Throughout my life there have been a lot of physical set backs as far as my health. Some of which kept me away from things that I really enjoyed. But I never "blamed" God. It was never one of those "why are you doing this to me" moments. And I guess if I would have done that it almost would have been better. But instead I just separated my "regular" life and my spiritual (a.k.a show up to Church and go to Confession). In a worldly sense this was good because I was able to push through a lot of stuff medically speaking, and not blame anyone thus not feeling sorry for myself. However it crushed something far more important: my faith.

"We have no fear of challenges, because it is precisely in facing them that we see the difference between Christ and any other response, but only those who are not afraid to verify in reality will discover it." I was afraid to verify in my "regular" life what was happening as possibly a sign from God. And maybe this is all just coincidence, that some words a priest wrote down before I was even born are not only applying but shaping my life.

When I was 12, in the middle of all this I was serving for chrism mass and all of a sudden during bishops homily I just felt this over whelming call that I need to be priest. I felt like screaming it to the world I was so excited. But for some reason I didn't tell anyone, I didn't even tell my parents. (Another dumb move). After not telling my parents and trying to push it out of my mind, my faith life just kept getting darker and darker but it was that one experience that "could not be erased". "Why? Because something of what I've seen of what is happened to me cannot be entirely erased from my life."

More recently at a Steubenville Conference during Adoration, I was praying about the priesthood when I had this sudden thought: If I were to die today how disappointed God would be with my life. That's when I again felt this overwhelming call to the priesthood. And that encounter four years ago came back, because it could not be erased. But when I came home I misplaced yet again that encounter. But through GS it has been found. So now I am trying to "simply live"

This is why I believe GS to be real. It is not just a bunch of students “sharing feelings”, but is so much more. I’ll admit my first time at GS it did sound like people just sharing their feelings. But, when I noticed myself thinking about GS, and what we read on an almost daily basis. And some of the verifications actually impacting my own life, I realized that it is so much more. Thank you, Father and Mr. Lorenzen.