Fr David Michael Moses Interview!

how's it going everybody i just wanted to get on here and announce that i'm starting a new series for my youtube channel and it's going to be on discernment of catholic vocations what that discernment process looks like what different people in those vocations have advice for for young people who are discerning vocations for the priesthood religious life and married life whatever that looks like for that vocation and so i started out with the priesthood for the diocesan priesthood and so me and this wonderful priest of the archdiocese of galveston houston father david michael moses he and i sat down over zoom i am currently in nebraska and got to talk about his discernment story his process of discernment in both seminary and before seminary and what his day looks like as a priest and if i said he has it was just a great conversation just getting sit down and talk to him both before and afterwards so without further ado i'll send it all over to where we start with father david michael moses story enjoy all [Music] yeah so um yeah if you want to tell us your story it would be great yeah yeah everybody has a different story which is kind of what i think is cool about priesthood is god calls a lot of different people from a lot of different places in life at a lot of different times in their life um which kind of mirrors i think the catholic church as a whole that you're going to have people in your pews as a priest who are coming from all different places who god called in different times and it's kind of nice that the clergy sort of mirrors that and there's kind of a priest who can connect with with everybody you know not all the same with the same story um but my personal story i grew up in a catholic family um i think a lot of ways that my story starts with my with my parents you know your parents are going to be your biggest fake influence in in most cases and my parents actually they didn't grow up catholic they uh my mom grew up southern baptist dad grew up lutheran and um it was kind of tough for their families when they decided to convert you know especially my mom like southern baptist background becoming catholic was like the worst thing she could do you know it was it was rough um but they they really felt um a lot of connection with um the church's teachings on things like life and contraception and they they realized the church was kind of making the last stand on some of these really important issues they thought that you kind of take that take that seriously so for them it was pretty intellectual a lot of it just looking at the teaching of the church reading you know people and cyclicals and things like that and finally they just realized like man this is a tough pill to swallow you know to have to go into the catholic church but this certainly seems like the they have the truth you know about these things and so um they actually ended into the church with both of my dad's siblings and their spouses so all six of them actually came to church at the same time which was pretty cool they were able to kind of support each other on that journey um and a big part of their story too my dad um uh you know was running a really successful 401k company and then ended up um getting pretty involved in pro-life work and um decided he needed to drop the whole business thing and just go full-time doing um you know pro-life ministry and it was pretty intense i'm always careful how i talk about this um because it was it was totally sanctioned under the bishop so i would not recommend anyone going rogue and doing them doing this themselves but what they would do is they would get like 100 guys and they would go lay in front of the doors of abortion clinics um just peacefully peacefully lay there and um technically it was trespassing according to the law but but in texas if you think the life of uh someone's life is in danger you can trespass right and they felt like the life of a baby was very much in danger so they didn't think they were doing anything illegal you know um of course i didn't really hold up with the police the police would have to come you know take them away they would all kind of go limp to be arrested um but what that meant was it was very difficult for people to get into the abortions they would have had like climb over people's bodies so it was extremely effective um for uh you know really effective for getting those bush clinics to essentially shut down long term so um they did that for for several months my dad went to jail about a dozen times at one point he was sentenced to six months um and yeah it was very very effective work this was before i was born but i grew up listening to to basically jail stories you know that was kind of like that was bedtime stories and like dad talking about the time you were in jail you know i kind of thought everybody's dad went to jail you know that was like a normal thing it wasn't until i was older that i realized like having a dad who's a convict is not necessarily standard um but that was kind of the background for me of um of what christian life meant that you should be willing to leave everything and follow christ you know whatever that whatever that looked like um they ended up stop um you know uh they stopped doing that kind of work again the bishop asked them to stop and to focus more on the women who were pregnant um by the time they finished out in corpus christi where they were every abortion clinic had shut down and i think one abortionist flew in every two weeks on one day to do abortions i was everything else was gone which is pretty incredible um so my dad ended up starting the gabriel project um and that was kind of their focus going forward now thankfully that's that spread you know all over now and is um doing a lot of good for people so um and then he got back into business to support to support those initiatives so um even though i didn't grow up with you know him like in jail i was hearing those stories and again that was kind of the backdrop for like hey if jesus calls you to something you need to be willing to drop it all and go and go for it you know and so to know that i had parents who did that meant that when jesus ended up calling me to do that um it wasn't totally out of the question you know so grew up you know thankfully when the catholic faith faith that they now accepted and handed on to us and um really loved the faith especially loved um being close to eucharist um i was an all servant growing up and just being close to the mass in that way for me even at a young age i felt like gosh you know this has got to be the most important thing i'm doing each week like this is really the body and blood of jesus christ this is the peak of my week you know um and when i was probably 12 13 people would say like oh you'd be such a cute little priest you know um but honestly i was like i like girls like that's just not going to be for me clearly i'm not called to that so it wasn't until i went on a silent retreat when i was 16 and i was praying in the silence there and felt the lord kind of saying hey it might be you it wasn't like super affirmative it was just like you need to be open like it might be you i'm calling to be a priest and so i remember asking the spiritual director on that retreat i was like hey i'm kind of feeling drawn to the priesthood but i really like girls you know like i don't know what to do about that and he said hey man that's totally normal um doesn't mean you're off the hook you need to um take that seriously and see what god wants from you and i was like wow okay i guess i need to take this seriously you know so i spent this next couple of years praying a lot i really just fell in love with how a priest can help people you know i just felt like i want to do something meaningful with my life and what would be more meaningful than literally giving people jesus in the eucharist and forgiving their sins in the person of christ in confession like what else is there you know like what more could i do um certainly like the girls thing did not go away i dated several girls in the youth group and um those are all good relationships but i always felt like the lord was asking something else to me um and at the age of 18 that that's insane sounding like i'm never gonna go another date in my life you know it sounds crazy um and they were telling god like ask anything else you want like anything else you want but don't take that away and it was never him pressuring me but it was him saying like hey you can be a part of this if you want to like it's going to take some sacrifices but i'm inviting you into something very intimately connected with me and my son jesus um if you want to be a part of this if you're willing you know um so i started the application process process for seminary got halfway through it got nervous about this celibacy thing again and uh i was driving downtown to talk to the vocational instructor about anxiety and um i asked god to send me a duff let me go to somebody send me a dove and so i was looking at some birds and i i wasn't really sure if they were dumbs i don't really know what a dove looks like you know like i should have been more specific about my uh my sign um but i didn't think i saw anything then and so i kind of took a break from really focusing on seminary and discerning law school at the time so my educational path was was really unique i was homeschooled so i was eighth and eighth grade and my mom was always looking for a way to challenge us so i started taking college classes at that point did that for four years so although it was never really the plan when i was 18 i had my bachelor's degree so i was looking at law schools as well as seminary and i've been accepted at university of houston law school had my deposit in actually i deserved a spot there and so i was kind of going back and forth between those two and ultimately those months of prayer just really did not feel drawn to law school i thought it would have been a good thing good went to my family but i was not passionate about that and kephal and john the priesthood but again the celibacy thing was there and finally i was praying to holy out my home parish and it was one was one night and you know i was just really frustrated i was like lord i want to do what you want you know what my fears are you know what my concerns are you know with celibacy um but i'll do whatever you want as long as i i know it's what you want you know if you only go inseminate send me a dub i don't know why i kept going back to that but right then i looked up and realized that the huge painting glass window above the altar was it was a dove it was a symbol of holy spirit and i really felt like okay um this is at least what i what i need to take the next step you know so into seminary at that point it's a seven year process each of those first four or five years i was kind of 50 50 coming back honestly um when people act like i've always been a priest you know it's kind of like wow you really don't know what the ups and downs you don't know how fragile a vocation is a lot of ways like i'm kind of amazed that i ended up here because there were so many moments along the way where things could have gone differently um but finally five years into seminary i went on a uh it's called pastoralia you spend a year in a parish we all do it and i just loved it just loved being with people um at these most important moments in their lives and so um you know finished out his last couple of years and i've been a priest for for two years um here in houston and my parish is called saint faustina it's the newest parish in the archdiocese um so we're only nine years old we already have 4 500 families almost 15 000 parishioners this year of 2 100 kids in faith formation i mean it's just it's insane the growth here um whenever people talk about the church is dying or whatever it's like dude come hang out with me for like 20 minutes this parish is insane you know um but i just love these last two years to be able to focus on the most important things in life from 7 a.m to 10 p.m you know to have that be my life's work is just such a gift you know and i really wouldn't want to be doing anything else so that's kind of the brief story of how i ended up here yeah and so um did a little homework so i've got to listen to a couple like interviews and like bios that you've done so kind of like going back to that silent retreat um it was based on like the spiritual exercises ignatius right so yeah yeah um what were kind of those um moments in the exercises that kind of drew out that this could be you um was like part of it or anything in particular oh that's such a good question um i love that question yeah and that's probably a good thing for me to reflect on a part of the ex exercises right is um you know passing through these different you know stages the four weeks they kind of call it it's supposed to be a 30-day thing right they kind of condensed it to 48 hours they do a pretty good job with it but i think in a lot of ways like a detachment from the world it is a really healthy thing to step back and say like wait a second but i was 16 right there's a lot of things that look really interesting in the world at that point a lot of things you want to do things that look very very attractive um and it was really good to step back and say like wait what's really important here and especially to look at like the moment of judgment like when i stand before god certain things will matter certain things will not and at that point it will be too late to change my priority right it's all locked in at that point right now when i was 16 right now was the time to change my priorities if they needed to be changed this was the time to kind of choose what i cared about what i didn't care about and to make decisions about what was important and what wasn't and so that that became very clear for me like i really need to be focused on the things that are going to last forever and in so many ways that's like well that's our faith right that's that's the eucharist that's confession um that's how we love people that's who we're bringing how we're bringing people to christ um and so for me the priesthood what's beautiful is that's gonna hit people in different ways some people will look at that and be like that's why i've got to be such a good husband and father you know and that's beautiful that the lord and for me oh one great moment too glad you brought this up uh the priest there said you should choose the vocation that will make you a saint and it was like priesthood and i i didn't know and i was like wait why do i think that you know i don't know why i think that but i definitely think that like if my best shot at being a saint is being a priest and again not true for everybody but certainly true for me in the last few years i felt that that like sanctity for me sainthood for me is right there if i want it you know i can hear tons of confessions and i can preach the truth and i can give people the body of jesus and do that entirely till i die and like i'll be insane if i choose that you know i i have to keep choosing that and i've got a lot to prove but the path is there for me if i'm willing to take it you know um so hey i love that question thanks yeah and so um whatever you got into seminary um what was that like both for like those first couple of years talking a little bit about you being 50 50 and then once you kind of started going towards seeing the end of your seminary life yeah so this first couple years i don't mind telling people it's kind of tough because you probably go into seminary because you want to like minister to people like you want to talk about jesus you know you wanna bring in the sacraments and instead it's like a lot of school you know you gotta go to a lot of classes i mean the church it's seven to nine years depending on how much education you have and um it's a full load of college classes almost every every semester you know or graduate courses every semester so um and it makes sense the church does not want stupid priests like we need to know our stuff you know um we need to study and so um there's a lot of work to be done so that's a big part of it right you come into seminary and i think that can be kind of tough because it's easy to lose sight of like why you're there again i understand the way it is um but you have to kind of keep thinking about the people you know these the people these are the souls i want to say these are the people i want to minister to and kind of stay focused on that alongside that though is it man it's just fun to be living with a bunch of guys who care about the same things you care about i mean what a gift that is to you know we had so many just hilarious moments um pranks and just funny things running jokes in the house you know that would happen things that happened at morning prayer evening prayer you know just funny stuff you know pipes bursting water going everywhere all kinds of things that happen throughout you know similar i think to what you'd have like in a college experience early on except hopefully without all the really sinful things and with a lot of really good things you know so it's kind of i mean it's a really a really healthy environment and a lot of really great moments um so that was kind of the first couple years my path was weird because i because i was 18 i took classes with the guys who graduated from college because i had a degree but i live with the guys who are coming in as like freshmen so um i was really only there two years in dallas and i moved on to theology i was 20 i think the average age there when i got there was like 35. oh wow so that was kind of that's changing that age is going down constantly but it was kind of like whoa very different you know went from like nerf wars in the hallways to like everybody like in bed at nine you know it was like a very different vibe um but i made some some really good friends all along the way which i'm super grateful for um but like i said it wasn't till that fifth year i remember going into that pastoral year at the parish um and saying like god if this goes well like we're good but if this isn't doesn't go well like i'm gonna need some more time i'm gonna just take a few years off and figure things out because once you come back from that year it's just a another year until you're become a transitional deacons when it's called where you take all the promises and you're locked in at that point then you're a priest a year a year later um and so those last couple years once once i had that experience at the parish i was you know i was so full of energy for for the gospel and the priesthood that i you know those last couple years or something they were great because we knew where we were headed we knew why we were headed you know i mentioned like i kind of knew the faces of the people i was sacrificing for like this is what they look like you know this is this is what um this is what this is about and so i really appreciated having that and um it really got me through this last few years yeah it's definitely like a guy goes in wants to minister and then starts taking classes and he's like this is hard yeah yeah and purifying though i should probably mention like it's like are you serious about this or not like is this about like you being up in front of everybody and looking cool or is this about you putting in the work to save souls you know so there's something really beneficial about that separation that it isn't like you go straight like i don't want to be a priest all of a sudden you're up there you know like there's there's a lot of purification that happens yeah for sure and you talk about you going to dallas store you have holy trinity yeah yeah okay yeah so holy trinity for two years for pre-theology and then five years here at st mary's do you have any fun stories about hts because a lot of friends from diocese tyler that's went to hcs and would tell me all these weird stories about like groundhog or like anything about campus life ever so yeah yeah well i have i think which ones i can tell we're being recorded um no we used to there were pranks that were poor we put i think a group of the freshmen put like it was like a thousand little cups filled with water on the hall of the seniors so it was really hard to get around they kept stealing our um our shower handles so either like but one of them they saw the hot one or the cold one and if it was the cold one like it was burning you you couldn't even use it if it was the hot one like it was a really cold shower um we got a bat that went in one of the somebody's room one time that was funny um let's see trying to think there was one can i i think i can tell this guys were using um baby wipes in the in the bathrooms right because apparently toilet paper was too hard okay the guys used a baby baby wipes right they couldn't handle sugar so that was like an ongoing thing baby wipes okay well one night at dinner the vice rector gets up and goes guys i have announcement um a very large large ball of moist towelettes has been found in the pipes and it's causing a lot of plumbing issues if you're using moist towelettes can you please stop so they got banned after that no one was allowed to use those anymore um that that was a funny night too um but yeah i'm sure i could think of more all kinds of stuff one oh this is a good one too two guys for some reason they'd found these toy lightsabers okay and and they were messing around they were just they were just being funny but it was like 12 o'clock 12 30 at night like before we had midterms too like we really should have been studying and this guy you know he's saying something stupid he spins his lightsaber and hits the it's not just the light bulb it's like the big bulb you know around the light bulb yeah and just smashes it and it goes everywhere and so they had to they had to tell them the format the next day like hey a lightsaber hit the live you know it was just like oh gosh um all kinds of stuff like that good times good times i think a plastic lightsaber could destroy a life it was kind of impressive yeah it was kind of impressive everything back to camp counselor days like yeah just pull all these pranks on each other i worked at the pines catholic camp for three summers oh i was there this past summer yeah love that place i uh yeah it was special all the stories but yeah so in seminary um did you have any classes that you just absolutely dreaded but then realized that you're like this is really handy for my priesthood uh all of them um i'm trying to think of this one i like dreaded uh all of them i really do see a lot of value going back whether it's like metaphysics or logic was actually pretty fun um obviously once you get to see a philosophy this first couple of years right so it can be kind of hard to see where you're headed with this but looking back it's definitely um such a good thing we did you know philosophy of a human person on ancient philosophy obviously of classical stuff um all that i think just philosophy in general it's kind of hard at first to see the point but really is so helpful for setting you up for theology yeah and so can you talk about the differences between like those philosophy courses and then how they transferred into theology courses yeah so philosophy um is so good because it's not what's actually so helpful about is you're not starting with like a foundation of if there's a god or not right that's a question you're going to explore but you're just looking at like even things before jesus you know things um kind of alongside or before judaism you know what what what can we know about man what does nature reveal to us you know um and and it's kind of that's a really good starting point for for getting to a conclusion of the existence of a god and then kind of taking that where where it leads you know um but philosophy is nice because it's something that you know even a non-theist could hopefully have a good conversation with you about you know an agnostic person or an atheist as kind of a groundwork for moving into into theological studies yeah and so um while you were in seminary did you ever look at religious life or ever look at any orders to join yeah so that retreat i went on was put on by an order called nillas christie and i actually went and visited them they're really solid um i went and visited one of their formation houses so for those who might not know like a religious priest is going to be part of a religious community focused on a charism some kind of ministerial work or you know exercise of prayer that they're focused on was a dawson priest like i am we're pretty much regional based so i'm connected with the city of houston the arts i see god in houston um i like to say my charism kind of is like is houston it's like my people here you know i'll pretty much always be here with them whatever that ministry looks like maybe that's paris ministry probably but it could also be you know stephen the chancery vocation director stuff secretary stuff all kinds of things um so uh i looked at that religious community their charism is like working with with the youth doing the silent retreats obviously um and i went and visited i remember enjoying it and just being like okay that was fun like and it was in my mind it wasn't like let's go back you know like there wasn't there wasn't like a real resonance within me on that um and i i loved i really loved paris life like i really and i i do i mean it's been so realized in god's plan for me like i love the rhythm and the spontaneity and the variety that is like parish ministry so dawson priesthood made a lot of sense to me um like if i i love hearing confessions not because it's fun but because it's just so important and so meaningful and if you want to hear tons of confessions like being in a parish is the place to be you know so um i definitely thought about religious life and to be honest with you like it's still an option later on in life the bishop's always supposed to release you to go to religious life if you want to because um it's considered objectively a higher form of life it's more perfect it is hard to be a dawson priest because i am constantly pulled pulled by the world you know i need to be in the world working with my people hanging out with people going to dinner with people like that's an important part of my ministry but it is easy to be pulled out of like the spiritual the spiritual realm um it's a less objectively less perfect form of life than religious life would be so i'm super open that if later in life the lord calls me to a religious community to live my live my life more perfectly conformed to him like i would totally be up for that yeah i think i love it when discernment happens so simply like when you go to visit a religious community like i visited a benedictine monastery in oklahoma and i was like yeah i'm definitely not going to be a monk because i would just turn into jack nicholson and the shining you're going to so she's not going to do that sometimes it's easy right sometimes it's easy sometimes easy sometimes you have to explore more so yeah um talk a little bit about those differences between a religious priest and a diocesan priest did you explain like the difference between like the vows that they take the promises that you take yeah yeah um so they're gonna be focused on the evangelical councils right like you mentioned um poverty chastity obedience um it's not super super different right from what we're taking um you know obviously the the celibacy the chastity is going to be essentially the same um we're both going to talk about you know we call our we we call theirs vows technically but um we're still going to promise obedience to our bishop they would do it to like a superior um we're both going to have some form of like promising prelude hours as well some of them will take like a promise of of stability as well or sometimes they have like a fourth promise um but i and then the the big one's gonna be like poverty um we hopefully are living simple lives but we do we definitely own things you know that's just we own the stuff that we have and the dioceses and trying to regulate the net value of your possessions you know it's really on you to make sure that you're you're conforming yourself to christ and living a simple life which for me means a lot of ways living with your people like don't live on a uh financially much higher level than your people that you really need to be really need to be with them you know um but one thing i would actually point out that i think a lot of guys have questions about is um a big part of religious life is often communal life so you're living together praying together like the rhythm of your life is probably coming back to the community at certain intervals whereas communal life is is not necessarily a part of dawson priests at all hopefully it is right right now i live with um the pastor here and then we have a seminary on pastoral year so the three of us we have lunch together sometimes we see each other in the evenings kind of debrief about the day um so we have some community uh but i am very well aware that when i get made a pastor i will probably be by myself somewhere you know and i so i think it's it's a helpful point of discernment like i don't like that but i can i can totally do it i have the capacity for it and i can thrive there and do my ministry like i'm okay with that if a guy's really not cool with that if he really needs to be with his bros all the time you know he needs that to come back to um but he is called to the priesthood then in a lot of ways a religious religious life would make more sense there's been a push in the church um recently from members in the church to try to get dawson priests to live together in communities more often than go out to their parishes hey i think you can pull that off go for it do it it's definitely a good thing it's going to bear a lot of fruit but you can't count on that like when i signed up for this i knew i might have to fly solo a lot of the time like i and i thought i could do it i had the capacity for it um but the way i put it is like shepherds don't always get to hang out with other shepherds you know sometimes they've got to take their flock somewhere there aren't other shepherds it's just sheep you know so you got to be able to care for your sheep have integrity um love your sheep make your sheep kind of your community and keep going you know um you can't always depend on having that kind of um community uh as a dawson priest now i think if a guy doesn't do that that's fine a religious order is probably a really good option so it's all about what the lord wants from me sure and do you feel like seminary prepped you for that like i'm not always going to live with other guys aspect yeah i think so i mean that's a good point you bring up because if a guy just loves seminary so much it probably would be good to at least think about am i called to religious life because that's more what seminaries like you know rhythm of the day we're praying together you're hanging out with people um but if a guy is kind of like gosh i want to be with the people more serving um then that's probably more obvious transition out of seminary into like priestly ministry you know um and i will say in terms of the communal thing um i'm not i'm not guaranteed to live with a group of people but um because houston is not a super big diocese i'm pretty good about touching base with guys i'm pretty consistently grabbing lunch with a priest friend or grabbing dinner with somebody i know um from the seminary or whatever so you know i i think if you just plan well you know you can still have tons of fraternity and time time with your friends to catch up for sure yeah and so like out of all those promises that you took at your ordination do you find any one of them like tougher to live by or like because i'm sure a lot of guys looking at it are like you were like the celibacy thing is going to be the hardest thing because girls are pretty so you find any of them harder now that you're ordained two years yeah it's funny that they would tell you like hey this sounds funny you think it's gonna be the hardest but it's really obedience or whatever um celibacy is still the hardest i think i think that's still um but different things would be hard at different moments right sometimes praying five times a day literally hours um sometimes that's hard you know you know i'm not thinking about the five factor i don't have a wife i'm thinking i gotta make sure i got my liturgy hours before i go to bed you know um obedience yeah i mean i'm pretty sure i'll probably move in this summer you know and uh i've had to pack up my stuff and go wherever the bishop sends me you know that's tough you know on that day you're not thinking a lot about the fact that you don't have a wife you're thinking about gosh like my entire life's been moved somewhere else you know um so i i think at different moments the promises will hit um in different ways but um i think ultimately it's about it's about one freedom like those those things free me up they free me up celibacy frees me up to give myself the people that the promise to pray frees me up to make sure i'm get that prayer time and the promise of obedience frees me up to just allow god to speak to me through the bishop you know ultimately this i think those promises bring a lot of a lot of peace you know difficult for sure but that's why they're meaningful sure yeah i was one of my chaplain in college he always had this saying whenever i was making a tough decision he was like dude just be free and i'm like what does that mean father and so um that freedom is definitely like that peace in freedom when you have that is so key yeah one to that point um a lot of times we want god to tell us exactly what our vocation is i was telling the buddy of mine about this even for me i got some science to keep going but i would say by the end of it like god wasn't giving me tons of signs of my what nation day it was something that i felt like um he was opening the door to and saying like hey you can be a part of this if you want it's it has to be a free choice always it has to be something that we're choosing because like my friend pointed out if god told you exactly what you had to be then you're like fine i have to be this and then you were you didn't like it you'd be like you'd be mad at god like why did you make me do this you know instead um for me like i chose it completely freely so if it's tough it's like hey dude you made the decision you know like ultimately what god wants what he's glorified by is his his human beings who he made free um freely choosing um to love him freely choosing commitment whether that's marriage or priesthood making that choice and then living it out yeah i think one of the things that i think inhibits a guy in his discernment with like feeling free and that is like family like going back to his family and being like hey i want to go do this for the rest of my life um and having mixed feelings or that fear of like they're the only son in their family so they have to carry on the family name um so do you have any advice for guys who have that fear of sharing that or what was your experience like sharing with your parents and your family that you wanted to wear the collar for the rest of your life and wear a white collar and not do a blue collar job yeah yeah um everybody's family kind of different response to it some guys families were super supportive sometimes like even too supportive like the guy who wasn't called the prisoner but family like really wanted it or families who like i mean i knew guys who their family would not even talk to them about seminary or priesthood like at dinner they had to talk about other things because they bring it up which was sad my family i would say is about as perfect as i've heard in terms of being really supportive and encouraging and like without any pressure you know um i remember i told my it was funny how i started though because i told my dad i think i'm down i'm kind of thinking about being briefed and he was like i always wanted a son who was going to be a priest but i didn't want it to be you i was not even not really sure what that means but um and then my mom was concerned about the celibacy thing too she was like i know you want to get married like are you going to be happy you know like that um be happy being celibate um but again like once i went in they were you know from day one like my dad would be like hey if you get a dance priest awesome if you drive home tomorrow no worries you know um so i was really grateful for that i do think being part of a bigger family does help i mean i have six nieces and a nephew almost all my siblings are married have kids if i was the only son or the only kid i think that would be more difficult and uh uh so i think that is sometimes a challenge but i think it's so important for for parents to recognize like hey if the lord calls your son has to respond to that you know and if you're trying to get in the way of what god's doing um then you're kind of if you're doing the opposite of your job as a parent i think for a young man to be to be willing to follow follow christ no matter what i mean jesus is pretty clear in scripture unless you hate your mother and father you know obviously the way he's using that is you've got to be putting me first you know um unless you're willing to put me first like you're not worthy of the kingdom of god and so i think for young men if you feel that call um again it should never come from a place of like i have to do this i'm obligated but it should be like hey if the lord is inviting me to this then i need to i've got to respond and the most important voice in my life has to be god's voice otherwise i i'm not not doing this the way it's supposed to be done that's awesome i can't worry better myself yeah and so i think transitioning into like what your life looks like now as a priest um and so typically i know when i was a kid i thought a priest would come out on sunday say mass go to his house and sit in the black room and just do nothing for a week until the next sunday so if you could just talk about like what do you do what's your day look like what does your week look like dude that's why the best part it's so great it is so great like even just looking at at this i mean today like i woke up this morning um we we do morning prayer like literally hours we sing it with some young adults they're super cool they're super fun to be with there's a big family that comes with like six kids seminarian comes some other ladies from the parish some of the backbones we sing morning prayer together just beautiful and then i go in the sacristy and we have a deacon here super cool guy and i'm always joking with him about stuff we're teasing each other we've got smack flights in there and um there's seminarians in there too so we're we're joking around and then we go outside we've got we've got morning mass you know i say mass for the people finish mass go straight into confessions um we did confessions for about an hour and a half today um which was really beautiful you know just so many great moments in confession where you see you see god converting hearts and as a priest to be there for that moment it's just wow god thank you thank you for letting me be a part of this you know um finished confessions immediately had to do do a blessing for a new extraordinary minister that we had did that had a meeting with someone this morning to go over some some plans for some different things projects were working on had lunch with somebody a lunch meeting came back touched base with youth ministry about some dates we had going on answered a bunch of phone calls emails um then i had my adoration out from three to four which was really nice and then got this call now have a meeting with the couple for marriage prep this afternoon i'll have dinner then we have a young adult adoration tonight from eight to nine i have confessions during that we have about 40 young adults cool people such cool people got a guy who plays guitar it's all candlelit adoration so it's really beautiful we'll do that people will play hang out and talk that young adult would probably talk to like 10 30 or 11. um so it'll be a long day but even just that you can see just it's just fun man and just a little interactions you have so fun and so meaningful you know so much prayer in that sacraments and that um and uh yeah yeah tomorrow tomorrow i'm technically off but i've got nasa at a catholic school in the morning then i've got um some stuff to take care of i know going to the surfaces concert in the evenings that'll be fun um so yeah i mean it's just uh every day is different every week it's different um but that's what that's what makes it exciting you know yeah and so like what do you usually do on your days off because like you obviously like have a youtube channel and things like that so i've seen like different things of you like going and building a treehouse with your brother property so is it just like whatever you feel like doing that week or whatever yeah i usually because you just get one day i do usually try to make the most of it i'll either go home with my parents all my brothers live over there so i'll see them my nieces my nephews my brother just recently built a pretty amazing flight simulator um like it's we have all the controls for everything and the new uh the new graphics for it are just awesome um so that's been kind of fun we've talked about getting a plane maybe at some point um like a small i can't get one um but uh i'll go on the sailboat we've got we've got a horse in my dad's office all right sometimes catching up with friends from high school getting coffee with people you know i mean to be honest on my day off because i got a friday it's right before the weekend so i'm sometimes finishing up homilies or talks or finishing arrangements for maybe a funeral on a saturday so if i need to do some work you know i will um but it's really nice to be with family we're getting ready for hunting season right now so we also have about 200 acres of hunting property about an hour west of here so once november hits i'll probably be out there for my day off trying to shoot a white tail so um but uh that's also a lot of fun and the main part of it i think it's just uh being with my family like that's really healthy for me um to kind of reset you know here at the parish i'm father you know there's a lot of things going on and it's really good just to be with my family you know and kind of reset things and refocus and um so i'm super super grateful for them that's one of the benefits of being a dawson priest is you're going to probably you know maintain that relationship with your family and with other people from other parishes part of being a religious priest often is going away which there's a lot of value to that like spiritually there's a lot of value to going away but it isn't necessarily the path for for everybody so i'm thankful for for for this one yeah and so talk a little bit about hunting things like that so do you like have any hobbies outside of hunting or are you just a big i go out in the field shoot some hot shoot some hugs and call it a day what what all do you like to do yeah so the hunting um my brothers are really into that so i'm actually kind of gotten into it as well we'll shoot some yeah hogs or deer or ducks that kind of thing um definitely enjoy that music i've been writing songs for a long time so each summer we do a benefit concert for some pro-life groups in houston um and so we usually have about about a thousand people come and i think this past year we raised over a hundred thousand dollars which was awesome for some pro for some pranks helps groups in houston so i really enjoy writing music we have a band from a bunch of uh priests from a bunch of different places who come in and play music so um i enjoy doing that when i can um music stuff like i mentioned the horse sailing um uh flying a little bit and then um also just playing sports so like basketball we play basketball as priests sometimes um so yeah i mean i don't have tons of time for hobbies but it is good it's a good way to connect with people so anything that's going to connect with people in different ways um i'm all about so yeah i think it was my favorite realization in college it's like priests or dudes they're normal and don't just like these deep philosophical conversations but like we'll go play campus golf and scare some college students with our foam golf balls who sometimes think they're real golf balls oh that's great yeah no you need to be um you need to be balanced like i don't think our brain is really wired to just talk about philosophy all the time like it is really healthy to interact in different ways um and again it's all about like it's all about bringing people to god you know all those interactions hopefully are bringing us more into like relationship with each other and with you know the god who made us like that's the point of it all and it is such a good thing yeah and i think it really breaks the ice to actually start going into those conversations and just like hey let's go play some disc golf in the woods and yeah have a good time and then they're like oh my gosh she's actually normal yeah yeah yeah and so i'm kind of wrapping things up do you have like any words of advice or like any books or like talks or videos that you think are beneficial for guys who are disturbing the priesthood either religious toward diocesan yeah yeah so i would say um whatever you're going to do in your life get rid of sin you know especially serious sins right that's going to confuse everything um it's not only going to confuse your discernment it's going to confuse your salvation right get rid of serious sins do what you need to do to get rid of stuff that you know is wrong if you know what's wrong get rid of it go to confession um make sure you come into mass every sunday make sure you're praying every day those are three really good things to be doing stay close like pray every day mass every sunday um confession you know regularly maybe every two or three months or as often as you need to and just trying to be holy like that's a really good a really good place to start and then within that right within your prayer um to be listening to what the lord wants to not be afraid of his will i think that's that's something that's that's really easy at first i think i was afraid of it god knows he knows what he made you for you know it's only to your benefit to find out what that is don't be afraid of what of what that looks like and then be willing to respond generously it's funny man because you see a flip in guys um you see in yourself and your discernment from being like i hope i'm not called a priesthood i don't want to be celibate that sounds hard i want to do other things and then somewhere along the way you flip and you go wow i sure hope god's calling me to be a priest i can't imagine doing anything else in my life what more is there what a gift that would be i sure hope he's calling me i sure hope he's gone and it's kind of amazing when it flips you know like um i i think sometimes we're like oh please be open to priesthood please please leave the open we need priests i'm kind of like dude if you don't want to be a priest like leave it to those who who get it like you know really attractive girls aren't like oh please date me please please date me like they know they're attractive um the priesthood is a beautiful thing like if it's if it's open like it's an open path for you what a gift that you've been chosen for that what a gift that you've been chosen for this ministry you know to be conformed to jesus in this way um to be able to say like in the first person i absolve you from your sins this is my body to be that intimately tied with jesus christ at the deepest part of your being like you better pray that you're called to that you know what a gift that is um so that's really my my approach to it now more um to really be be open to that be generous with the lord um with whatever he might be might be calling you to to not let fear you know be the driving force there um my little method i tend to use is prayer people peace spend time praying about it talking to god um talk to people that you trust and you're probably a priest a good spiritual director vocational director your parents good friends prayer people and then peace like see how it sits you know peace is not feeling feeling happy peace is like everything being as it should be in your heart so if you feel peace about that it's like okay you need to take that seriously whatever you feel take that back to prayer and keep going through prayer people peace purple peace i think that's a pretty good way to go about that for sure for discernment it's a little older now but it's still it's still the go-to book to save a thousand souls um a really good one it's a classic um gives you lots of good information on the priesthood um thankfully i'm i'm kind of jealous of guys you know discerning now there are so many good reasons and i was discerning 10 11 years ago not that long ago but um there wasn't that much out there really then and now it's pretty awesome that guys have so many resources and people to talk to um but yeah that's probably the stuff what i would say in terms of uh in terms of discernment yeah no i'm so glad you addressed like the people who come up to you and tell you that you should be a priest like it's it was my least favorite thing growing up in my parish and a bunch of old age would come up to me because i was an authorship and somewhat tried to look like i was being reverent be a priest and i'm like i'm nine so yeah no that's awesome same thousand souls absolutely it's solid yeah for sure but thank you so much for spending your time with me father thank you you got it glad you reached out i always enjoyed talking about these [Music] you

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Length: 48min 23sec (2903 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 10 2021