"The Church Answered All My Questions"

Deacon Bryan Kassa is a fourth-year graduate seminarian studying for the Chaldean Eparchy of St. Thomas the Apostle. He is scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood on July 2, 2016.

Q: What were you doing before coming to the seminary? How did you decide to pursue the call to priesthood life?

A: I worked for Volkswagen of America. We were the North American headquarters so I did about five different jobs within ten years. I started off answering phone calls from customers calling the 800-line. I did some special projects and then I became the supervisor of the Remarketing department after I graduated college.

So right from the get-go, I knew I loved working with people. God was really using me in that situation because I really learned how to help people. When I look back I see that is what a priest does.

Q: Did you come from a family background of faith?

A: My parents always practiced the faith, but they never forced it down our throats. I don't think I was taking my faith seriously until I was dating a girl who really challenged me to confess my sins. I thought, I don't need to do that, I'll just confess directly to God.

She said, Do you believe that the Holy Spirit has been guiding the Catholic Church for the past two thousand years? I said, Of course, I do.

Do you think you're smarter than the Holy Spirit?

I thought, Wow, she's right. Who am I to say I don't want to confess my sins to a priest? I started to understand what the Church teaches is true and I fell in love with the Church. That was the beginning of my vocation.

I see now how God was working in that situation. The Church was able to answer all my questions rationally and logically, and I just started to love the Church even more.

Q: Tell us more about your family background?

A: I'm first generation Chaldean Catholic. I have an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Crystal. My parents worked a lot because they were new to this country. They were able to establish a business, and raise a family, and get us out of where we lived to a better area and then to another better area. They really sacrificed themselves for us. A lot of guys would ask me a about sports, but that wasn't a part of my life as a guy growing up. That wasn't a priority. It was about a work ethic; it was about supporting each other.

So we learned how to work together and we still carry that today. There was no, I'm not going to work today or I don't feel well. No, it's your family; we've got to look out for each other.

You know, my dad was around but at the same time he'd work fourteen hours a day just to support the family.

Q: You must be proud of your parents.

A: I am. You know, my dad [Najib] never complains. When I'm home from break, I'll say, Dad, I'll go to work for you, and he'll say, No, no, you're tired. He will never say, Yes, please, I'm exhausted. I've never heard those words come out of his mouth.

I think that attitude is instilled in me. My mom [Montaha] was mother during the day, and then she goes to work and comes back as mother at night. They taught me and my brother and sister so much about self-sacrifice. I think that's why I'm here at the seminary. A priest always gives. They were able to show me that as parents.

Q: After almost six years at the seminary you were ordained a deacon this past December. What were your thoughts about ordination?

A: I felt like I've been engaged for six years and falling more and more in love. So it's really exciting the day arrived and it's really exciting how excited others are.

Looking back from this day, I can't see my life without doing this. The Evil One will try to tell you reasons why you can't be a priest, but the Lord gives the grace. He says, We're moving forward. Keep your eyes focused on me.

Q: What do you recall about your first days at the seminary?

A: When I first got here, I thought to myself, I'm not going to need to be here for six years. The priests are going to see how smart and holy I am.

Then, we went on a retreat before the semester started and the priests said to us, Don't be afraid of the gunk that God is going to allow to surface.

I thought to myself, I don't have any of that. I'm ready to be a priest. The following day, God immediately got to work breaking down the walls that were blinding me to allow me to see what he wanted me to see and not what the world was telling me. It took a lot of letting go and a lot of trust. I didn't know if I was ready to do that because I was so used to controlling.

God wanted me to start depending on others for help, and I wasn't ready for that. I was struggling and I needed help and to put my guard down. But God sent me amazing guys and to this day I say that he sent specific members of my class to help lift me up and motivate me.

Q: Most people think of a seminary as a building, but at the heart of it is a communitya group of men pursuing a vocation together instead of each one on his own.

A: We all have Catholic friends at home, but these men at the seminary are both Catholic and discerning the same vocation as you. You don't have to be this person who has it all together. We're all in the same boat and we're striving for holiness.

Here, we love each other and we're all fighting the same battle together and we realize the importance in encouraging each other. I've seen a lot of that, especially in my studies. I would say, I'm really struggling here, you seem to get it, can you help me?

We're men and we're competitive and we don't want to show weakness, but that weakness goes away almost immediately. These are your brothers, this is your family, and this is your community. You immediately start to build those relationships right away becausewho are you going to go to?

Q: What are some of the highlights of your time here at Sacred Heart?

A: The formation I've received here has been like gold. I thought I was religious and had a good relationship with God before I got here. I started to realize I didn't even know who God was. Through the formation team, I was able to be more open with God. That's first and foremost what I'm thankful for. I have a different view of God, and God wanted me to have a different view of him, before I become a priest.

Even if I left two years ago and discerned that this wasn't what God was calling me to do, what I gained in those four years of being in seminary the world would not have been able to teach me.

I've been grateful for the opportunities to serve here. I've been on committees for the Dinner for Life and you get to see local pro-life organizations that are in dire need. So we're able to help, whether its $10,000 or $12,000, we're able to see that we're giving back to the community.

An organization that we had sponsored last year, Rachel's Vineyard, does retreats for men or women post-abortion. Well, I had an opportunity to not only be a part of the committee who planned the dinner, but afterwards I went on a retreat myself as an observer. I thought to myself, I want to know what it's like because as a future priest I have a responsibility to bring healing into other's lives.

I don't think I would have had that opportunity if the seminary wasn't encouraging service. It's really opened up my eyes.

Q: It seems you have really heard a call to be a priest.

A: Why the priesthood? I asked myself that question a lot. Why not marriage?

Even in my mid-20's, I never thought about becoming a priest. There's a reason a priest is called a father. He's a spiritual father and the same way a father loves his children and wants them to get to heaven. A priest is responsible for the souls of his spiritual children and I think that's very beautiful.

Yes, that can be done as a father, but I think God has called me to do that self-sacrifice as a priest rather than an earthly father. A priest gives life just in a different way.

God was very generous to me. College degree, a great job, a great girlfriend, a great family, a wonderful Catholic environment to grow up in. I just wasn't 100% happy. I wasn't sad or depressed. I just wasn't completely fulfilled.

I remember being in Eucharistic adoration and thinking, I'm moving forward with marriage but I'm still not 100% sure. Lord, I need you to reveal this to me. It was the first time I ever said this to God: Bryan's been doing it his way for twenty-seven years and maybe you know better than me. Do you want me to get married or be a priest?

I joke around, saying, I never thought he was going to ask me to be a priest. I just threw that in there as an option! But God immediately started to show me that he was calling me to this.

People will sometimes say, I'm sorry for you. You'll never be able to get married. There's no need to be sorry. It's a beautiful thing. My fatherhood comes in a different way than fatherhood for a husband and a father for his family.

Q: As you approach ordination, is there a certain way we can pray for you?

A: What I need from the community is prayers because sometimes people have high expectations of priests. They forget that priests, too, are sinners and are fallen and are broken.

I'm always in need of people's prayers to stay on the right path and to continue to grow in holiness and never neglect prayer. So when people say, I'm praying for you, I believe them because I know I couldn't be doing this without people's prayers.

I'm thinking of getting bumper stickers when I become a priest that say, Pray for Father Bryan, so people can put them on their cars and then I can have people around the state praying for me even if I don't know them!