Deacon Joseph Nguyen’s vocation “came in gradually,” he said, with no “aha moment.” But St. John the Baptist has been a recurring figure since his fourth year of college seminary.

For one month, during January term in 2018, he stayed at St. John the Baptist in Savage, the closest parish to his home where, at the time, then-Father Donald DeGrood, served as pastor. Today he is bishop of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Joseph NguyenThe experience of being at the parish for an extended period of time with the example of then-Father DeGrood helped Deacon Nguyen discern his vocation.

“I got to understand the pastoral love, and the love of the people of the parish, and seeing the example of Father DeGrood,” he said.

Deacon Nguyen is among five men who will be ordained priests for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul 10 a.m. May 28.

In Savage, he also was able to spend time in the parish school classrooms “learning how things work at a school,” he said. “Sometimes the teacher would ask me to introduce myself, maybe help out with a spelling quiz … But just to be there with the kids and kind of fully experience … that love of a priest being with his people,” said Deacon Nguyen, 26, a member of St. Anne-St. Joseph Hien in Minneapolis.

Being at St. John the Baptist built up his desire for the priesthood, Deacon Nguyen said, in large part by then-Father DeGrood’s example. The seminarian observed the priest’s love for people and his prayerful and fraternal nature.

“He’s been very encouraging about priesthood,” he said.

One year later, he spent January 2019 at St. John the Baptist in Excelsior, learning from Father Alex Carlson. Deacon Nguyen said living at the parish, “working with the people, just loving them, being with them was also a very great help for me.”

Halfway through Deacon Nguyen’s time there, Father Carlson began a leave of absence and Deacon Nguyen was “the only guy with the collar on at that time.”

“Father showed me the ropes the first two weeks and now these next two weeks, I’m here to serve,” he said, which he found “enjoyable,” and reaffirming of the vocation.

Every day he woke up at 5 a.m. full of energy, Deacon Nguyen said. He drove to the parish, waited for Mass and school to start, “for things to happen in the office” and he stayed until about 10 p.m. — for two weeks straight.

“Usually, that would cause guys to stress out or burn out, but doing that gave me life,” he said. “I looked forward to it every day.”

Immersed in parish life those two weeks, Deacon Nguyen said “that was a big moment for me to … realize this is probably what God is calling me to do.”

Deacon Nguyen brought continuity for people at the parish who had gotten to know him over his first two weeks. He helped the visiting priest, talked to people after Mass, visited classes, helped with lunch, joined parish meetings. “I loved every single moment of it,” he said.

And this past summer, after being ordained a deacon, Deacon Nguyen served at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton with Father Paul Shovelain.

The son of Hue and Lang Nguyen, Deacon Nguyen is also grateful for the experience serving the past four years at his teaching parish, St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park, shadowing Father Dennis Zehren while preparing men and women for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, being present at Mass and, after his diaconate ordination last May, preaching.