My own life began on the sixth day of January, nineteen eighty-nine. I am an only child, and my birth came prematurely by two months. My weight was a meager two pounds, two ounces, and I spent the better part of two months in an incubator at the Neonatal Unit of the hospital where I had been delivered. The fact that I was quite a bit weaker than a normal newborn necessitated an emergency baptism by the hospital's chaplain, for fear that I would die without first being baptized. That baptism, while certainly fleeting in the memory of many, (and absent from my own, as I was too young to remember it) is something that I believe allowed me to begin my journey to my priestly vocation.

Let us fast-forward to my eight grade graduation. By this time, I have completely eight years of Catholic elementary and middle school at Saint Philip School in Greenville, RI. Saint Philip Church has become my home parish, and the religious educators and priests have helped me develop both my faith life and my knowledge of God and the Catholic Church. I have learned much of what it means to be a good Catholic, even as an adolescent. My focus, however, as I leave the doors of the church in my cap and gown, is not on the priesthood. Instead, it is squarely on the United States Navy and my goal of becoming a Commissioned Officer. I felt that going to college and then joining the Navy felt right for me. I would later join the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps and attain the top rate of Chief Petty Officer, only fueling my sea going desires.

My freshman and sophomore years at Bishop Hendricken High School were enjoyable, and still set upon the United States Navy. My grades were quite high, as well as my motivation to succeed in high school. While those aspirations never changed, my careers goals certainly did. Towards the end of my junior year at Hendricken, Father Marcel Taillon and Father Michael Najim rounded up the entire junior class to speak about vocations and show "Fishers of Men". While I had known Father Taillon from school, I hadn't seen Father Najim in a while and was interested in what he had to say. Both of the priests started off with great presentations, and the two seminarians they brought with them spoke very well. "Fishers of Men", in a phrase, completely blew me away. While the movie is fairly short, the impact it had on me was incredible. At that moment, in the theater at Bishop Hendricken, I knew that God had something more planned for me. I thought about it through the summer and the call only grew stronger, and I knew that I had to do something about it in my last year of high school.

Towards the beginning of October, my last year at Hendricken had already started and I had begun to get back into the school routine when the senior class was invited to a college fair in the gymnasium. While these college fairs can be quite beneficial for seniors, it is not uncommon for a student to use the fair as an opportunity to waste time. My personal approach was to get as much information as possible about the different colleges and universities available to me in the two hours that we were given. What I didn't expect to find there was Fr. Taillon and Fr. Najim manning a small table with smiles and a small pile of information. When I saw them, I felt drawn to ask them about the priesthood. They were delighted that I had asked and they extended an invitation to me to have dinner at Our Lady of Providence Seminary. I told them I would think about it and get back to them, and I went home and put the information away, as I was still fairly hesitant about asking more about the priesthood.

As I went through my school year, the urge to ask more about the priesthood became stronger and stronger, until it came to a pinnacle one night in December. It was on that night that I had decided to go to a friend's house for dinner, and I was driving home when I felt an incredibly strong message telling me to go to St. Philip Church and pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I wasn't aware why I felt that I needed to do it or why the thought had come to me late on a Sunday night. Regardless, I went to St. Philip's and prayed for an hour in front of the Eucharist. It was at that point that I knew for sure that Jesus was calling me to explore a priestly vocation. A couple months after that night, in early February, I finally took up Fathers Taillon and Najim on their offer to have dinner at Our Lady of Providence Seminary and that experience eliminated any doubts I had left about being a seminarian. I approached Father Taillon during school a few weeks after and asked to begin my application, and I was formally accepted as a seminarian for the Diocese of Providence this past May.
If I could give one piece of advice to any man who things they may have a vocation to the priesthood, it would be that anyone can be called and that's why it is so important to listen intently to the voice of God in our lives. You do not need to be an all-star altar server (I have never altar served once) for God to call you to a vocation to the priesthood. He calls men from many different backgrounds, all for the same purpose: To fulfill their lives as priests for Jesus Christ.