Father Greg Morgan, from the archdiocese of Sydney, Australia: "One night I decided I would go and kneel down right in front of the Blessed Sacrament and I simply asked God if He wanted me to be a priest, but without holding anything back for myself for the first time, I just wanted to listen. And at that moment I had a very special experience. It's not for want of saying that Our Lord appeared to me or Our Lady appeared to me in a vision and said I was going to be a priest. It was in some respects even more supernatural because it felt as if for a few moments God focused his attention on me and I'd never felt more loved, never felt more certain about my Catholic faith and, for whatever reason, I'd never felt more certain that God created me to be a priest." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Saint John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.
Évêque Elias Sleman, de la Vallée des Chrétiens en Syrie (in French): "Il y avait un prêtre qui vivait une vie de sainteté, le curé du village. À l'âge de dix ans, j'ai dit à mes parents 'Je veux devenir prêtre comme ce prêtre.' Et par conséquent, j'ai été au Liban dans le seminaire patriarcal maronite où j'ai été à l'âge de dix ans. Bien sûr j'ai souffert parce que j'étais enfant séparé de sa famille, dans un autre pays, tout ça c'est difficile. J'ai eu beaucoup de maladies après, beaucoup de dépaysements mais ça m'a fait beaucoup, beaucoup de bien, parce que à partir des souffrances on découvre l'amour de Dieu et on découvre réellement le Christ, le Christ. " Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Saint John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.
Bishop Elias Sleman, from the Valley of Christians in Syria, in Arabic: "..." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Saint John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.
Father Matthew Devereux, from New Zealand, is a Legionary of Christ priest: "It would have been much more difficult for me to have discovered my priestly vocation if it had not been for the example that I was given by someone else, and that someone else was my elder brother. And so what amazes me is that, when someone is generous and open to the will of God in their life, then they may not only themselves undergo a conversion and receive a total transformation of the heart but that many times and almost always becomes a catalyst for other people to do the same. Obviously the vocation always comes from God and so it's always to God that we must turn for light in the process of discernment, which is important for anyone, whether it's to the married life, to the consecrated life or to remaining single. It's always a matter of discerning our vocation and it's where the help of other people is very important but also reading the hand of God in circumstances in our life and people that we...
Father Christian Irdi, from Australia, speaks about how central Our Lady has been in his vocation story: "The one constant was that prayer of the rosary and my love and devotion of Our Lady, and also of the Mass too. It was in and through that prayer that I began to hear the Lord's call, it was a delicate tug at one's heart's strings, I guess you could describe it as, and an attraction towards the priestly life, which made me eventually leave the legal practice. I worked as a lawyer for a couple of years but it wasn't what I was meant to do, I felt this attraction and a call to the priestly life. So that was what I began to do and it was with the help of a good priest from my archdiocese, the vocations director, who helped me to discern more clearly what the Lord was asking me to do and, as part of that process of discernment, I went to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa's sisters and it was there that I saw for the first time very clearly what the Lord was asking me to do." Music ...
Father Eduardo Howard, from Chile, gives his vocation story, reflecting: "Now when I think what happened, I think that I didn't have any idea what to be a priest was, I didn't have any idea what vocation was. I just did what I thought God was asking me. Afterwards I was learning more, maturing my vocation, and I understood better what is the meaning of being a priest and that Jesus is calling me to be another Christ today in the world. So that's a real challenge because we, the priests, are very human people, as all people, and we must fight with ourselves because sometimes it's not easy to be a priest. We have, as I say, to fight with ourselves and we always have God's grace but, as all people, sometimes we feel that nothing happens, we continue with our problems, with our difficulties, and it seems that God is not with us. But I have learned that He is always with us, in the good times and in the bad times too, and He is with us, accepting us as each one is and giving his grace so...
Father Ciaran McGuinness M.Arf., a White Father from Ireland, remembers the parish priest of his childhood: "I’d just like to speak about somebody whom I admired greatly in my life and he wasn’t in any way outstanding, he was just an ordinary parish priest in rural Ireland in the 50s and early 60s, and his name was Fr James Donlon. .. What I remember of him is that he was somebody who brought Christ to the people - when we went to church we always realised we were in a special place and that the Lord was truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. How he did this I do not know, probably by being faithful to his vocation, by saying Mass as he did say it (not in any particularly good way). .. He was someone that I remember: approachable, sincere and, above all, when you went into the church or you met him in confession or wherever, you realised that you were in the presence of God and the presence of Christ. That is what I like to remember about him and thank God for him. May he rest in...
Bishop John Wilson, from England: "The first priest that I was sent to as a newly ordained priest is and continues to be a great inspiration to me. The first night I arrived in the parish, he took me in the car and drove me round the boundaries of the parish and he said to me: "To be a priest is to be an extension of the love of Christ, in service of his Church and in love of his people." And for me that sums up what it is to be a priest." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Saint John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.
Father Conrad Osterhout, a Franciscan friar of the Renewal from America, gives his vocation story: "I always go back in a communion of hearts with my confessor, who was a friar, and to my high school years for the strong impetus that they were, to my parents that taught us how to pray so that I would have a longing for prayer, the inspiration comes through those years, and the good Franciscan sisters who taught us, taught us actually to wear our rosaries on our belts as young second graders and so we already had the form of looking like religious even though we weren't religious. So I would say there were many, many opportunities, the strongest being my confessor I guess, who carried me with grace and with Our Lady's prayers to choose the vocation to religious life and priesthood. Amen. Alleluia!" Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Saint John Paul II, Papa Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our ...
Niall, a seminarian for Portsmouth diocese, England, shares the story of his conversion, which began with a trip to Medjugorje (thanks to his mother) and includes JMJ Madrid:: "So when I returned home, I thought 'Right, it's going to go away soon' but after a few days it just kept growing and growing. And I knew I needed to speak to someone about it so I emailed a priest who'd travelled with us to WYD Madrid, and said 'Hi, Father, something has gone horribly wrong in my life. I think I want to become a priest. Please help me!' And he returned the reply and said 'Look, come and have a chat with me. We'll see what's going on.' So I went up and had a chat with him, and I must have been there for two or three hours, talking about all sorts but obviously centred around this sense of calling to the priesthood, which I was hoping he'd say 'Yeh, you're being ridiculous. Don't worry about it, it'll go away in a week.' But he didn't! He said, 'Look Niall, I think you need to take this serious...