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Deacon Eilen's life experiences led him to become a priest |
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By Julie Carroll
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Thursday, 21 May 2009 |
At age 49, some might consider Deacon Allan Paul Eilen a “late vocation” to the priesthood. But he thinks he’s right on time.
Deacon Allan Paul Eilen
“If I could have entered the seminary 20 years ago, I would have,” said
Deacon Eilen. “But the Lord knew I wasn’t ready. I needed to go through
certain experiences to get to the point where I could give my free
‘yes.’”
Those experiences included working as a courier and in management at
HealthEast Care System for 20 years, the deaths of his parents, and an
engagement to be married.
Although painful at times, Deacon Eilen said, the events of his life
helped shape him into the man he is today — and the priest he will soon
become.
As a child, Eilen remembers “playing Mass” with his seven siblings in
their Delano home. His brother Michael, the oldest child, played the
part of the priest, while Allan was an altar server.
“We consumed large quantities of bread and grape juice, not always very reverently,” he said with a chuckle.
When Deacon Eilen was in high school, Michael entered St. John Vianney
College Seminary in St. Paul. During that time, Deacon Eilen said, he
had fleeting thoughts of becoming a priest, but always assumed he would
marry.
It wasn’t until the late 1980s, when Deacon Eilen was around 30 years
old, that he began to think seriously about the priesthood.
Deacon Allan Paul Eilen
Age: 49
Hometown: Delano
Home parish: St. Agnes, St. Paul
Parents: Alphonse and Genevieve Eilen, both deceased
Education: Bachelor’s degree in biology from the College of St. Thomas
Former career: Courier and manager for HealthEast Care System, phlebotomist
Teaching parish: St. Pius X, White Bear Lake
Pastoral internship experiences: Clinical pastoral
education at St. Mary’s Hospital, Duluth; St. Joseph in West St. Paul;
Assumption in Richfield for Hispanic ministry experience; Epiphany in
Coon Rapids
Hobbies: Sports, fishing, hiking, hunting, travel, gardening, music
Favorite seminary classes: “Moral Theology,” taught by
Christopher Thompson and Father Peter Laird; and “Perspectives in
Catholicism,” taught by Bishop Frederick Campbell
Favorite movies: “Jesus of Nazareth,” “The Sound of Music”
People he most admires: Jesus, Pope John Paul II, Pope
Benedict XVI, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Thérèse of Lisieux
(he is a Third Order Carmelite) and Blessed Junipero Serra (he was a
Serran before entering the seminary)
Thanksgiving Masses:
• Sunday, May 31, 10 a.m., St. Agnes in St. Paul
• Sunday, June 7, 10 a.m., St. Pius X in White Bear Lake
• Sunday, June 14, 10:30 a.m., St. Peter in Delano
• Sunday, June 21, 5:30 p.m., Epiphany in Coon Rapids
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Planting a seed
At church, several people asked
Deacon Eilen if he had considered becoming a priest. “I remember one in
particular who had a connection with the Legionaries [of Christ]
because her son was with them,” Deacon Eilen said. “She said she could
have somebody here the next day to talk to me [about the priesthood].”
Deacon Eilen’s response was, “Whoa, I’m not ready for this!” But a seed had been planted.
In 1993, Deacon Eilen and his brother Michael joined St. Agnes parish
in St. Paul, where both sang in the choir. The late Msgr. Richard
Schuler and Father Robert Altier provided spiritual direction to Deacon
Eilen.
“I leaned on my oldest brother [Michael] at that time, too,” he added,
“because he had been through that discernment process.” Today, Michael
is married with six children.
Over the next few years, Deacon Eilen continued to discern his calling.
In 1997, he became engaged to a woman he had been dating. “When you get
engaged, there should be peace and joy looking forward to the marriage
day, and there wasn’t,” he said. “There was an anxiety and restlessness
that the Lord, in his mercy, allowed me to struggle through, and it
became apparent that the Lord was taking us in different directions.”
After Deacon Eilen and his fiancée separated, he spent countless hours in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, he said.
“I had to get over the little hurdle that just going into [the seminary] didn’t mean I was going to be a priest.”
Deacon Eilen came to realize that “a discernment process is not so much
a matter of doing things, it’s a matter of being or letting go and
allowing God’s love in.” He learned to focus on the good he would gain
by entering the seminary rather than everything he would be giving up.
“And there was a peace that came,” he said.
In 2003, 20 years after Deacon Eilen had graduated from the
then-College of St. Thomas, he returned to the campus to enroll in the
St. Paul Seminary.
“When I entered, I knew that was where I needed to be,” he said.
As a deacon, he had the privilege of baptizing his niece. He also preached at his mother’s funeral in February.
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