Toowoomba Catholic Br Isaac Seraphin Webb made his first profession with the Capuchin Friars at Wynnum’s Guardian Angels Church this month, The Catholic Leader reports.

Br Isaac, 21, said it was all still sinking in and it was difficult to put in words how much it meant to him.

He said he felt blessed to be there with his Capuchin fraternity and his family, including Sister of Life Rose Patrick O’Connor, Toowoomba priest Fr Nathan Webb and seven other siblings there that day.

He had just returned from his novitiate year in California. His next step was to go to Melbourne for study to continue his discernment with the Capuchins.

“It’s the simplicity and authenticity in the living of the Gospel that really attracted me to the charism (of the Capuchins),” Br Isaac said.

“Growing up, and seeing some of the divisions in the Church, I thought why can’t we just be Catholic? Just deeply living the faith, and I think I saw that in the friars and in the writings of (St) Francis.”

He said when he was first discerning, he had not realised St Francis had written anything.

“Then starting to read his writings, and he wrote quite a bit … it wasn’t so much that I was discovering something new as discovering my desire articulated already.”

He felt drawn to religious life from his youth.

He said growing up he had been inspired by the “example of my parents and for me, the example of Sister Rose and Nathan, growing up and their desire to pursue (their vocations)”.

Br Isaac said family rosary and praying the Liturgy of the Hours were important aspects of that example.

“The daily prayer as a family helped me to see that prayer isn’t something you go out to do, you don’t just go out to church to pray, but it’s integral to the Catholic life,” he said.

“It was also a comfortable step for me moving into religious community because I’d almost been doing that already – we had been praying the liturgy of the hours, we’d been living in community.”

He also had memories lying in bed and reading about the lives of the saints, and especially the life of Dominican St Martin de Porres and his life of self-giving.

“That really ignited me for the simplicity of living religious life,” he said.

Before joining the Capuchins he worked for three years as a groundskeeper having studied landscape construction.

“That’s something I still enjoy doing and do at a lot of the friaries wherever I’m stationed,” he said.

He said the work also left him plenty of time for reflection and had helped him in his discernment.

“Sitting on a mower for eight hours a day, there’s not a lot to do except prayer, contemplation and plenty of time for reflection. That was great for me in my discernment.”

He said a significant part of his postulancy had been discerning a religious name, which he had taken as Seraphin.

There was a Capuchin saint from the 1600s called St Seraphin of Montegranaro.

Br Isaac read his biography and something about his life had connected with him.

“He never learned to read or write his entire life but he just lived a life of simplicity, perseverance through trial and a lot of his life resonated with me,” he said.

It had a unique connection to his own family tradition.

“Whenever mum was expecting us children, they would always give us a name before we were born and because they didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, they would just give us a name to call the child and my name was actually ‘Baby Angel’,” he said.

“So now, taking the name Seraphin I hadn’t even made the connection until I had decided to take the name.”

Seraphin was taken from Seraphim, which according to St Thomas Aquinas’ hierarchy of angels ranks highest among the choirs of angels and is on fire because of its love and closeness to God.

“Really from before I was born, I was called that – and from Psalm 139, ‘Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you’.

“Without my realising, I’d been bearing the name in some form my whole life.”

This article by Joe Higgins was published in The Catholic Leader.