When I was a teenager, someone once told me that I should be a priest and my reaction was an immediate "No-That's not for me." There really wasn't much consideration given to the idea at the time especially since I had never been an altar server or involved in the parish other than attending mass. If a seed was planted at that time, it took quite a while to grow.

After graduating from high school, the priesthood was never given any thought. I was going to college and would get my degree and find a decent job and see how things developed in my life. An accounting degree from Bryant College gave me the background I needed to get a position as an accountant at a local accounting firm. I went on to pass the CPA exam and to get a master's degree from Bryant College and found a job where I was happy and my career was going in the direction that I had planned. I thought I was done with school forever and would just allow my career to continue.

I was attending mass regularly until the time that an extended illness forced me to stop. The push that I needed to help me start practicing my faith again came from the unlikely source of an article in The Wall Street Journal which I saw at work one day. The article was about religion on the Internet and after I got home that night I checked out some of the websites that the article mentioned. Reading these reawakened my desire to start practicing my faith. At this point I started wondering if I was doing what God wanted me to do with my life. I had a career that I liked and was working at a good company with people that I enjoyed working with and yet there was a sense that something was missing. One Sunday, the priest challenged everyone in the congregation to ask God "What would you have me to do?" It was a question that I had not asked myself until this point in my life. I should have asked the question at many points including at the end of high school. It's a question that we should all ask, particularly when making a major life decision.

During this period, the thought of the priesthood entered my mind but I kept pushing it away since I had only been back to mass for the past few months and still had many fears about becoming a priest. I prayed and thought about what I should do but was not ready to talk to anyone about it until another priest gave a homily on vocations and said, "If you've ever thought about it, do something about it." It was another challenge for me to do something so I talked to a priest once and then contacted him again and said 'thanks for the help but this isn't for me.' Fortunately, he wouldn't accept that until I had at least spoken to Fr. Taillon, the vocation recruiter for the diocese. In order to appease him, I set up an appointment thinking that I would go talk to Fr. Taillon and then be free of this. What I didn't expect was that as we spoke and at evening prayer, I felt very comfortable and knew that I couldn't just walk away from this although I was not ready to sign-up yet.

I began attending Associates meetings and internally was struggling with the decision. At one point I was ready to just end the discernment and move on with my life. During all this time I was very restless. I would go from thinking of calling the seminary to pick up an application to thinking of calling to have my name taken off the list of the Associates. The best thing I did for my vocation was to attend the Bishop's retreat in 2001. The retreat gave me twenty-four hours to pray and think about the priesthood. This was when everything fell into place for me. I was able to draw from the different vocation stories and remember one person making a statement to the effect of 'When you find peace, that is where you belong.' During prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, I found peace and knew then that I would apply. I can't say that all of my concerns are completely gone but they became manageable when I found that sense of peace. I was then able to answer the question of "What would you have me to do?" by saying 'yes' to entering the seminary to continue discerning a call to the priesthood and one day (if it is God's will) being ordained a priest.