation, I discerned this frightening call with the Lord taking advantage of all the precious tools of discernment and formation that Mundelein Seminary has to offer. I knew what the Lord was calling me to, but He needed to persuade me that living out His call would bring me true happiness; and He did just that.
“By the middle of my fifth year of seminary formation, I desired nothing else than to be His celibate priest for all eternity. At the end of that fifth year, Bishop Malloy ordained me a celibate deacon of the Church.
“Now, I find myself writing to you all, my brothers and sisters, a few weeks out from my ordination into His holy priesthood. And I share with you all that I await that blessed moment without any doubts or anxiety but with loving trust in the call I receive from my best friend and most loyal companion, Jesus Christ, my Lord, and my God.
May God bless you all, and I look forward to serving you all as your priest.”
Omnes ad Iesum per Mariam (Always to Jesus through Mary),
(Soon-to-be) Father Ian Ordoñez
