I was born in Portland Oregon and lived a very happy childhood. I was blessed with four other siblings and a wonderful mother who taught me the Catholic faith, but this wasn’t always the case. The first six years of my life we were not practicing the Catholic faith. It wasn’t until my father left that my mom really turned to God and the Church. That’s when a new beginning started.
Our home parish is Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in Beaverton, Oregon and I have gone there my whole life. At age 10 I started altar serving, but it was only because my friends were doing it. Looking back, it was one of the best decisions that I have ever made. When I first started out, I didn’t really understand how important serving for Mass truly was and I would often regret being an altar server. As I got older, I really started to enjoy serving for Mass, and I was more deeply drawn to the Holy Eucharist. I thought about how cool the priests were and how joyful they always were, but I never thought that I would ever want to become a priest. I often got comments from people telling me that I would make a good priest, or they would ask me if I had ever considered being a priest. But, I would always tell them, “No, I don’t want to do that.”
As I got into high school this thought of becoming a priest started to appear frequently and over the years of high school it constantly got louder and louder until my senior year. That’s when this thought was louder than ever, but every time I heard it, I would always push it to the back of my head. At the time I wanted to wrestle in college and that was my main focus. I thought that I was going to become a great wrestler, go to a nice college, and that many coaches were going to contact me. I thought this was the right path for me. I started to notice that in the times that I would reflect on myself and think about this path I would get extremely excited at that moment, but I would also feel sadness and get overwhelmed. I had no idea why, but when I would reflect on the priesthood and going to seminary, the thought gave me a peace and joy that I have never felt in my life. That peace stayed with me and made me feel safe.
Day by day I kept getting drawn closer to the priesthood and seminary until I couldn’t hide my interest any longer. At first, I had many doubts going through the application process. I thought that I was not worthy enough for this great task. Talking with so many great priests, and with Archbishop Alexander Sample, reassured me that more discernment sounded like the right path that God wanted me to take. Thank you for your prayers and support.
Prayer for Our Seminarians
Lord Jesus, as you once called the first disciples to make them fishers of men, let your sweet invitation continue to resound: Come Follow Me! We thank you for the gift of these seminarians called to serve in the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon. Inspire them to imitate You, the Eternal High Priest, in sacrificial service to Your Church. Grant perseverance to our seminarians. Give them the graces they need to one day serve You faithfully as priests. May Your light shine through them to everyone they meet. Mary, Mother of the Church, the model of every vocation, help our seminarians to continue to say “yes” to the Lord who calls us to cooperate in the divine plan of salvation. Amen