"This was the greatest way I could give myself to our Lord and serve Him on earth"
Roland shares his vocation story:
As a child, I would attend Sunday mass with my family and do what was obligated, not truly seeking a deeper relationship with God.
Toward the end of elementary school and beginning of middle school, I began to become convicted that I needed to always make it to Sunday mass. This was the beginning of a growing awareness of the moral choices I made. Though I was still a child and sought to do what my friends were doing and what I thought was cool, I began to be more and more convinced that God was important.
As high school progressed, this continued to grow and eventually led me to be more aware of the homeless in the city I lived in, noticing these people wherever I went and feeling the conviction that they were in need. From a young age, this always felt like the greatest way to serve God. So, with the new ability to drive in high school, I found myself occasionally choosing to go serve the homeless either with groups or on my own. All the while, I never felt the conviction to give my life as a priest or religious brother, as religious life is not very prevalent in South Carolina.
While I practiced the faith in high school, going to mass on Sundays and seeking to do what was required, I did not have close friends who were Catholic and therefore did not grow as much as I could’ve otherwise. When I went to college at the University of South Carolina, I got involved with the Catholic student center right away and came to make my closest friends there. Through this tight-knit community and being involved with the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, I (slowly) began to learn what coming to know the Lord more deeply looked like through a daily life of prayer and attending mass. I started volunteering weekly with a group serving the homeless, always feeling inspired by these encounters with our Lord in the poor.During this time, though, I began rock climbing and devoted the majority of my free time weekly, and very often my weekends, to this hobby. This was and still is something I enjoy, however at the time it prevented me from going on many retreats or trips that would lead to a deeper encounter with our Lord. I refused to acknowledge there could be something greater than the experiences I had either in the mountains or in nature.
At the end of my senior year of college, I went on a trip to Italy with my two roommates. This trip entailed visiting Rome and Assisi, among other cities. While I did not begin the trip with great anticipation of the holy sites and basilicas we were to visit, this eventually changed. While in Rome, we visited a specific museum and crypt that portrayed the history of the Capuchin (Franciscan) Order and their way of life. As I made my way through the museum, learning about how these friars serve the poorest of the poor around the world and live an austere life of poverty, everything clicked in my mind: our faith is the most important thing in the world, and I have wasted so much time prioritizing anything above it. This largely unprecedented longing to know Jesus and serve him in the poor sparked this desire to do so as a Franciscan and as a priest, giving my whole life to God. Following this encounter, I began to turn to daily prayer and reception of the Eucharist in the mass, now becoming more and more aware of the spiritual nourishment this brought. While this calling was very challenging at first, implying a major change to the trajectory of my life, I eventually discerned this was the greatest way I could give myself to our Lord and serve Him on earth.
This led me to reach out to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, having briefly heard of them before and finding them online when researching Franciscan orders. I visited them in January of 2024 and decided thereafter to work as a missionary at their homeless shelter for the next year. This year (from fall of 2024 until spring of 2025) was an incredible chance to serve and pray daily, living in community with the other missionaries and alongside the guests at the shelter too. During this time I also worked alongside the friars daily and had the chance to go on another discernment retreat, eventually applying to join the order. This year spent working with the friars concluded with a two-week application visit. This brought clarity that the greatest ways I had come to know our Lord in the poor, in prayer, and alongside brothers could best be lived out in the community of Franciscan Friars of Renewal.
Do you want to be a part of the mission of renewing the Church through vocations to the priesthood and religious life?
