Hearing a Call: Men's Discernment Retreat

This past weekend we hosted our annual Men's Discernment Retreat at Saint John Paul II Seminary and while many of the discerners, seminarians, and priests that were present had attended this retreat before, it was my first time.  I was certainly looking forward to meeting the 38 men who courageously signed up for the retreat and made the commitment to spend a weekend away from their normal schedules to speak with priests, question seminarians, and listen to God's voice.

As a first year Pre-Theologian, the adjustment from the working world to life in seminary has been challenging.  It isn't necessarily a natural progression-it is more of a jump from one life to another.  Thankfully, through a lot of prayer, spiritual direction, and grace from God, I was able to make that initial jump into seminary and to keep progressing.  This weekend gave me an opportunity to be a living example for the men that are discerning whether they might make that same jump from their careers to the seminary.

Fr. Ivany, Jimmy Morgan, and Kyle Vance all did a fantastic job of organizing the weekend to include beautiful liturgies (including benediction with Cardinal Wuerl to start the weekend), joyful witness talks from ADW priests at various stages of their priesthood, and opportunities for small groups to discuss the multitude of questions, emotions, and fears that one who is discerning a call to the priesthood will inevitably experience.

If there was one word I had to use to describe the weekend, it would be "joy."  The Holy Spirt was clearly present throughout the weekend, the men were clearly excited to be there-excited to dig deeper into the call they've felt and to discern how the Lord is working in their life.  Discernment takes time.  As seminarians, we often pray for those discerning a call to the priesthood, in hopes that they too may find the peace we've all felt in making our decision to enter the seminary.  It was such a great joy to meet many of these men in person, which helps invigorate our prayers for them.

Please keep these 38 men in their prayers as they discern God's will for their lives!