FIDELITY 2021 Annual Seminary Dinner Video

dwindling vocations and an ongoing priest shortage a steady decline in mass attendance overall happiness hitting decades low many wonder does the church have an answer something special going on in the archdiocese of milwaukee today catholics of southeastern wisconsin face a new crisis saint francis the sales seminary is running out of space [Music] like you of all people and i'm like yeah me of all people it's kind of surprising i grew up on the coast of california and they always told us on the central coast that we should get away from the coast and see the rest of the world so for me that meant i ended up in fond du lac and then i worked in accounting for a little bit every man in this house could do all kinds of other great things they're all very talented articulate musical they're all very athletic but the goal isn't just to pursue good things this journey is about pursuing the greatest good because faithfully each of us when pursuing our vocation to the full are going to bring about the kingdom here on earth and find meaning and value that's going to lead us to heaven i had the idea of priesthood when i was very little my parents even bought me a little mask kit and so i'd celebrate mass in my living room with my siblings and even sometimes like hear their confessions which because i did give him like 50 rosaries as a penance or something it was it was pretty intense i'm not giving those out now but i've become much more merciful so that's good moved out to college i was going to university of st thomas i was going for finance i just wanted to make a lot of money you know girls were all on my mind and uh i just i had a really bad fallout with my mother right before i left we didn't speak for about two months so i left and have my own apartment life seems to be going great and i got out of this relationship with this girl and i just went to the chapel and i just started crying in front of the blessed sacrament i knew in my mind that i was supposed to pray more so i said okay lord i'll pray a holy hour every day within about a week i knew that our lord wanted me to pursue the priesthood so i called the vocation director met with him a couple times and then got an application to the seminary it was very funny because i i called my mom day i got the application it was the first time in two months and i thought my mom is going to be so shocked that her child who just cut her off is now applying to be priest to go to the seminary so i call my mom and she just starts crying and she says simon today we finished a 54-day rosary novena for you that you would be a priest i got to a point where it was pretty much either i'm done with life or i need to i need to make a change but there was something inside me that it was the holy spirit really pulling me like you come over here you know give me a chance and it took a while but eventually he pulled me out of that grave i found happiness in life away from the church and sin but it never satisfied so i was happy but i just i wasn't content with who i was i think that's what people are really inspired about now is that it's like a joy that we have even in the midst of my difficulties my sufferings that the world can't provide it's only christ as we begin this new year of formation it's important to know we teach what the roman catholic church teaches what we're doing is we're trying to form the man into one who's able to hear the lord and and love with the lord to lay down his life after the pattern of jesus christ because we're not talking about a career we're talking about the plan of god and how it relates to each of us we're not made for mediocrity and we're not made for comfort the lord wants us to pursue ultimate meaning and ultimate good and once you meet the greatest good that is god you want to give your entire life to him and that means i'm going to live a celibate life so that i'm exclusively committed to my bride that is the church it means i'm gonna live a simple life because the goods of the earth are never satisfying it means that i'm going to live an obedient life because it's only through obedience that i realize that it's not about me that that was the life of the lord why would we not want to pursue that sort of life you know michelangelo when he had sculpt he he already saw the statue that was within the marble and he saw it as just removing the excess around it that's kind of what seminary is it's like the man who's really there and just removing the worldly desires the areas of growth a man needs to reveal the man that god created us to be there's always difficulties when you try to enter seminary because you're being called really for the first time to tangibly give up things the schedule is dictated to you you eat when they tell you to eat you pray when they tell you to pray and there's a daily grind through that and it's the first of a long step of deaths to yourself in seminary and then internally you have all the movements of god and the holy spirit calling you to die to yourself calling you to greater perfection there are some guys that come in and they love it immediately i was not one of those people i struggled a lot if you want to know what the journey of the man looks like look at the journey of the lord's life that journey is not easy because sometimes you're on the road to calvary when i finally just started to say okay god i'm gonna give you a little bit more and more of my heart i really started to feel that guys were actually here to help me in giving my life to christ when you leave something behind and you take on sort of a radical quest and you do it in a group there's there's a stretching and a pain about the training and there are these phases that you go through together growing toward the goal that bond you together in ways that really cannot be explained to anyone else you know when we're all on kind of that same mission they have a band of brothers to link arms and go to war with there's nothing else like it praise god for that because we need each other i mean we can't we can't do it on our own the devil looks for that loner he's the easy target we're not ignorant to the challenges these men are going to experience as priests the seminary fosters that place of communion where they know what it means to have brothers who have their back a gang of brothers who are going to support them when it gets difficult also hold them accountable i didn't want to be the one who fell behind i want to be the one who is right next to them like growing in holiness doing the hard work and trusting them because at the end of the day if i want to count on this guy next to me to be growing in holiness helping the lord and winning souls for christ then i need to be putting in the hard work too seminary is where we say lord the doors open i can see this and then we asked the church do you also see this so by the time you get to ordination that's so much like your decision it's the rector who stands in front of the bishop and he says the church archbishop has found this man prepared and worthy for holy orders on the recommendation of those responsible i testify that they have been i feel kind of like a proud father on their child's wedding day because i have walked with these men for years as they prepared for this moment i got like emotional when he was walking walking down it just hit me like this is what it's about because to see them to be in seminary with them and then to see them there and it's actually happening because reality it's hard that they've given it all up and it's inspiring too it's really hard to find words to describe ordination day because so much goes into it like those seven years of preparing and then you're you're there and i'm standing in the back looking at my classmates and there's like mixture of disbelief that this is really happening that over seven years i've seen other men walking down that are prostrating themselves laying on the marble and it's like is it really to be me this time it's that excitement and then terrifying there's nothing greater there's nothing more attractive than seeing that it's like man i want to love like that but the price is high and really it's truly all about love he has loved you and now he calls you to share his love as his instrument for the sake of the church the reason we hold high the cross is because this is the greatest sign of love that the world has ever known the cross states our god holds nothing back but gives himself totally and completely joining us in suffering and death so that we might have life i rejoice because this man has given everything over to jesus and that's where he's going to find an abundance of life and yet there's also a bit of sadness because i know it's not going to be easy and it's going to demand everything of him and yet i think it's remaining in that paradox that allows us to live life to the full it was truly like i was embracing my brothers who had been with me for so long who had been supporting me for so long who had placed their own trust and hopes that this day would come and to be able to live this moment with them and celebrate this moment with them is just like a beautiful beautiful thing one of the most important lessons you learn in your time at seminary is how precious each moment is the future is not yet here the past already happened you have the present moment to love and to conform your life to christ and you have to take each moment as if it is the most precious thing that has been given to you what's happening here at saint francis de sales seminary is unique and the men that are being drawn here are unique you don't see this happening all over i'm still learning what it means to be a priest and that identity is still growing in me one thing i really pray about a lot is standing before our lord at the end of my life when i die and what that moment's gonna be like and i think i'm just like excited to see like what does jesus the high priest look like and how close was i to [Music] being conformed to him it's a little scary but it's also exciting to think about like hopefully god willing i look somewhat like him because i've conformed my life to him and have lived a priesthood that reflects his own that's the great hope i think of of all of us there's always going to be something more to let go of there's always going to be a way that we need to be purified i mean none of us have reached the end yet that's what fidelity is about it's every day striving to follow christ closely to be faithful to him with everything he got nobody wants to get to the end of their life and say they gave halfway nobody wants to get to the end of their life and still be lukewarm nobody wants to get to the end of their life and look at god and be like yeah i i was all right huh we all want to give the most we can there's a tradition that when the mother of a priest dies and when she comes before the lord in the pearly gates he will ask her i have given you life what have you given me and she will say i have given you my son as a priest and so when my father dies and he appears before the gates of heaven god will ask him i have given you life what have you given me and you can say i have given you my son as a priest [Music] you

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Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021