Catholic church welcomes new priest, Paul Raj
Father Paul Raj in the garden at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
Father Paul Raj, a missionary priest from India, is now serving at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Crawfordville.
Father Paul came from a Catholic family in India. In his early teens, Paul didn’t know anything about the priesthood. “But I was helping the pastor for two years, at that time I felt like a Samuel when God called him,” he said.
One night he thought he heard the pastor calling his name. “I felt many times my pastor was calling. I went and asked him, but I didn’t know anything at that time. I asked him, did he call me? He said, ‘I did not call you, Paul.’ Again and again, I heard my name called.”
After some time, Paul came to understand that it was a calling from God. Soon after, one of the directors of the Jesuits came to Paul’s church and told him to go with him. He joined the seminary in 1997, and became a priest in 2005. “So he took me to the camp, and then I began my journey. Now it is good to have almost 18 years of priesthood,” he said.
Father Paul is part of a missionary society called the Heralds Of Good News and still is active in the group when they call on him.
“The congregation’s motivation is to proclaim the good news,” he says. At the end of the year, In 2006, Father Paul went to Tanzania as a missionary and was there for 10 years, and was a pastor there for six years. “So there were seven church substations there. It was a very big community. I enjoyed my ministry there.”
After completing his time there in 2016, Father Paul came to the United States and was first stationed in Fort Walton Beach.
Before coming here, Paul prayed to God and asked: “What is the purpose for me to come to the U.S.? What is my ministry there?”
“But the voice that always comes said to me, ‘Bring one soul to me, just bring one soul.”
“God gives me the great opportunity to experience the person of Jesus,” he said. “More than teaching someone else, I wanted to learn the experience of the true person, the real person of Jesus, and the holiness of Christ. That’s why I feel and believe that my Jesus is there everywhere I go.”
In the church, Father Paul teaches, “Whenever you come to the church, our duty is to create fellowship with the Lord. We connect our religions with God, the personal experience, the personal Jesus. I also teach the people that when you come to the church, empty your mind. Let God speak.”
“You come to church to listen to the voice of God,” he said. “God speaks to you through the word of God. If you store too much in your mind, what happens? You overthink, so you don’t know what you are praying for.
“When you pray, pray from the heart, not from the mind.”
Father Paul holds mass at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton on Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m., Thursdays at 8:30 a.m., Fridays at 9 a.m., Saturdays at 5 p.m., and Sundays at 11 a.m.
“In this way, I am completely occupied for six days.”
Seeing how touched the people are during church, Father Paul feels complete in God’s will for his life. “That is the soul God sent me to preach.” he says.
“Even though I come from a different country, the people put in more effort to understand me. Something touches them. I feel it. That is the soul God wants,” Father Paul said.
“Wherever I go, my mind is just to bring one soul.”