introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters:
I have decided to give blogging a try to start getting down some of the many thoughts that have been coursing through my mind of late as well as to assist myself in discerning my vocation. To start things out I would like to share my latest spiritual journey that began about 2 years ago.

The journey begins the summer before my senior year. I was very involved in my high school, and had pretty high expectations for myself. I was on the soccer team, basketball team, and involved in numerous clubs: National Honor Society, Robotics, Electrorally, Technology Student Association, StuCo, and a couple others, and I was looking forward and preparing to accomplish some big feats my senior year. A couple of weeks before the school year began, I was approached by my youth group leader and asked to serve as the Region 5 rep for our parish. The position was very interesting to me, but fearing I was already too busy to properly meet all of the commitments for the activities I was involved in; so I politely declined the offer.

So the school year began and soon I forgot about the offer as I quickly emerged myself in my activities. Now it just so happens that for my senior schedule, instead of having Civics first semester like the majority of my friends, I had American Studies with none other than Rick Langerot, the Region 5 sponsor. One day about three weeks into the semester I walked into his class to find a sheet of paper on my desk. As I reached over to pick it up, I heard the booming voice of Rick Langerot behind me, "There's a Region 5 meeting this weekend at my house, don't be late!" Well there was no getting out of this one I thought, Langerot is one stubborn guy, let me tell you. The experience left me feeling like I had just been hit upside the head by a spiritual 2 by 4. Although my reasoning for declining the offer was acceptable, I had known that God had been calling me to hold this position, and I had passed up on the offer to seek my goals.

As the year began to progress, I found that I indeed had enough time to meet all of my commitments, and found myself looking forward to Region 5 meetings and events such as Adopt a Family, Pro-Life nights, and even a lock-in at our sponsors house. Through these events I began making new friends, and ones that had a lot better influence on my life than those at my high school.  It was some of these friends that convinced me to go on my first Teens Encounter Christ retreat. The experience rocked me. It was the first time I had really been exposed to the practice of Adoration, and I quickly fell in love with the devotion. I also continued to build friendships with some very positive role models in my life. At the conclusion of the weekend I had several people approach me, including my table leader, and express their belief that they thought I would make a great priest. I thanked them, but quickly dismissed their opinions because it didn't fit into the plan I had for my own life.

I finished up the school year, having accomplished many of the goals I had set out to achieve that year. However, these were dulled by these new experiences that were being thrown into my life. Through friends I had made in Region 5, I was also convinced to attend the Steubenville of the Rockies conference as well as to return and serve on a TEC retreat. Once again, Adoration at both events blew me out of the water, and both events I was again approached by friends to tell me they thought I would be a good candidate for the priesthood. This time I began to mull this thought over and decided that while I wasn't sure about the whole seminary thing, I definitely needed to ask God what He wanted me to do with my life. So during the winter break of my freshmen year at Kansas State University, I found myself attending a Quo Vadis retreat, a retreat intended for men discerning the priesthood. The weekend was just what I needed, but I left still unsure of where God was calling me.