Today’s Vocation Story comes from Joe Gehret, a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati who is currently in his second year of college and is studying at Bishop Simon Brute Seminary on the campus of Marian University in Indianapolis. Joe is a son of St. Denis parish in Versailles.

I was born and raised a cradle Catholic in Versailles, OH, a small village in the northern part of the Archdiocese, about 2 hours north of Cincinnati.  I was baptized at St. Denis parish shortly after I was born, and grew up receiving all the Sacraments in due season.  My parents did a good job at making sure I knew my prayers, went to weekly Mass, read my Bible, and generally knew my faith.   I was a very bright and talented kid growing up, learning well in school and in my faith.

I was at a family reunion when I was probably about 12 or so, and my recently retired pastor, the late Fr. Leo Hoying, was asked to celebrate Mass for the family at the reunion (the Gehret side of the family was that big and that Catholic, I guess).  His homily was about the desperate need of priests in the Church.  Upon retrospect, it seemed odd that he’d give such a homily at a family reunion, there were only about 10 to 20 young guys who could actually benefit from that homily.  However the oddity of it, it planted a very persistent seed in my mind.  For the next several years, the thought of priesthood plagued me from time to time.  It took me very little time to have my opinion on the matter though, I was very much against the notion.  It was hard enough for me to go to Mass once a week, let alone daily.  I had my eye on some very cute girls at school. I wanted to be a fighter pilot (because, in the eyes of a kid that age, what job is cooler than being a fighter pilot?).  I had a laundry list of reasons why I’d never become a priest, and anytime the thought of priesthood came up, I’d pull out the list and hope the thought went away.  However, God is more persistent than I am clever, and he is infinitely patient.  Simultaneously to my avoidance of the ridiculous notion of priesthood, I grew very rapidly and very powerfully in my faith.  No longer was I content in just knowing about Jesus, I wanted to know Jesus, and I ate up any opportunity to do so.  Mass became less burdensome, youth ministry was the highlight of my school week, and I became heavily involved in the parish.  While I was avoiding God’s call to priesthood, I was answering His call to mature in my faith. 

I then realized that if I were to really take my faith seriously, I need to confront this call.  So, in the fall of my junior year of high school, I told my parents, pastor, and youth minister that I think I might be called to be a priest.  Dad was thrilled, Mom was excited, but hesitant (prudently so, I might add), and of course my pastor and youth minister were very supportive.  I met with my vocations director over breakfast and started going to discernment events and college seminary visits, until I turned in my application for becoming an Archdiocesan seminarian at Bishop Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis during my senior year.  Currently, I’m in my sophomore year, and I have never been happier or more alive than I am now.

To those of you who are still reading this and have even the slightest thought of Catholic priesthood, I encourage you:  Do not be afraid!  You’ve nothing to be afraid or ashamed of.  When I announced my intentions, I felt like I would be announcing I had some sort of illness or some shameful deficiency, and that was simply not the case. A vocation to the priesthood is a gift, and an extraordinary one.  Don’t be afraid to consider priesthood, and don’t let celibacy, obedience, or simplicity of life discourage you from considering it.  You’ll never be happier than when you do what God made you for.  As Mark Twain once said, “There are two days that are most important in your life:  The day you were born, and the day you find out why.”  If you are a man called to the Catholic priesthood and faithfully answer that call, God will take care of you in ways you cannot understand.

What influence has your family had on your faith? How has the community helped to encourage or discourage you from seeking the will of God in your life?

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