I'm not sure if God is calling me to the Priesthood, but

[joshnov17]

I do have this feeling or wanting inside of me to serve the people as a priest.

It all started about four years ago when I was going away for college. I got this sense to go to Mass at the Newman Center at the university. Before going to college, going to Mass and being involved in the church wasn’t the routine at home. But when I went away to college I got this feeling that I must become closer to the church. Since I was away from home I thought to myself, “After high school, you can finally make your own decisions and life choices,” and that motto sent me to attend Mass every Sunday. It soon began to grow and I fell in love with the Mass.

Fast forward four years later, as I got more involved with the church at my university, it was my last year and graduation time was around the corner. It was 2011 and I will never forget that year. I had such a horrible year. Three family deaths within a couple of months, my dad walked out on the family and my grandma was diagnosed with acute leukemia. It was tough and needed some spiritual guidance. So one day I decided to stop by the local parish and check if the priest was available. When I arrived he was sitting on the bench waiting for an appointment. I had been there numerous times, and had never seen him there, this time was different. This was no accident.

So we talk for about 30 mins. and we schedule an appointment just to talk about the situations in my life and how to cope with them. One thing he told me, that will forever stay with me is, “We were supposed to meet each other here. In life there are no accidents.”

So at our meeting a few weeks later, we discuss everything that has happened. I also mention that for the past year or so, the thought of becoming a priest has popped in my head. Even before all this had happened, I had considered how wonderful it would be bring people to Christ.

The conversation ended and a few weeks later, the priest I spoke to tells me that he spoke to the vocations director about me and that I might have some interest in the priesthood. I did go to one meeting with other guys who also had that potential interest in the priesthood.

Since then, I couldn’t make the other monthly meetings because of work but still have the thought of becoming a priest. I’m currently in RCIA classes and will receive the sacrament of Confirmation and First Communion in May. I’m really excited and looking to what God has in store for me.

I just have this certain pull towards the Mass and the crucified Jesus. I can’t see myself not going to Mass on Sundays and worshiping Christ in the Eucharist. Helping others get closer to Christ is another quality I posses. Again, like the priest said, “There are no accidents in life,” could this be a turn of events God had in store for me to become closer to the Church as a priest or am I reading too much into it.

It was that one day and that exact time me and the priest met that I disclosed my interest in the priesthood. If I wouldn’t have gone through tough times, I never would have met with the priest. Again, could this possibly be God’s will at work here nudging me to become a priest or not.

I will greatly appreciate all replies. Thanks and God Bless.

 

[DJK100]

HI,

Awesome story. We should all be so lucky to feel like we have a call to a vocation like that. The best advice is continue to pray daily for God to help you discern his will. Continue to explore the vocation with your vocation director. Live your life the best you can. Do those things and you will figure it out.

Good luck and welcome to the chruch.

I also found these pamphlets on vocations you might be interested in reading…

pjpiisoe.org/pamphlets/005US.pdf
pjpiisoe.org/pamphlets/124US.pdf

Hope these help.

 

[DexUK]

Your account of your experience is great to read. Thank you so much for sharing it. Here’s my story…

Although I’m a cradle-Catholic, in my teens I fell away (as many do), but somehow I managed not to break the connection completely, and in my 20s I began to feel the call of the Church again. For me it was first of all the all encompassing peace that would come over me when I attended Mass and especially after receiving Communion. I would attend lunchtime Masses during the week and I would fairly ‘float’ out of the Church on my way back to the office. It was like a re-awakening, every day. It made me fresh as a daisy each lunchtime Walking back to the office, surrounded by London traffic, buses, noise, people, and yet my heart was still in the Church and none of it impinged upon my sense of peace.

Soon afterwards, in online communities that I participated in (secular ones), I discovered I had a ‘voice’ to speak about faith. I felt moved to defend my faith and, wherever possible, to educate people about what it was really about and to try to correct misapprehensions or speak out when people railed against the Church or accused me and people like me of believing in ‘sky fairies’. I soon got a name for myself for not backing down in the face of calumny and falsehood! But I did it politely and honestly and while I definitely didn’t manage to win over every heart and soul I came across, there were a few who gained a new respect for my and others’ beliefs. I discovered the joy in teaching and sharing my faith with others. Whatever I felt that I might have given, I also felt like I was being given back tenfold, or a hundredfold, in experience and inspiration. My spiritual vocabulary grew. You might even draw an analogy with a muscle: use it or you lose it.

Now all of this sounds a lot like ‘me me me’. But in all of this I discovered that one of the singular most rewarding experiences is to be of service to another person. So then I started helping out with my parish as well. I started by being an Extraordinary Minister both at home and at the work parish. Indeed, my first ‘outing’ was at the work parish, at a packed Mass, distributing the Hosts. Oh boy, was I petrified or what? I, little me, completely unworthy as I am, sinner through and through, had been entrusted with the most awesome responsibility of giving the Body of Christ to hundreds, perhaps thousands over time, of people. In my unworthy - and shaking - hands was the Body of Christ. It terrified me and humbled me. And yet it also lifted me higher than I’ve ever been lifted before.

Entrusted to me was the task of helping the priest join the congregation together in the unity of the Pastoral Meal as they shared in the one bread, consecrated at the Altar. I don’t think I’ve ever been more honoured. The only honour I can imagine that’s greater is to be given the power and the privilege and the service of consecrating that bread myself and using that ‘voice’ I had been exercising in the service of the community I try to serve.

And so I applied to my diocese for entry into seminary training to become a priest, and somehow they managed to find enough in me that they liked to accept me. For various reasons (family issues, practical reasons, etc) I haven’t yet been able to take up their offer but I look forward to the day I can. No matter what my secular career does, no matter what potential daydreams of big lottery wins or huge job promotions comes my way, across all of that, my dream of my future is always to leave all that behind and render service to Our Lord and my fellow man. My heart yearns for it.

As for you, your joy in your faith is infectious. I can see that. Go forward for your admission to the Church. Do it in joy and peace and love. And then live your faith for a couple of years while you talk about and explore your vocation. Your vocations director will probably need to see your commitment (since they might be worried that you’re just caught up in the whirlwind of it all at the moment, which happens from time to time) so use the period to grow in your service… Once confirmed, you can offer yourself after a little while as an EMHC (Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion), Lector (reader), altar server, etc. Experience these gifts of service and the rewards they always bring. It will keep you on the road and help you get closer to your goal and, at the same time, offer you new insights. Enjoy your journey. I know for sure that you’re going to find it fascinating and full of wonder.

You and all others aiming for priesthood will be in my prayers. Please pray for me, also, that my circumstances allow it sooner rather than later.

 

[jesusmylover]

Hey Josh,

Thanks to share your story here with us, it’s really cool to see how God is present in your life. Just know that you are loved by god, and all events which appear in our life have to help us to have a strong Faith in God.

Just continuous your beautiful christian life, and you will be in my prayer everyday my friend. When you go to the mass, you receive Jesus, and he will never leave you alone, even during bad period when you feel like he is absent, he is really near you. I suppose that you know Saint John Mary Vianey, everyday i ponder his teachings about mass, sacraments, life with God…

Now you’re are in the Grace of God, stay inside, and continuous your spiritual help with your vocation director.

It’s beautiful to see how today God is present in our life, and still calls people to the priesthood. Listen your heart and when you will be ready, don’t hesitate to say “Yes” to him.

I ll also pray for the different sacraments you’re preparing : First Communion and Confirmation. It’s funny because i’m preparing young people in parish now for the both sacraments, and it’s interesting to see how the grace is in the lives of this young. And i know for sure that during your confirmation you will receive many gifts from the Holy Spirit which ll help you for your Christian live and your vocation.

Good bless you, Union of Prayer.

 

[jesusmylover]

Hey Dex,

Thanks to have shared your story online with Josh and everybody. I thanks god for everything he does in your life. I was too touched by your story and you vocation. Now i’m going to share with you mine.

My raised in a catholic family, and i received my baptism when i was 8 years old, and 2 years later, i decided to go to catechism myself to receive my firm communion, why? I don’t know. One year later i received my confirmation, and three months i started to be active in the catholic association at church.

I decided to enter in seminary when i was sixteen, but my family refused, i did and they abandon me. one year later my spiritual in the seminary helped me to forgive them. But because a doubt i felt inside me and a girl i meet the same year during the summer, i finally decided to leave my vocation.

I went to Gabon to help salesian sisters in one of their centre for alphabetisation, helping poor people… one year later i went to see my family in France and continuous my studies at university. In the same time i had many activities with young catholic at church : catechism, pilgrimage… and one day the bishop of the diocese of Lourdes told me that i have the vocation to become priest, and he proposed me to go to the seminary, but i refused. And i went to Bordeaux to continuous my studies like engineer.

During my three years of studies at engineering school, passed one weekend in a camel monastery and i felt in love. I learned there the orison, the meditation… i got my degree, started to work and continued my look in the carmel. The Mayor told me that i had the vocation and yo make my demand for an admission, but i didn’t.

Diving, travel were my favourite hobbies, i travelled around all the europe, Australia… i had good job, god pay, after 2 years i became responsible of one department in my company. But i decided to leave all to immigrate in Quebec like permanent resident. Why? i don’t know, maybe because of my passion for adventure.

I felt in love with the country here, and i started to find a good job here. But despite all my active life, i never stopped my meditation everyday, mass, eucharistic adoration… And one sunday during adoration, i felt in my heart the confirmation that God was calling me to give him definitely my life in the priesthood.

So i decides to ask my admission here in the seminary of quebec, because it’s was clear that God is calling me to be priest in the world, a priest given for people. I’m waiting the answer of my demand.

So, when you read my story, you can see how since i was young i heard my vocation, but i took different ways. Today i refused many good job proposition, god salary, because all is sured that the best for me will be with God who during all my life was present, near me, in all the ways i took.

It’s never too later, i hesitated a long time, i push back to later, but the time of God is not ours. I promise that i will pray everyday for you, for your vocation. And never abandon the spiritual accompaniment which is capital in a christian life. That helped me too much.

Do not pay attention for my poor english

Good bless you.

Your account of your experience is great to read. Thank you so much for sharing it. Here’s my story…

 

[CallMeCatholic]

Fantastic story. I’ll be praying for you & just remember to do God’s will. His plan for you is better than anything you can imagine.