As a child, I remember not having any interest in church whatsoever. My family was not practicing and I can remember never even stepping foot in a church after I made my first communion. We managed to put the Church at the bottom of our priority list. All this started to change as I started making my way through high school. It is difficult to explain, but I started to feel a pulling. It was a tugging at my heart to get to know God. I just wanted to learn all I could. After school one day, I picked up our family Bible and began to read. (I think I read an entire gospel and half of the book of Revelation!) I was completely intrigued! The more I learned about Jesus Christ and the Church, the deeper I wanted to go.

All this was being done without telling my parents. They had no idea I was even remotely interested in church. That all changed one day when I was driving home from the store with my mother. We were passing our local Catholic Church and I blurted out, "Mom, I want to make my Confirmation". I expected her to drive off the road but instead she smiled and said, "Sure, let's go get some information" and right then and there we pulled in to St. Francis de Sales Church, registered, and enrolled in the Confirmation program. I decided to listen to God whispering in my heart that day, and from then on, my life would never be the same.

Now that I was a member of a parish, I wanted to get as involved as I possibly could. I applied to be a sacristan, and after my confirmation, I became a regular lector, an extra-ordinary minister, and took on teaching a confirmation class of my own. While participating so much in the life of my parish, it was inevitable that I would be confronted with the idea of priesthood. One of the side-effects of parish life is that you get to know very well your parish priests. It was by their example that I got to see what the life of a parish priest is truly about. Their life of prayer, joyful service and dedication to the priestly life stuck with me and I knew that this was something I would have to look into.

I am sure that my parish priests caught on to the fact that I may have a vocation because I was not too subtle about showing my enthusiasm. The constant barrage of questions concerning the Church, the priesthood, and the Faith in general got me two things from the good Fathers; A brand new Catholic Encyclopedia and a slot at the upcoming retreat for high school students at Our Lady of Providence Seminary. That retreat opened up a whole new world for me because all of a sudden, my faith was not confined to my home parish, but it was now something bigger. I got to meet other guys my own age who had the same questions and anxieties that I did. The seminarians and priests that I met at on that retreat taught me that discernment was a process and the seminary was there to foster that process. God got hold of a little bit more of me that day and I continued to go on the vocation retreats until I graduated High School.

My senior year I had to make the same decisions that everyone makes at that time in their life, "What now?" Each year my faith was growing and so was my desire to explore the priesthood. I knew in my heart that it was the right time to apply to the Diocese as a seminarian. In the fall of 2002, I was accepted and began my studies at Our Lady of Providence Seminary. That was 5 years ago and looking back I know that I made the right decision. I am still in the discernment process and as each year of formation comes and goes, I am more certain that I am on the path that God planned for me. So please keep me and all our seminarians in your prayers and never ignore the plan God has in store for you because it could start with the smallest tug at your heart!