"A Bridge to the Lord"

Deacon Dominic Macioce is a fourth-year graduate seminarian studying for the Archdiocese of Detroit. He is scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood on May 14, 2016.

Q: Could you share some of the highlights of your time here at Sacred Heart?

A: Learning how to become personal with the Lord, how to spend time with him and really be comfortable sitting in his presencethese are great graces I've acquired from being here for six years. And experiencing the different styles of prayerthe Ignatius style is a big onemore imaginative prayer and the prayer of quiet. Really learning how to interact with Jesus, telling him my ups, my downs, feeling comfortable with stuff that's bothering me I'm really grateful for this.

The friends that I made here, especially my classmates, I'm going to miss that the most. Hanging out with the guys on the weekends, playing soccer and hockey. Really connecting with my brothers. It's probably not going to be like this ever again.

Q: One of the things you've learned is to be with the Lord. Tell me a little about how it was before the seminary.

A: I was raised Catholic, but for most of my life, Sunday Catholic was my experience of the Faith. Sunday Mass and prayer before meals. I went to public school and I went to CCD, but the CCD I went to wasn't too substantial. It was a few hours after a long day of school, and I didn't take it very seriously. Sports is what my life revolved around when I was young.

Q: Soccer and hockey, right?

A: Soccer more than anything. That took the majority of my energy, playing sports. The Faith didn't become serious for me until college. In high school, one of my best friend's friend became a priest in Poland. He came to speak to us about becoming a priest and life in the seminary. That shocked me because I thought you got a certificate over the weekend or took a couple classes here and there to become a priest. So he awakened me to all that goes into being a priest.

In college at Oakland University, I decided to study marketing, not because I had some great desire to be a great salesman creating ads, but because it was a degree that I could get a job with and have a family and make some money.

Q: But your thinking changed in college as far as your vocation, right?

A: Yes. By the end of my sophomore year, I was really unhappy with where I was going with my life. I had a lack of purpose and fulfillment with what I was doing. And so I did some soul searching, and I realized that marketing wasn't ever going to be a real possibility for me. I felt called to do some kind of service helping people. But I didn't consider the Church at all. I thought maybe a police officer or even a teacher.

But, over the summerI didn't know where this came from, I know it's from the Holy Spirit nowthis inspiration came to me to do something in the Church. Not a priest or even a deacon but maybe teacher. I went and talked to my pastor, Fr. Jerry Slowinski, and he said, Start going to Mass more often, pray, but finish your degree since you're over half way done. That was great advice. A lot of the classes were at night, so I had free time in the mornings. I started going to daily Mass at my parish in Sterling Heights, St. Jane Frances de Chantal.

Q: What effect did going to Mass regularly have?

A: After two or three months, I wanted to pray more. So I started praying half of a Holy Hour, a half hour of praying after Mass. And then I added the Rosary. I really wanted to do something in the Church at this point.

So I graduated from Oakland and I went on a discernment weekend here at Sacred Heart. But a few weeks before, I got really nervous. I called and said, I'm not ready for this, I can't do this, and so I backed out. I think the Evil One was working on me because I had a lot of irrational fears. So I went back to school and started my MBA. At the same time, my uncle was opening a sports bar and restaurant up in Washington Township, and so I managed it for a couple years.

I was a twenty-two-year-old kid working at this bar and it was a blast and I was making good money. I was dating. But after six months, it got old really fastsuper fast. I knew for sure this wasn't the path I should be on. I stopped going to Mass because of the hours I had to work. It was a toxic environment, especially for my faith.

So I had to make some changes. I talked to Fr. Gerry Leboeuf, my previous pastor, and he set me straight. He got me going back to Mass and got me on a good pattern of life. He encouraged me to look into another discernment weekend. I went on it and I knew right away that I have to give the Lord at least a year at seminary. I said, Lord, I'll give you a year because there's something to this. I had a great weekend, a great experience of God. So I appliedand here I am, a few weeks from ordination.

Q: What were your thoughts about seminary before you got here?

A: That everybody's holy and nobody sins! I was really happy to see that we all come from different backgrounds and we even want to do different ministries, but the Lord is calling all of us. He knows what we've done in the past, but he's still chosen us. He's moving all of us towards him.

The Lord even looks differently to each person. To be a cookie cutter priest is false thinking. If the Lord wanted all of us the same, he would have made us that way. But he didn't. He gave us different gifts and different strengths and different weaknesses. I'll be called to help somebody, but my brother will be called to help somebody different. It's great to see so much diversity in the seminary.

Q: For the past year, you've been serving a parish as a transitional deacon. What has that been like?

A: This whole year has been a witness for me of God's grace. When I entered seminary, I had a big fear of giving homilies. The day of my ordination as a deacon, while I was laying prostrate during the litany, I asked God for the grace to be a good preacher. That he would keep me calm and give me His message for the people. That would be the biggest grace I've received this year, a real desire to preach. I can feel the Holy Spirit, and often the message that he clearly gives is a testament of his love.

I'm at St. Hugo in Bloomfield Hills and honestly it's like a second home to me. There have been families who have taken me in and I really feel the love of God flowing through his people. I think that's a big blessing. And now, getting closer to being a priest, they're so excited that it makes me more excited. It's a beautiful thing.

Q: Tell me about these last few days before ordination. I know you needed to write a letter to the archbishop, and that is an important moment.

A: Absolutely, writing the petition for Call to Orders. Before you're ordained, you have to write a petition to the bishop requesting that you want to become a deacon and a priest. In that way, you make clear that you understand what you're asking to undertake and you ask for God's help. So, just writing for your Call to Orders makes ordination real. The Church is recognizing that they see the Lord's called me and she recognizes my desire to be a priest. It's beautiful, a very clear sign.

Receiving the Call to Orders was very, very, striking because you realize these aren't just steps that you're taking to get to the priesthood. They're signs that, yes, you're laying down your life for God in a very real way. Also, coming up, we have the STB exam [Bachelor of Sacred Theology], and it's going to be a doozy. It's the last really big thing we need to do to get to ordination.

Q: What kind of priest would you like to be?

A: I'd say that wherever the Lord takes me, whatever parish or part of the diocese or whatever ministry he has me doing, I hope that people can see me as a bridge to the Lord. It's not going to be me ministering so much as it's going to be Jesus ministering through me.

That's my greatest hope; that I don't get in the way of Jesus. He's called me, not because of what I've done but what He hopes to do through me. That's what I really hope I can bea bridge to the Lord.