By David Karas|Correspondent

While many are excited when considering the prospect of retirement, Father James J. Sauchelli is an exception.

Ordained May 25, 1963, by Archbishop Thomas A. Boland in Sacred Heart Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Newark, Father Sauchelli has spent the greater part of his life in service to the Church.

So, when it came time for him to retire for health reasons, he found himself in a dilemma of sorts.

“I was so scared of retirement,” he said, recalling himself contemplating what he would do to fill the days. “I have been a priest all these years.”

Not wanting to be idle for long, Father Sauchelli has found ways to continue his ministry, even in retirement. He fills in for weekend Masses, hears confessions and presides over special services, including funerals, whenever he is needed.

“I am not completely out of the priesthood. I am still part of it,” he said, adding that he enjoys the balance of his present workload. “I don’t feel the pressure anymore. At the same time, if they need me I am there.”

He said that, especially in retirement, it is comforting to know he is still part of his Catholic family.

“I am still part of the parish,” he said. “I feel really much part of the parish. It is a joy for me.”

Father Sauchelli entered the seminary at an early age – just after graduating from grade school. He said that his vocation was clear even from such a young age.

“I fell God was calling me right from the beginning,” he said, recounting a time when his mother took him to church for a weekend Mass. “I was doing everything the priest was doing on the altar, and I was only five years old.”

While his five brothers all pursued careers and got married, Father Sauchelli was confident in his vocation. He attended Maryknoll Junior Seminary, Clarks Summit, Pa., before continuing his studies in Seton Hall University, South Orange, and finally completing his theology in Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and University, Baltimore.

After his ordination, he spent seven years in South Carolina, serving in a number of parishes across the state. He returned home to New Jersey, serving in the Diocese of Paterson before entering the Diocese of Trenton to serve in Immaculate Conception Parish, Somerville – now in the Diocese of Metuchen. He was transferred to St. Veronica Parish, Howell, before serving St. Raphael Parish, Hamilton, and later being named pastor of St. Joachim Parish, Trenton.

In the 1990s, Father Sauchelli then joined the Intercessors of the Lamb, a Nebraska-based contemplative order, and spent close to three years out west before returning again to Trenton.

“God told me to come home, so I came home to the Trenton Diocese again,” he said.

His last tour in the diocese sent him to the parish of St. Paul Parish, Burlington, before his final assignment in Visitation Parish, Brick.

And despite his long and varied life as a priest, Father Sauchelli still finds great joy in the duties of a parish priest.

During a recent conversation with “The Monitor,” Father Sauchelli shared his schedule for the week – which included a funeral service. While he said such services were often difficult, he always had an appreciation for the ability of clergy to “help people in their sorrow and grief, and get them through it,” he said.

His vocation also came with its challenges, notably the many changes the church has undergone in the years he has worn a collar.

Ordained in the 1960s, he said that his studies in the seminary and his early years as a priest featured the Latin Mass, known as Mass in the Extraordinary Form, and that such changes as adding evening Masses, and services in English, were unexpected among his brethren.

“There was so much change going on,” he said. “I never dreamed of the changes that we have today,” but despite them, and the many challenges facing the modern world, Father Sauchelli added that the role of the priest has, in many ways, remained the same.

“The priest is a presence of God in the world,” he said. “The world needs to know there is a God, a God in the world who loves them and cares for them.”

He continued, “we have to make God present in the world. We have to be that presence.”

He said that being a priest may be all that he has known, but it has certainly been a calling he is happy to continue answering.

“Everybody has their ups and downs; every life has its ups and downs,” he said. “I found that the priesthood was just a great up for me.”