I Will Follow—Two Catholic Priests' Vocation Stories

[Music] [Music] so when I was in high school all I wanted was to be happy I went to Mass my mom grown up but I was into my faith at all it just didn't make sense to me I thought my life made sense without God I had an incredible girlfriend who I thought I was in love with had a best friend like I talked about anything but over the course of one summer she broke up with me my best friend moved away and I remember feeling empty and alone and I was I was embarrassed and so I started to try to fill that emptiness like partying more with hanging out more with with with dating more girls I gave me a lot more since thinking that they would satisfy me but nothing worked I realized I was just empty inside nothing satisfied that aching my heart [Music] during my college years I I wanted reasons for my faith and so I went to school just to learn more about my faith but when I got there it would seem like the answers that I received were things that just made me question even more like there was no reason for what we really believed and so I ended up having this like this hatred in my heart you know I was still Catholic but I really hated the church [Music] I even became a missionary after college a full-time missionary in Central America the mission I went to was super Catholic and I got down there and I just was so angry at the church that I would go to Mass and I would openly make fun of the priest during his homily during the entire mass but I had no idea how arrogant I was and how drastically my life was about to change [Music] [Music] a friend of mine started to see how unhappy I'd become and so she invited me to go on a retreat with her but I didn't want to go I did not want to go on a retreat because I wanted nothing to do with the church I didn't think that the church could tell me anything I didn't think that the church had anything to offer me but I went and I remember telling God you better make something happen on this retreat or else I'll leave the church forever on the second night of the retreat I felt like I heard God speak to me I heard him say I love you and it pierced my heart because I always thought growing up that I had to do something to earn someone's love but here guy was looking at me and my brokenness and my mess with all the junk I had done over the past few years all the sin I committed and he told me I love you I asked them what is your will for me [Music] while I was at that mission I got really sick so sick that they thought I was gonna die so someone called the priest and as I was lying there in that bed in walked the man that I had made fun of for weeks now at every single Mass and without hesitating he rushed to my bedside and he gave me the anointing of the sick and he gave me Holy Communion and I remember lying there thinking maybe I was wrong maybe this man really does know who Jesus is maybe this is all true [Music] that began this process of asking questions in a really deep way and finding the answers for the first time and as I found those answers something in my heart and in my mind changed and I realized that I was not only falling in love with God I was falling in love with his church that he gave us [Music] for the last number of years I had thought that I was so right and that the church was so wrong but the priest had answers to questions that I had never heard and for the first time in my life I experienced the joy of being wrong I remember being in front of the Eucharist one day praying and I was getting ready to get married to an amazing woman but in my prayer I said God I will do whatever you want me to do and in my prayer I realized God was saying I will love you no matter what you choose but I am calling you to a different path [Music] after the retreat I started going back to church more and the more I spent time praying to Jesus in adoration the more I made sense to me what he was calling me to do [Music] in that Chapel I heard God's voice and it was crystal clear I said to him Lord I hear you calling me and I will follow [Music] I will be your priest [Music] I will be your priest [Music] it's never boring it's never the same thing it's never just kind of normal it is the most important thing that I could do with my life [Music] pour into the seminary I thought that all priests were perfect then I got the seminary and I quickly realized I'm broken I'm so broken [Music] then the midst of my brokenness the Laura loves me [Music] as a father as a priest I get to heal God's children as a father and priests get to heave God's children in fact all of the sacraments that are given to us by priests they're the role of the father of a giving life and of healing and of of feeding [Music] the priesthood is the greatest gift I have could have ever received [Music] I am unworthy to be a priest every time I'm at the altar and every time I say the mass the universe is changed the world is different because of what God has done and continues to do through the mass [Applause] you [Music]

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 172,516

Rating: 4.9745851 out of 5

Keywords: vocation story, priest (occupation), catholic priest, religious life, vocation story priest, vocation story of a seminarian, religious life for men, religious life in the catholic church, religious life catholic definition, catholic vocation discernment, catholic vocations video, catholic vocations youtube, catholic vocation stories

Id: eTw5xg37QF0

Length: 10min 41sec (641 seconds)

Published: Sat May 12 2018