Patrick

the year. I have a lot of experience building sheds and barns, milking cows, gardening, firewood, etc. During my upbringing, my parents required each of us to learn an instrument. I chose to play piano and accordion, which I still do today and enjoy very much. A few of my brothers and I still play together several evenings a week. We also played a lot of sports, particularly baseball and volleyball. I was part of an organized baseball team most of my life, even up through a semester of college. A couple other hobbies I had growing up were kayaking, art (drawing/sketching), aviation, and building go karts. I always enjoyed spending time in our garage tinkering away with machines. Being a little introverted, I always enjoyed a bit of time alone. However, the core of my upbringing was definitely my Catholic faith. My parents are both very devout and realize the importance of Catholicism. I have many memories growing up going to weekday Masses (besides Sundays) and serving as an altar boy at our parish. We also prayed the daily rosary and a number of other daily devotions as a family. As for my parish life, I have attended St. Michaels Church in Scranton PA my whole life. This parish, which belongs to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, has always offered the Traditional Latin Mass. As a result, I have grown to love this liturgy and recognize the glory and honor it gives to God. At St. Michaels, I participated in numerous other activities besides serving at the altar. We had parish hiking trips, sporting events, talent shows, and spaghetti dinners just to name a few. It was an amazing experience, not only spiritually, but also as a community.

My vocation story begins relatively late in my life, in the last few years or so. As mentioned above, I was raised a devout Catholic, but beyond playing Mass as a kid I really didn’t have much of a desire to pursue the religious life as a young adult. However, after I finished college and entered the workforce, I slowly began to reconsider as things started to change in my life and doors began to open. Over the past two years working, I began to see the real emptiness of the world and the dire need for priests and religious. I have also recognized the state of confusion and sin in the world around me and thought it would be an amazing honor to be able to participate in providing the sacraments to those in need. With all that in mind, I became interested in discerning a vocation. I did waver back and forth many times in the beginning as to what I should do. As mentioned, I recognized how empty the world is, but I still greatly struggled with the idea of giving up so much to enter seminary. I worked hard to grow in my faith and did extra prayer and fasting to receive clarity in God’s holy will. As a result, my desire to enter seminary has grown tremendously over the past year. I have stepped up my prayer life and have been working harder at living a holier life. Once I made the decision to discern the religious life, I knew that I would pursue the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. As mentioned before, I grew up attending their apostolate and love the charism and work of the community. I know many of these priests and have a great respect for them and the work they do. I love the brotherhood of the community, the parish lifestyle, and especially the traditional liturgy. At this point, after six months of spiritual direction, prayer, and meditation, I strongly believe that God is calling me to enter the seminary. I have begun the application process for Our Lady of Guadalupe and will be attending the vocations retreat they are hosting in June. At this point, my student debt is the big stumbling block for my acceptance there, so that ultimately is what brings me to request financial support.

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