I started thinking about priesthood when I was a
student at St. Peter Parochial School in Connecticut. The pastor
of our parish sent boys on discernment retreats. The first was to
Holy Apostles Seminary outside Hartford, but it was the second visit,
to the Legionaries of Christ novitiate near New Haven, I remember
most.
We arrived Friday afternoon, said vespers, then awoke Saturday
and helped the religious with chores before mass. We ate with the
seminarians in an enormous refectory and the afternoon was devoted
to recreation: we played basketball and went sledding. I enjoyed
being at a place where holy men of all ages devoted themselves to
God.
On Sunday I came home and told my parents I wanted to be a priest.
Was I serious? There was more to it than good food and tobogganing.
I truly felt called to make this radical commitment to a life of
service through faith in Jesus Christ.
Then I graduated from Saint Peter and enrolled in public high school.
Worldly preoccupations eclipsed the call. After college I worked
in education and media, but continued to think about priesthood.
If I really had a vocation, it would return on its own, so I assumed.
Well, it did. When John Paul the Great died I returned to Church;
his birth to eternal life deepened my faith. One morning I knelt
in the chapel praying the rosary when a woman approached me.
"Ever thought about becoming a priest?" she asked.
Actually, I had, I said. The next thing I knew I was sitting in
the vocation director’s office. He posed the question: What
does God want you to do with your life? After a period of focused
prayer and discernment, I decided to apply to and was accepted by
the Diocese of Springfield.
Our Catechism teaches we must know and love Jesus in order to proclaim
his Word. How to know him? My spiritual director told me Christ
is present in prayer, Scripture, and the Sacraments; he suggested
I attend mass daily and cited Saint Paul’s words: "Pray
without ceasing."
A priest is called to be a man of prayer. Each day I study Scripture
and pray the Divine Office, to know "the mind of Christ."
Additional discernment retreats and holy hours have helped me reinforce
the mysterious excitement I felt visiting seminaries as a boy. It
was like being 12 years old again.
Daily mass is paramount—the priesthood and Eucharist are
inseparable. I can’t discern the God’s call without
my daily bread, which helps me to know, love, and trust the Lord.
Every time I receive communion I open my mind, heart, and soul to
him a little more.
I’m 36, so I’ve lived a bit, and know priesthood entails
sacrifice and submission. But consolation comes in remembering my
Dante: "In your will is our peace, Lord." By trusting
God I have come to know the peace which surpasses understanding.