Father Collins grateful for parishioners’ work during 50 years of priesthood
The vocation of priesthood for Father Thomas R. Collins, who will celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ordination on May 13, has not unfolded in the way that he originally thought it would.
“But that’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “You find as time goes on, your basic paradigm shifts, and it’s not a shift in terms of just adapting to something, but in appreciating different dimensions of our faith and how it really applies to us.”
Growing up, Father Collins attended Catholic school, and his family, who relocated to northern Virginia when the priest was about 12 years old, was “always very much involved” with the Church.
Father Collins said that reading about missionary priests while he was in grade school helped kindle a desire to pursue a vocation to the priesthood.
“The missionary fathers were very, very good examples to us of that missionary spirit,” he said, adding that the pastor of St. John in McLean, Virginia, where his family attended Mass, had been a missionary who served in China.
“Originally, I was thinking about becoming a missionary, but picking up languages is not my strong point,” he said with a laugh. “So I ended up staying with the American Church.”
Solidifying vocation
Father Collins attended St. John Vianney Minor Seminary, Richmond, for high school, which he called a “natural progression” from the Catholic education he had already received.
“We were very blessed to have Msgr. (Chester) Michael as the rector. He was very good as far as psychology and everything else helping with developmental stages for youth. He did a good job that way,” the priest said. “They had a good staff over there.”
While attending St. John Vianney, Father Collins began to seriously consider a vocation to the priesthood.
“Basically, I could see in the world that there was a real need for coming to a deeper appreciation for the richness of the faith,” he said. “I guess the thing is seeing that Jesus Christ and his love and his truth are changeless – it was the same yesterday and forever. And for people to be really grounded, we have to have a common point of reference,” he said.
He attended St. Charles College in Catonsville, Maryland, for two years and finished his undergraduate education at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore. He then earned a Master of Divinity from St. Mary’s in 1971.
Multiple parish assignments
After being ordained a priest by Bishop John J. Russell on May 13, 1972, Father Collins was assigned as associate pastor of Sacred Heart, Richmond.
In 1973, he became associate pastor of Assumption Parish in Keyser, West Virginia, which at that time was part of the Diocese of Richmond.
When the current diocesan boundaries were reformed in 1974 – when the Dioceses of Arlington and Wheeling-Charleston were established – Father Collins was serving at St. Paul, Weirton, in the western part of West Virginia.
“Then one of the priests of the Wheeling Diocese wanted to return to Wheeling, so I was traded back to Richmond and went from Weirton in West Virginia down to Holy Trinity in Norfolk,” he recalled.
He served as associate pastor at Holy Trinity until 1976 and at St. Paul, Richmond, for the following two years.
Father Collins was assigned to his first pastorate in 1978 at Sacred Heart, Covington. Other pastorates include St. Anthony, Norton (1990- 1996); Church of St. Mary of the Holy Family, Richlands (1996-2005); and Church of St. Joseph of the Holy Family, Grundy (1999-2005).
Between 2005-2010, Father Collins was on a leave of absence, but he said he was “helping out at different parishes” during that time.
“Eventually when there was a need for priests over in Covington again, I got reassigned over at St. Joseph in Clifton Forge,” he said.
Father Collins served as parochial vicar of the cluster parishes of Sacred Heart, Covington; St. Joseph, Clifton Forge; and Shrine of the Sacred Heart, Hot Springs, until he reached retirement age in 2018.
“Since 2019, I’ve been up here in Hot Springs, and basically the arrangement is that I have most of the Masses up here, and once a month, Father Augustine (Lukenge) comes up just to check on things and make sure everything is running smoothly, and I go down to cover the Masses in Covington and Clifton Forge,” he said.
No ‘salmon spirituality’
The jubilarian said that a real success of his priesthood has been “good people stepping in and helping out” with repair projects and various other needs – of which there are many, according to Father Collins.
“I find the real strong point is growing in appreciation for the way in which parishioners step in to help take care of things and to make up for my inadequacies,” he said. “I realize how much we really need one another.”
Father Collins identified “having an appreciation of the eucharistic Christ” as a key component of him remaining happy in his 50 years of priesthood.
“A lot of times, you hear about the Eucharist being the source and summit of the Church’s life, but I’ve found great spiritual solace in adding another word: the Eucharist is the source, the sustenance and the summit of the Church’s life,” Father Collins said. “We are nurtured not just eucharistically, but also by the Mystical Body of Christ, so I find there’s a great analogy between Mystical Body of Christ and eucharistic body of Christ. It’s very, very rich. If you leave out sustenance, you end up in the danger of what I call ‘salmon spirituality.’”
He explained that salmon spend most of their lives in the ocean and return to the rivers where they hatched to lay their own eggs and die.
“The thing is, we are called not to be salmon in our spirituality, but to abide in the midst of the Eucharist and all of its beautiful and transformative dimensions.”
‘Great gift’ for priests
Father Collins said that Isaiah 55, in which the faithfulness of God’s word to humanity is explained, has been “a key point of reference for discerning what’s the best course of action to take in certain situations.”
Being able to administer the sacrament of reconciliation has been “a great gift” for the priest “due to the fact that the Church really grows by means of a deepening repentance.”
“I like to see it in the sense of the grace of God whereby we seek to love beyond our ability… that means growing in virtue,” he said. “Any virtue I seem to have is merely my showing gratitude for what has been entrusted to me by the prayers and sacrifices of others and through them seeking repentance in terms of loving beyond their ability, in terms of having enough courage and humility to ask for help.”
To mark his anniversary, Father Collins said he will get together with some of his friends, and that there will be “little celebrations here and there.”
“But,” he added, “the real celebration is found in the real zeal in Catholics who, in spite of all the problems and chaos we’ve had (in the Church and the world) over the years, seek to be faithful to Christ.”