MERRILLVILLE – Sandy Butler explains her devotion to supporting priestly vocations very simply and directly.
“If you don’t have a priest, you don’t have Mass, the Eucharist or any other sacraments,” she said. “You don’t have your Catholic faith.”
That belief has driven Butler, of Michigan City, to devote her time to priestly vocations since 2014, when her parish, Queen of All Saints (now Mary, Mother of Mercy) in Michigan City, established a Vocations Ministry.
“I was a member of the Spirituality and Worship Commission, and I was asked by our then-pastor, Father Kevin Huber, to set up the new ministry,” Butler explained. “The first thing we did was to obtain a vocations cross to start circulating it among our parishioners, which we have since August 2014.”
Another vocations cross circulates through the classrooms of Queen of All Saints School, presented to a different class each week at the school Mass by the celebrant. Her parish’s Vocations Ministry hosts Holy Hours to pray for vocations four times a year and invites all current seminarians to attend the May event, timed to occur after the school year.
“We also have prayer cards available in our adoration chapel that visitors can fill out with a priest or seminarian’s name, detailing whether the visitor is saying a Rosary, dedicating a Mass, attending adoration or praying other prayers. I gather them and distribute them to the priests and seminarians,” Butler noted, providing inspiration. “Several of the young men have commented that they know it’s those prayers that get them through tough days.”
Butler herself also sends birthday and holiday cards to all seminarians, often adding small gifts.
Now leading both the Vocations Ministry and Eucharist Adoration Chapel, Butler has served Mary Mother of Mercy as a lector, Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Masses and to the homebound, and leader of the church cleaning team.
For all of her efforts, Butler is the recipient of this year’s Guardian Angel Award for the Diocese of Gary, which will be presented at the annual Black Tie, White Collar Gala hosted by the diocesan vocations office on Friday, Sept. 18, from 6-10:30 p.m. at Avalon Manor Banquet Center in Merrillville.
This is the fourth year for the award, said diocesan Vocations Director Father Nathaniel Edquist, also the pastor at St. Paul in Valparaiso. When Holy Angels Church in Gary was chosen to become the cathedral of the new Diocese of Gary in 1957, the Holy Angels, or Guardian Angels, officially became the patron saints of the diocese.
“When it comes to vocations, there are those who give a tap and a nudge and encourage others to answer that call (to the priesthood), so we recognize someone each year who takes on that role,” said Father Edquist. “We seek out those who deserve that recognition, typically a lay person who has dedicated a lot of time to supporting vocations, someone who may have gone unnoticed, and our vocations staff reaches a consensus for the award.”
Past recipients have included Peggy Guernsey, retired vocations secretary, Jim Thiel, who makes the vocation crosses, and Jack Serletic, a 50-year member of the local Serra Club.
“Sandy Butler has been the organizer of the Vocations Ministry at the former Queen of All Saints, introducing Vocation Holy Hours with speakers, sending care packages to seminarians and packaging goodies for our seminary trips for young men discerning a vocation,” Father Edquist said. “She encourages young men at her own Michigan City parishes to consider a calling to the priesthood.”
The Guardian Angels Award is named to recognize those who have helped assist Diocese of Gary seminarians and other young men considering a call to priestly service, he added. “Each year, we highlight someone who has demonstrated excellence and a commitment to promoting vocations and supporting our seminarians, and this year that person is Sandy Butler.”
Butler is convinced that the current shortage of Catholic priests does not mean that God has stopped calling young men, just that in some cases they have stopped answering, and it is her mission to encourage more of them to say yes.
In addition to her husband, Donald Butler, her family includes children Kimberly Spaulding of South Bend, and Kathlen Gushrowski, of Michigan City, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, along with all of the seminarians she has nurtured. “A couple of them have said that I am like a mother to them and, after they were ordained, they said, ‘I wouldn’t be standing here without your prayers,’” she recalled with a smile. “That makes me feel good.”
The Black Tie, White Collar Gala will open at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, at Avalon Manor Banquet Center in Merrillville with a one-hour open bar and appetizers, followed by dinner and the program at 7 p.m. A live and silent auction is included, followed by music and dancing until 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $100, and registration is available at https://onecau.se/btwc26, or contact Jo Anne Rosenow at 769-9292 or jrosenow@dcgary.org for more information.
Caption: Smiling as she works, volunteer Sandy Butler helps set up on Aug. 11 at Camp Lawrence in Valparaiso for the Diocese of Gary Priests’ Picnic, which had to be moved from Aug. 12 to Aug. 19 due to the damaging storm that moved through Northwest Indiana as the work continued. Butler will receive this year’s Diocese of Gary Guardian Angel Award at the Vocations Office’s Black Tie, White Collar Gala on Sept. 18. (Marlene A. Zloza photo)
