Some people will say Joseph Yao, 49, is a late vocation. Well, better late than never. He entered the Society of Jesus ten years ago and was ordained to the priesthood on July 30.

“I was a Sunday Catholic in my youth,” said Joseph, who is number four in a family of seven children. He studied at St. Gabriel’s Primary School and St. Joseph’s Institution, and then went to Canada where he graduated in computer science. Joseph then worked for 12 years in the computer and finance industries in Singapore.

“After I started working, I became very worldly,” Joseph revealed with candour. He felt more and more distant from God but “at the same time there was this prompting of the Spirit, especially in my conscience, that this was not the way to live my life,” he said.

“God calls us all the time, to a closer and more intimate union with him,” he added.

“If you don’t tune in or are not predisposed to hear, you don’t hear him. I did not pay attention to his call until my spiritual life started going downhill, then the call to repentance and conversion became increasingly intense, so I said to God in the end, ‘I give up fighting you. I will come back to you, be close to you.’”

Having made the decision to come back to God, Joseph proceeded to prepare to make a thorough confession. “It took three days to recall and write down the sins spanning 30 years of my life.”

That confession was the turning point in his life.

“With that confession came a deep conversion and the desire to pray and to attend daily Mass. Then came the idea of the priesthood – to help other people be reconciled with God.”

Joseph’s eldest sister who was already a nun –Sister Veronica Yao, FMDM – introduced him to the Jesuits. “She knew I had thoughts of becoming a priest,” he said.

Joseph remembered May 1, 1994 as the day that he first visited the Jesuits at their Open House. He became an aspirant and found that his “mind was less and less on making money while his heart was getting closer to the religious life.”

“I came, I experienced, I stayed,” he laughed.

At a discernment retreat he encountered God in a new way. “That was when I first heard God speaking to me through the Scriptures. I realized that if through this one-to-one directed retreat I can hear Jesus talking to me, I must be in the right place. It just seemed right.”

Joseph entered the novitiate in 1995, followed by studies in Philosophy (a requirement for studying Theology) in the Philippines.

His regency – the period of full time apostolic work – was spent in Cambodia where the Jesuits ran a vocational training centre for the physically disabled.

“Most of our students are from a farming background. They are physically disabled because of landmines or congenital birth defects,” Joseph shared. “The vocational centre trains them in carpentry, welding, sculpture, sewing, electronics, and motorcycle repair.”

Joseph served as an animator in the Production Department of the vocational training centre, sourcing work for graduates of the centre from clients including non-governmental organizations like the American Red Cross and Handicap International.

Joseph’s regency provided him with a deeper conviction of his vocation and sparked a passion in him to help the poor. “When you live and work with the poor – some of whom are the poorest of the poor – you get a real sense and experience of what it means to see and love Jesus in the poor, to bring the Good News of the Lord to the poor and the needy.”

Following his regency Joseph requested of his superiors to be sent to Taiwan for theological studies, hoping to be sent to China one day to evangelize to the masses there. Studying theology in Mandarin was not easy.

“My first language is English. I think, dream, and pray in English,” he explained. “In Taiwan, all the classes, assignments and examinations were in Mandarin. It was a challenge but it was also an opportunity to reclaim my roots as a Chinese, to get back to my culture.”

Age was also a factor. “Studying when you are not so young was really a challenge,” he said. There were times when the pressure from deadlines for papers and examinations made him feel like giving up, but prayer pulled him through.

“During those difficult times, my prayers of petition were answered in ways beyond expectation. When you are sincerely trying to do God’s will, He will intervene when you need help. God really answers prayers.”

So what happens after ordination? Joseph, who enjoys reading works of fiction in his spare time, revealed, “I have received my mission to be assistant parish priest in Singapore and I am happy about it.”— Source: Interview by Sister Wendy Ooi, Fsp for Catholic News, July 24.

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