The work in Iowa was going to be more of what I always dreamed of doing. It would be easier to go home and see family and friends there. And if I was going to get married and have a family of my own it would be in my opinion a better place to raise a family. So I decided to take the job in Iowa and with a tinge of sadness started preparing to leave the wonderful friends I had made.
I got to Iowa and started the job. It was all that I could have ever hoped it could be. I found a couple of friends in Iowa and was looking at setting down some roots but was still unsettled about the possibility that maybe I was supposed to become a priest.
I started searching for a parish, and a spiritual director. A spiritual director is someone who will talk to you in strict confidence about your faith, the challenges with it, and give you some guidance on possible ways to deepen your faith. As happened in Tennessee I decided to try out the parishes in the area to see if I could find one that I liked and could get actively involved in.
One other thing I did shortly after moving to Iowa was to enroll in an evening class on Theology at the local Catholic university. I thought that it would be something I'd be interested in, something to do a couple nights a week, a way to maybe meet a few people, and also that it might help me in my discernment. It was very interesting, although very basic. It did give me something to do which was great. It was pretty much a bust on meeting people. It was mostly college freshmen who were taking it because they had to rather than they were interested in it. For discernment it did instill in me that I wanted to study Theology more, but didn't help me decide if that would be a for fun thing or a for the priesthood thing.
I quickly narrowed it down to three or four parishes but was really struggling to pick one. I decided that since I liked the Masses at each, and they all had multiple ministries that I'd be interested in getting involved it I could go with any of them. I decided to see how they offered the sacrament of Reconciliation and if I the priest at the parish was helpful with the advice in that. I ruled one out quickly that way. The sacrament was there, but the priest didn't offer advice to help me grow to overcome my sins. The next one that I went to was wonderful. I decided right then to join that parish.
I wouldn't normally have thought that it was good to decide on a parish just because of the priest because they get moved around and the parishes are so much more than the individual priest at the parish. However, as I said all other things were equal.
Almost right after joining the parish I set up a meeting with the priest. I wanted to talk to him to see about any ideas on discernment. I was also getting a feel for him in a longer, more in depth talk as I may have asked him to work with me on spiritual direction. That talk went great and I was planning to get around to asking him about spiritual direction, but was very busy for a little while so was putting it off.
That's enough for now. God Bless.
Peace,
Adam
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