Lord, Am I Called to be Father James Keeler?

Man, it sure has been a busy and glorious week. I just spent a full week with my team leading and participating in retreats for youth in Pasco, WA, which is why I have not been putting up blog posts recently. However, I came up with several great ideas for posts that I jotted down notes for during some spare time. 

Today I want to share my reflections about this one question that I feel like I get asked every so often. I don’t know whether it’s because I don’t have an exact long term plan for my life or the fact that I am a recent university graduate or if I just have that ‘look’, but various people across the country have asked me the same question.

That question is: Have you thought about becoming a priest?

I cannot remember the first time I was asked this. I think the furthest back this subject goes is my junior year of college, so not too long ago. My friend Lucas jokingly predicted that I would one day become a priest because of how much I reminded him of our priest at Catholic Campus Ministry in Springfield, Father Tom McGann. The last time I was asked this question was this past weekend by one of the young men in the small group I was leading.

Role Models: 

There have been so many awesome saints that were priests during their life on Earth. St. Padre Pio had the stigmata, could bi-locate, and read people’s hearts in the Confessional. St. John Vianney was also known for his gifts in the Confessional as well as enduring physical attacks from the devil (imagine if the Paranormal Activity movies really happened to your local priest). St. Anthony Claret was the personal confessor to the Queen of Spain, he established religious orders, and he endured exile from his homeland. St. Charles Borromeo willingly left his rich life as a noble to feed thousands of hungry people in Italy and shares responsibility for leading the Council of Trent in the midst of the Protestant Reformation. St. John de Brebeuf ministered to the native people in Canada and became a martyr by enduring horrific torture. These are just a few examples of priests throughout time and their gifts and struggles which have inspired my own faith life.

In my own life, I have known several men who have gone to seminary around my age (early 20’s). Some I became friends with in college, or through FOCUS events, or during my current experiences with Reach Youth Ministry. Some of them are still in seminary (or just starting seminary), while many discerned out of it and have become husbands and fathers instead.

My Response: 

Well, so far I have not really given serious thought to going to seminary and joining the priesthood. Sometimes a small daydream or brief thought may enter my head during Mass or during my prayers to discern where God is calling me in life. Sometimes I try to imagine myself as the one celebrating the Mass and saying those extra prayers or being the one who gives the Homily. Sometimes I try to imagine being the man walking about town wearing all black (or a cassock) and wearing the white collar and trying to imagine people’s reactions to seeing me in priestly clothes. Of course there is so much more to being a priest, but those are the thoughts that pop into my head during times like Mass.

With that being said, my prayers and discernment for priesthood have not gone farther than that. Often times, I end up thinking about and preparing myself for a future of married life and what kind of husband and dad I will be. And at the end of the day, while this world needs more priests, the world also needs men that live a virtuous life and share their faith with their wife and children lovingly (and there are many men I know that are this type of incredible dad). I just currently feel a strong desire to find the woman I'm called to marry and one day raise children. That is the vocation that I believe God is calling me to.

Why Do People Ask Me This?:

Many times I wonder why I'm asked if I want to be a priest. Is it because of the fact that instead of going home and finding a career, I was applying to FOCUS and Reach instead? Does being willing to refrain from dating and being part of a ministry team automatically make me priestly material? Just because I have a desire for prayer and Mass on a daily basis, does that mean that my actions lead me directly to the priesthood? If I wish to study the Bible more or wear crucifixes around my neck or if I voluntarily lead a group of people in prayer, should other people assume that I wish to be a priest?

Don't get me wrong. I am so very glad that people are noticing that I have grown in my faith and I am pursuing a deeper relationship with God. I am just wondering why is it just so odd for people to see a young man daily striving to follow God and share his Catholic faith with the people around him?

A Young Man's Faith:

I remember back during my first faith retreat that I participated in, during my sophomore year of college, I received, among many other incredible things, a letter from my cousin Irene. In her letter, Irene told me how happy she was that I was pursuing my faith life at college, a place where many other people lose their faith. I think that is what has astounded the people around me and made them wonder about me possibly becoming a priest.

We live in a time where the stereotype, the expectation, is for boys to go off to college and focus on the parties, the ladies, and their faith life will only be an occasional Sunday Mass at best. There are so many examples of young men who are concentrating on these worldly distractions that if anyone spots a young man devoted to growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ and he’s a Catholic, it’s assumed that he already knows he wants to be a priest.

Yet, in my own college experience, I met plenty of good men trying to grow closer to God and living a life of discipleship that did not want to pursue the priesthood. Trust me, we're out there, ladies. You don't have to wait for a guy to discern out of the seminary to find an awesome Catholic man worth marrying.

I do not claim to fully understand people's perceptions of me or to know their thought process when they ask if I desire to become a priest. All of this is my own speculation and reasoning as to why I have heard this question many times these past couple of years. Who knows, there may be a day where I discern that God is actually calling me to the priesthood instead of marriage.

I ask that all of us keep praying for more people to discern a religious vocation, especially the priesthood. I have met and seen so many priests that are awesome, but I know won't be around this world for eternity. I pray that more holy men answer the call and become those saints that secular and religious men model their lives after. I pray that I may continue to live a life of faith where people question if I want to become a priest because that means that my actions reflect a desire to be more like Jesus Christ and grow in my relationship with God.