Fr. Jason Hage participates in the Great NYS Marathon to raise funds for vocations
By Eileen Jevis
Staff writer
“Running a marathon requires endurance, perseverance, and discipline — qualities that also mark the journey to discernment,” said Fr. Jason Hage, who recently ran a 26.2-mile marathon — an event he personally developed to raise funds and awareness for the St. Thomas Aquinas Fund. The Fund within the diocese supports the recruitment, education, and formation for seminarians and deacon candidates.
For months, Fr. Hage, director of the Office of Vocation Promotion and pastor of Mary, Mother of Our Savior Parish, formerly Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of the Rosary in Utica, trained for the marathon “steadily and prayerfully,” offering each mile as a sacrifice for the intention of an increase in vocations in the diocese. “I wanted to use this opportunity to unite my personal focus on clergy health and wellness with the ministry of vocation promotion,” he said.
The deacons of our diocese receive six years of education and training to enable them to undertake the shared responsibility of the bishop and priests to serve the people in our diocese. The average yearly cost to support a deacon candidate in formation is approximately $4,500.
A seminarian’s journey requires at least eight years of education, including a bachelor’s degree, and a Master of Divinity (M.Div.). The average yearly cost to support a seminarian is $50,000. The program helps the seminarian to be formed by way of the four pillars of priestly formation: human, intellectual, pastoral, and spiritual.
Fr. Hage heading toward the finish line. Photo courtesy of Charles and Diane Hage.
Fr. Dennis Walker, pastor of the Church of the Nativity at St. Leo in Tully; St. Patrick Mission in Otisco; St. Joseph in Lafayette; and Immaculate Conception in Pompey, said he benefited in many ways from the St. Thomas Fund. He attended St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Md., which like many institutions of higher learning comes at a considerable cost. “I am fortunate that my master’s program was funded by the diocese and the St. Thomas Fund,” Fr. Walker said.
Since his ordination in 2021, Fr. Walker said that through the support of the fund, he and other priests and deacons are able to meet the changing needs of their parishioners. “The work a priest does is quite varied, so it is important that we continually educate ourselves in the areas of moral theology, spiritual theology, Scripture, and many other areas,” he said. “I am grateful to have the financial support for my ongoing formation.”
“Without priests, there is no Eucharist, and without the Eucharis,t there is no Church, Fr. Hage said. “Every prayer, every encouragement, every financial gift helps secure the sacramental life of our Church for the future.”
To donate to the fund, checks made payable to the St. Thomas Aquinas Fund can be mailed to the Syracuse Diocese, 240 E. Onondaga Street, Syracuse, NY, 13202. Visit
https://syracusediocese.org/st-thomas-aquinas-fund for more information or to donate electronically.
