Most of you, especially the students in our school, have heard a lot of this – but I don’t think anyone has heard the full story. So on this Good Shepherd Sunday, I thought you deserve to know how this Shepherd, hopefully a somewhat good one - ended up
standing before you today.
I grew up with two brothers and two sisters , both my older brother and sister are now
deceased. I grew up on the same farm my mother grew up on – and wanted to be many things as I aged: A farmer, a fireman, a teacher, a park ranger, a funeral director –but most of all, a father with a wife and children.
Priesthood entered that mix after I began to be an altar server. Mostly because we used lots of incense in those days – and I liked the smell of incense , so thought if I was a priest, I could smell like that all the time. And when our pastor died and his funeral was held at our parish, I thought how great it would be to have the bishop celebrate your
funeral – and to have so many people there, saying what a nice guy you were.
It wasn’t until high school when I got somewhat serious about priesthood, talking with
my pastor who talked me into taking Latin my senior year of high school.
I thought about being a Franciscan, because we did have Franciscans in our parish for awhile, but ended up applying to study for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, and was sent to St. Meinrad in southern Indiana for college – where I majored in philosophy. St. Meinrad had a volunteer fire department, so one of my childhood wishes came true as I
joined the fire department and also became an Emergency Medical Technician my junior year.
One of the unappealing things about the diocesan priesthood for me then, and still today, is getting moved every so many years. So the Benedictine vow of stability, staying in the same place for the duration of your life, began to appeal to me.
After two years of graduate school in theology, also at St. Meinrad, I made the switch
to become a Benedictine monk, and joined Subiaco Abbey in northwest Arkansas.
There, I could pursue a couple more of my childhood ambitions, teaching high school and farming, the first day I was at Subiaco I spent the afternoon in the hay field. . .
After two more years of theology at St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, I was
ordained in May of 1988, and began teaching religion and history that fall.
BUT, it also came with the assignment of being a full-time supervisor of freshmen in a
dormitory, since we were a boarding school for boys. That was a 24-7 job from August until May. And that first year I was responsible for 75 freshmen at the very mature age of 29! I did get to occasionally work on the farm, still was a volunteer fireman, and also picked up the assignment of working in the carpenter shop. I drove buses and combines and boat, but mostly spent time teaching, and busting the boys who were smoking, drinking, and escaping campus when they weren’t supposed to.
Even though most summers were spent in one summer school class or another – I also
helped out in various parishes in Arkansas and northwest Texas, which helped me rediscover how much I did like working with other people, besides teenaged boys.
So after six years in the classroom, and growing increasingly dissatisfied by what I was
doing, I knew something had to change. I didn’t know if I just needed to get out of my
current situation as a Benedictine, or if I had just made one big mistake in being ordained. That decision was made here in Kansas City where a benevolent former seminarian friend took me in while I began this discernment process.
So I was on a leave for two years, one year I worked at Stroud’s here in the Northland doing their maintenance and landscaping. And then landed the highest paying job of
my life – teaching 5th grade here at St. Patrick. After those two years , and through the
influence of priests like Tom Widerholt, Mike Roach, Lloyd Opoka, and Pat Rush, I decided to return to priesthood, and after talking with Bishop Sullivan and then
Bishop Boland, decided to stay here in Kansas City. I spent 2½ years at St. Mark’s in
Independence as an associate pastor with Fr. Jim Healy, and became a pastor for the first time at St. Patrick parish in St. Joseph AND St. Joseph parish in Easton where I stayed for 8 years. I then spent 9 years at Holy Family here in the Northland, and became a duel pastor again at St. George parish in Odessa, and St. Jude parish in Oak Grove for 5 ½ years.
And then, one fateful day in May in 2018, Bishop Johnston asked me to come here to St.
Patrick because, he said, they needed a pastor to help bring about healing in the community. For 12 years, all but one under Bishop Boland, I was the continuing education director for the priests of our Diocese and have spent time serving on almost every possible committee in the Diocese: the presbyteral council, priests’ personnel board, lay pension board, priests’ pension board, and the ecumenical commission.
And I think I am in something like my seventh year of being the Dean of our Northland
Deaneries.
On May the 14th, I will mark 37 years of priesthood, and I can honestly say it was a good decision for me. I have been happy, sad, frustrated, elated, confused, blessed, and enjoyed good times and bad times, much like you have in your vocation. I have been able to work with a couple of gifted bishops and many incredible priests over the years, as well as very talented and dedicated lay people.
I have baptized, married, anointed, buried, and given the first sacraments of reconciliation and Eucharist to people too numerous to be counted.
The Lord, my shepherd, has faithfully guided and directed me throughout the years – and I think as long as I get to stay here, with you, the best is yet to come!
May all of us continue to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, so we may know him and follow him wherever HE wants to lead us. . . because that can be a much more incredible life than we could probably ever imagine for ourselves.
Just as a footnote – since the new priest assignments are being announced this weekend – many of you heard a rumor that I was to be the new pastor of St. James in Liberty. And from about the middle of October until February, that was true. But after a few more conversations with Bishop Johnston, we decided the best thing was for me to stay here at St. Patrick — so, indeed, the best is yet to come!