As I entered high school, I met a priest who became an important mentor to me. He listened to me and invited me to be an altar server and to attend a discernment retreat. He taught me about priesthood and what it means to be a good and holy priest. On his advice, I attended Saint Joseph Abbey College, a seminary preparatory school, and then entered Notre Dame Major Seminary in New Orleans.

That next summer was a difficult time for the Church with the release of two scandals that really rocked my worldview. I left seminary and found myself in a period of disillusionment. What came next was truly miraculous for me.

I began working at a nearby parish and one day, a woman and her mother came in to ask about some statues there. Learning that I had been in seminary, they invited me to visit the shrine of Our Lady of Medjugorje with them, even buying me a plane ticket!

That trip was pivotal to my faith journey. In Medjugorje, I was able to find healing, regain a sense of my true self, and surrender my worries and anxieties to Our Lady. I realized that the Lord fulfills His promise to provide even when others fail me and that the Lord was not done with me yet. At the tomb of the Franciscan martyrs, my vocation returned. I entered the tomb spiritually dead; I came out of it risen to new life.

Upon my return home, I began to research religious orders. After much reflection, prayer and discussion with spiritual directors, I discerned that the Lord is leading me to explore a vocation with the Benedictine monks of the Swiss American Congregation at Saint Joseph Abbey. Saint Joseph’s has always felt like a second home to me, and I’ve held a deep love for its monastic and Benedictine spirituality since my freshman year of college.

To be a priest is to be there for people in their darkest and ugliest moments, and to be a beacon of light that helps them through the darkness, and leads them to healing and love. I want to be that beacon for others.