Deacon John Francis O’Farrell has learned that life works out better with God in the driver’s seat.
The youngest of four boys in an Irish Catholic family from Philadelphia, he was born Jan. 24, the feast of St. Francis de Sales. He said his mom wanted to call him Francis, but his dad, a cop, insisted on John.
A former project manager with the U.S. Census Bureau, he grew up “trying to control situations,” but that rarely worked out.
During Eucharistic adoration in 2014, while sitting “in silence and just being in the presence, not thinking about things that have gone wrong or what to do next,” he finally heard God’s call to the priesthood, and “a lot of the trials in my life, the whole mosaic, all made sense,” said Deacon O’Farrell, 49.
When he left the Census Bureau to go to seminary, “I wasn’t running away from something, I was running toward something. Seminary is all about letting go and becoming who God wants you to be. He wants us to be the happiest we can be.”
Although he attended Catholic schools, he never learned to pray the rosary or spend time in adoration until he was an adult. When he asked his mom to teach him how to pray the rosary at age 32 during a challenging time in his life, she was stunned that he didn’t know. Now he considers the rosary and adoration two pillars of his prayer life, in addition to the Mass. “Just ask Our Lady for help and she’ll bring you to Jesus,” he said.
A parishioner of the Basilica of St. Mary in Alexandria, Deacon O’Farrell said one of the things he looks forward to most about the priesthood is being an instrument of healing, and helping people find the peace that they need. “When you surrender to the Lord, that’s when you have peace.”
“We’re all broken — it’s OK to be broken, but where do you go to be healed?” He believes confession is “an instrument that can bring joy and peace by allowing us to unburden ourselves. You feel a lot lighter, and God wants us to feel lighter, so we can soar like eagles,” he added.
He sees his life ahead as being “full of wonder and surprises,” and said his aim is to “not try to figure it all out, but to let it unfold. We always try to figure out the mystery. I want to have the patience to let God work through my rough edges, like he’s done my whole life.”
He has many favorite saints, but as his ordination approaches, Deacon O’Farrell has been suggesting people pray to St. Anthony of Padua, who is often invoked as the patron saint of lost things.
And he’s not just talking about help finding misplaced keys. “God wants us to ask for the big stuff,” he said.
He will be assigned as parochial vicar of St. Theresa Parish in Ashburn.
