It's a Small World After All!

I was at a parish partnership meeting tonight and it was one if the best I have been to! Everyone let there guard down and we got to know each other! That is what we need if we are going to make this partnership work!

I like to talk to priests. They are all full of such great insight and are very willing to help in my discernment process. It's wonderful because they are very knowledgable! 

Tonight, we were talking I a priest I know from another diocese came up. Turns out Fr. Stan, who I was talking to, also knows Fr. Daren and had been in the seminary with him!  

I find it funny because both of these men play a part in my vocation story. I met Fr. Daren when I was in high school and he had just been ordained. I really fell in love with the mass and planning the mass with his help. He helped guide me to better understand the Catholic Church. I remember him telling me dogs don't go to heaven (but they do) and how we shouldn't hold hands during the Our Father at mass (I try to not hold hands, but will if not holding seems rude). He was one of the first priest I knew that seemed like a normal person. 

I have recently gotten to know Fr. Stan through the parish partnership. He had been at the church that I went to school at, but after I had graduated. He has helped guide me to different communities. There are soooo many orders in my area and it's an overwhelming task to try to discern which is the one I'm being called to. Fr. Stan has helped point me in directions I wouldn't think of looking. He has also been praying for me since the beginning ( my mom had told him even before I had made the news public) Fr. Stan is another priest that I can have a conversation with and walk away feeling enlightened!

I'm really lucky to have a priestly support system! Just on Facebook, I'm friends with 5 priests. There are many more priests that have helped in my faith formation! Some are still living, while others have passed on. Fr. Haas helped me pick my confirmation saint(this will be a story for another post). Fr. Joe showed me to keep going, that God will take care of you. He was also the master of the 5 minute homily, whispering directions to the servers, and always ending mass with a joke! Fr. Flach taught me to ask questions! He would end his week day homilies with a question and answer segment. He also made frequent visits to our classrooms.

I totally got off the point I wanted to make, but I REALLY like the point I made! Therefore, I'm going to leave it.

What priests have played an important role in your life?