What got me to this point 7

So... I had joined a new parish and had a really great talk about the parish, the Church, and the priesthood. I was looking forward to getting involved at the parish.

I was still trying hard to figure out exactly what God wanted me to do with my life. I had recently gone to a discernment day event in my home diocese of La Crosse, WI. Although it hadn't had any ground breaking insights it was a good experience to meet others who were attempting to figure out God's will so they could follow it. Most of the people at this event were younger than me so while I listened to the discussion and prayed with them at the Mass I spent most of the time there in private prayer.

That event did give me some more thing to think about, and some more things to read that I hoped would guide me. Sadly, none of it had any glaring answers that said, "Adam, you should be a priest!" Or "Adam, you should get married!". I was still hoping for some big voice from the sky to tell me what to do. It didn't and still hasn't come, but it very rarely does.

Back in Iowa I was just going about my life and praying for guidance. I don't remember exactly the day, but one day I decided to sit down and write about the way that I felt. Not for anyone to see, I wasn't egotistical enough to think that anyone would want to read my thoughts (odd that I am now writting a blog, but people have asked me to).

What this writting turned into was mostly a listing in sentence and paragraph form of all the times I have gone back and forth on thoughts of the priesthood. It turned into a four page document on my computer.

When I was done with that document I sat and read it through a couple of times, even though I had just written it. Each time I read it I came to the same conclusion. Although at any given moment in time I may be thinking yes or no on if God was calling me to be a priest I could see that when I looked at it all there was no doubt. He was and is.

The next day I called the priest that I grew up with, Fr. Del Malin. I asked him if he could meet with me to talk about the priesthood. Although he is retired from pastoral duties he still says Mass quite often for the soldiers at Fort McCoy. We agreed on a Sunday that I was home to ride out together for Mass so we could talk on the car ride and over breakfast afterwards.

Although I was now convinced that God was calling me to the priesthood and I had been around priests regularly and knew quite a bit about it I wanted to know more. I also wanted him to read what I had written and see what he said about it.

Over breakfast after the Mass Fr. Malin read what I had written. His only question afterwards was, "What are you going to do about this?"

Peace,
Adam