"Finally, It's Real"

Deacon Paul Graney 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: Was faith important to you when you were growing up? When did you first hear the call to the priesthood?

A: I grew up in a Catholic home. I went to public school, so I went to catechism class in the evenings as a kid. I grew up in Oxford, Michigan, so our family attended St. Joseph's in Lake Orion.

Well, I hated going to catechism class every week. I always begged my parents not to send me back the next year, but I kept going. By the time I got to high school, I didn't really have much of a faith life. I'd pray here and there, ask God for things that I wanted, but I didn't really have a relationship with him.

Then a couple friends invited me on this ski trip up north for a Protestant Evangelical Youth Ministry meeting. I really enjoyed the camaraderie in the group and the different flavor of their Christian expression. It was a lot more contemporary, with the guitars and the drums, which was different for a fourteen-year-old than going to Mass and hearing the organ and singing these boring songs.

It was a completely different experience and I really enjoyed it, so I kept going all through high school, every week just about. At the end of my senior year, my youth pastor told me, Hey Paul, you should look into going into the ministry. I'm, like, That's the last thing I want to do! But, he put that seed in me.

Q. So, that was the first seed of your vocation that eventually led you to the Catholic priesthood?

A. Right. But next I went to Oakland University for a year. I had ideas of being a mechanical engineer. I had taken some drafting classes in high school and liked them and did well in math, but I never liked going to school.

Then one day, probably February 2004, I'm sitting in my dorm room and all of a sudden I felt this overwhelming feeling: I want to go into the ministry. I had never really given it much thought except when my youth pastor mentioned it. I was surprised, and ever since then I've never said, I don't want to do this anymore.

I went to train for the the evangelical ministry at Elim Bible Institute in upstate New York near Rochester. It is a tiny school, not even two hundred students, in Lima, this one streetlight town. I spent three years there. In my last semester, thinking, What church am I going to? because in Elim there are a lot of flavors of evangelicalism. Where do I fit in, in all of this?

I graduated but I just had a diploma. There was another school in New York City, Nyack. They accepted my credits. When I got there, I started going to an Episcopalian church, and I really liked the liturgy. The ministers wore vestments and they chanted. It had a strong Catholic flavor. When I came home for Christmas and Easter, I would go to Mass with my family. I started to like Mass again! Reallyfor the first time!

There was something about Mass that really struck me. There was this deep reverence and appreciation for mystery. Then I bought a copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to find out what the Catholic Church really teaches. What I discovered struck a chord in my heart because it was unlike anything I had ever read before. It was beautiful.

Q. There is something beautiful about the truths of our faith, isn't there?

A. Catholics say that the Church Fathers have The One True Faith. Protestants say (at least the ones I was around did quite a bit), We've got to get back to the early church; the way things were back then. So I started reading the Fathers and I thought Wow, this is the same stuff I was learning at St. Joseph's catechism class when I was a kid! I came full circle: Baptism and the Eucharist and the Church and bishops and priests. These things were in the lives of the Church Fathers.

After a lot of thinking and praying, God led me back to the Catholic Church and I still wanting to do ministry. I thought, Is the priesthood for me? I was looking forward to having a family, raising children. But as time went on, I felt that the Lord was, perhaps, calling me to the priesthood.

I came back Michigan and started taking classes as a commuter student at Sacred Heart. I had never taken philosophy at all, and I thought, Can I do this? Is this within my reach? I went on a discernment weekend, talked to the seminarians and the priests, and I thought, Yeah, I can do this. I really need to seriously discern this. So I applied, and that was six years ago. It's been an incredible experience. God has really led me a long waybut I really appreciate everything.

Q: It was a long time, but at the same time you're probably thinking, Oh my goodness, it is going to happen in a few weeks, I'm going to become a priest.

A: Oh yeah! It's right around the corner. This long journey is coming to a close and another is about to begin. For one it's crazy to think that I'm not going to be in school. I've been in school my entire life! But mostly, I am looking forward to being in a parish and serving God's people

Q: Do you feel ready for ministry now? You've already been serving as a deacon.

A: Right, I've been serving at the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak during the past two summers and on the weekends this school year.

Q: How has that experience been?

A: It's been incredible! The people I've built relationships with are so supportive and loving and generous. To be able to serve them has been a great blessing.

Q: Part of your vocation story is that you had these plans for your life. Forming a family, having children. Then you were confronted with the idea of the priesthood, that this is the path God's leading me on. How did that process happen? I'm sure a lot of men who are considering the priesthood are thinking about that same problem.

A: At first you think, I'm giving up the prospects of a family life. But then you realize, I'm receiving things, too. It's not that I'm just giving things up and that's it.

You receive an identity with Christ, the High Priest. He lived as a single man, he never married, never had children. Being able to identify so intimately with Christ in that sense was a really significant idea that I could put my arms around. Yes, I may be giving up a family life, but I get to live as he lived and to give myself to others as he gave himself to others.

Q: What a beautiful concept. So, you've been at Sacred Heart for six years. Could you tell our readers a little bit of the highlights, the things that you look back on that you're grateful for?

A: There's so much that I'm grateful for. I'm grateful for the professors. They're all completely dedicated to wanting to help you grow in knowledge and love of God. And they really do care about helping us and forming us to be good priests.

Of course, definitely the priestly formation. It's not always pleasant, but our priest-formators help us to figure things out and steer us in the right direction. They form us and part of being formed is being trimmed in some areas and expanded in others.

Definitely, my classmates. You spend six years with the same group of guys. They really are like your brothers! The fraternity you build with your classmates in the seminaryyou can't replicate that anywhere else. Those are the things I am most grateful for: the professors, the priests, and especially my classmate.

Q: How would you describe your class?

A: My class, where do I begin?! I think our personality as a whole is that we like to joke around with each other, maybe a little bit too much at times. Sometimes we can get a bit too loud and crazy, but I think that is just because we love each other so much and know each other so well. They are great guys who would do anything for you and who pray for each other. It's just a great group.

Q: In just a few months, you'll all be ordained. What are your thoughts on your last few days at the seminary as you are preparing to receive Holy Orders?

A: On one hand, you feel it approaching, but on the other hand, you don't. But then scoping out vestments and setting up your first Masses, the scrutiny with the archbishop, meeting with the assignment board, and just practicing to celebrate Mass correctly. All of those things have been making it more and more real. It's been exciting and strange.

Q: What do you pray for in this time of blessing?

A: I just put my complete trust in God's mercy that he will help me to the end. I pray to stay focused on what I need to do to finish my studies so that I graduate and leave on a high note to hit the ground running as a priest. But I also pray for a great sense of thanksgiving at what I have been given the past six years a great formation, top notch education, and a lot of brothers.

Q: What kind of priest do you want to be?

A: I want to be a priest who people can approach and relate to. I want to give them my time and my attention and love so they feel comfortable bringing anything that they have on their hearts to me so that I can direct them to a greater relationship with God and with their loved ones.

I want to be a priest who prays for them, lifts them up in prayer, and like the good shepherd, one who lays down his life for them.