Retreat transformed my life

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

Austin Barr, a lifelong parishioner of St. Anselm Parish in Madisonville, grew up in Mandeville and later moved with his family a mile down the road to Madisonville. He attended Mandeville High School, which had a large number of Catholics among its coed student body of 2,000.

But, until Barr went to the University of Louisiana (UL) in Lafayette to study kinesiology – he had thought he might one day become an occupational therapist like his mom – he had never been on an extended Catholic retreat.

“When I was in high school, I think our confirmation retreat was a daylong thing, but I had never done an intensive retreat,” Barr recalled.

What happened over the next three days of silence, adoration and prayer at the retreat hosted by Our Lady of Wisdom, UL’s Catholic Student Center, transformed his life. For the first time in his life, he felt God probing him to consider the priesthood.

“It was three days of silence, and it was called a spiritual boot camp,” Barr said. “It was a very powerful experience on the retreat. It was personal prayer, adoration and just an experience of God’s love, just the divine feeling of really being loved. The call came almost immediately after that, but it took some time because it came and then I didn’t really know what to do with that.

“It was first and foremost an affirmation of love, that I was loved. And then it was like, ‘Oh, that feels good,’ and then it was, ‘You’re loved, and you were created to be a priest.’ It didn’t bring any fear or nervousness or anxiety. That came later when I started looking more in depth into what that entailed.”

Active in his faith

Barr had remained very active in his faith as a teenager. Even at his public high school, he recalled former principal Bruce Bundy allowing time during morning announcements for students to engage in quiet reflection.

“We would have moments of silence, moments that were kind of prayer when major things were going on in the world or in our community,” Barr said. “Most of my closest friends were Catholic, and a lot of them went to Mary Queen of Peace, which was right across the street.”

The church on the UL campus had a welcoming rhythm for study and even offered a 9 p.m. Sunday Mass to accommodate students’ busy schedules.

“But in my freshman year, the faith wasn’t necessarily the most animating principle of my life,” Barr said. “As I got more involved in going to Mass and hearing the preaching, through the invitation of friends, I learned more and more. Daily Mass became more of a regular occurrence. Confession, adoration and the sacramental life became a bigger deal for me.”

Barr said his experience at Our Lady of Wisdom, which was directed for 11 years by Father Bryce Sibley, nurtured and strengthened his faith. In 2022, Father Sibley left Our Lady of Wisdom to become a professor of moral theology at Notre Dame Seminary.

“He followed me here,” Barr said jokingly of the priest who had counseled him about considering the seminary.

It took about two years from the initial “call” on his freshman retreat for Barr to begin acting on the possibility. He had told some close friends that he was considering it, and his ongoing spiritual conversations with Father Sibley and Father René Pellessier helped confirm it.

He contacted Father Kurt Young, then the vocations director of the Archdiocese of New Orleans in January 2018, and enrolled eight months later.

As his ordination to the transitional diaconate approaches, Barr said he has a sense that he is following God’s will.

“My closest friends who really know me well have just noticed within me a kind of joy building up,” he said.

Even though the prospect of preaching is a bit “nerve-wracking,” Barr said he is looking forward to delivering his first real homilies.

“It’s not necessarily the public speaking aspect but just the idea that people will be really listening,” he said. “I’m not used to people listening to me all the time, especially in the first three minutes. It’s good to feel the weight of that. There’s a good, kind of healthy balance to it. I just look forward to letting the Lord work through me.”

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