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Former lawyer eager to begin life as priest

Leslie Miller | Catholic Herald Staff Writer

Deacon Charles C. Pavlick will be a parochial vicar at St. Timothy Church in Chantilly. MATT RIEDL | CATHOLIC HERALD

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For Deacon Charles C. Pavlick, the hardest part of the past year
has been waiting for his new life as a priest to start. 

As the year went on and his final year of seminary continued, “I
just wanted to be in the parish, and really be a priest,” said Deacon Pavlick,
53, who discerned a call to the priesthood after a career as a lawyer

As “an older person coming in,” he said the six years spent
preparing to become a priest were important, even after discerning the question
of “what is God calling me to do and who is he calling me to be.”

There were also “all these little steps along the way that let
you know if you can do it,” he said, noting he was happy to discover that sharing
a bathroom down the hall and “being pleasant at a very early hour” were within
his powers.

His first parish assignment will be at St. Timothy Church in
Chantilly, one of the larger parishes in the diocese. He was there for the
summer and on weekends while attending Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg,
Md., and has been staying in the rectory since late March, while Virginia has
been under a statewide stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the
coronavirus. 

After “getting a head start here getting to know people,” being
able to stay means “I don’t have to say a lot of goodbyes,” something that has
been difficult every summer as a seminarian. “Each parish has its own
personality and feel. And I have been blessed with wonderful people,” he said.
He previously served at St. Philip Church in Falls Church, Our Lady of Hope
Church in Potomac Falls and St. Ambrose Church in Annandale.

He appreciates life in the rectory at St. Timothy’s, where each
priest gets some necessary private time, but they also “make the time to do
some things together as a group — pray, eat, socialize. We do lunch together,
our main communal meal of the day after noon Mass, and it kind of gives a focus
to come together for that.” 

He also loves the “rhythm of praying the psalms” at morning and evening
prayer to anchor the day and looks forward to praying the Liturgy of the Hours
with his new community.

One of the highlights of the past year as a deacon has been
preaching, he said. “As you do it more and more, you get to know the Gospels
better, and when you’re preparing to preach each week, it’s more of a prayerful
reflection, in depth, because you’re spending your week with the Gospel.” 

He also said that getting to know a parish affects his preaching.
“You’re trying to relate the Gospel to the specific lives and faces you know.
It’s challenging, but really rewarding seeing the theology applied in real
people’s lives.” 

Miller can be reached at [email protected]
or on Twitter at @LMillerACH.

 

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