In All His Disguises

I first felt a call to priesthood when I was an altar boy, at thirteen, and then, more strongly, when I was seventeen. I was dating a great young woman at that time, so I passed the call off as imagination and kept dating. I disregarded my calland my faith throughout my twenties until, after going it alone without God for too long, I became too weary to continue without him.

Around that time, I decided to start praying again (a grace!). So, hanging an old, beat-up crucifix in my room, buying a cheap glow-in-the-dark rosary and rediscovering how to pray it, I promised Our Lady that I would pray it nightly for thirty days . . . and I did (a daily ritual that has not stopped since, including using the glowing plastic rosary). Through a series of coincidences, I joined a young adult group, gradually started going to daily Mass, went on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, was introduced to Franciscan University, and joined the secular Carmelites. I was lost, and was found.

It was clear that Jesus was calling, not again, but still! The thought arose, I'm in my early thirties. Am I too old? No way, baby!

After a few more years of prayer and discernment with my pastor, Fr. Bob McCabe, at St. Pius X in Southgate, and Fr. Brendan Walsh, a Pallottine priest at the Gabriel Richard Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, I called Fr. Tim Birney at the AOD vocations office and applied to enter Sacred Heart.

Each of my three years here has been a blessing. I want to be a priest because Jesus has loved me back to his Heart, has loved me through the doors of the seminary, and has loved the desire for the priesthood into my heart. The Lord is giving me a missionary heart full of love. I want to be his priest and serve

him at his altar and, as the expression goes, in

all his disguises.