New priest serves first mass at St. Joseph Church, By Ginny Raue Ordained a priest in the Diocese of Trenton on May 30, 2009, Reverend Joel R. Wilson, the son of David and Colleen Wilson of West Milford, is a source of pride and happiness to his family and the Saint Joseph Church community, his hometown parish. Rev. Wilson, age 31, celebrated a Mass of Thanksgiving at the historic Germantown Road church the following afternoon, with about 175 friends and family members in attendance. The oldest of four children, Rev. Wilson grew up in Waldwick and Ringwood. As a child he enjoyed the great outdoors but he was also a studious young man. When Rev. Wilson was a junior in high school, the seed of an idea was planted when he wrote a career report on the priesthood. The thought remained dormant, however, until his final years in college. Rev. Wilson attended Notre Dame, earning a bachelor of arts degree in psychology and Spanish. While at school he befriended like-minded young men and the possibility of dedicating his life to the priesthood began to take hold, yet he went ahead to graduate school, studying clinical psychology. “Halfway through graduate school, at the University of Virginia, I knew God had other plans for me. He was inviting me to something more. I was happy and successful, on one level, but there was a growing hunger on a deeper level,” he said. Although the call to the priestly life is a huge commitment, Rev. Wilson said, it seemed the most natural thing to him. There was simply nothing else he could imagine doing. “Living for God alone and to serve His people, not to have my own family but to have the parish as my family - these are big things,” he said. In 2004 Rev. Wilson entered Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnwood, Pa. Describing seminary life as a healthy routine of prayer, study and ministry, he spent his years there immersed in the study of philosophy and theology. Rounding out his seminary days, he gained pastoral experience at hospitals, schools, parishes, nursing homes and prisons. When his parents moved to West Milford in 2003, Saint Joseph Church became his home parish. Since that time he has been a familiar face to the parishioners on Christmas and Easter and occasional weekends when he assisted the pastor, Rev. Sigmund Peplowski. Rev. Wilson said he is most grateful to Rev. Peplowski for the support he has shown through the years and for teaching him what it means to be a priest. As the time neared his ordination, Rev. Wilson became a little nervous, but more about the logistics. He likened it to planning a wedding, without a fiancé. “I was preparing to make a final and wholehearted commitment,” he said. After years of study and preparation, on May 31, Pentecost Sunday - a feast day that denotes the birth of the church - Rev. Wilson celebrated Mass for the first time. In the little parish church, with a history dating back to 1765, Rev. Joel Wilson’s family and close friends prayed together and gave thanks for their new priest, a continuation in a long line of those who have been called by God to guide and serve the faithful.