Looking back, I have loved my life as a Carmelite. I have met the most incredible people, been invited into their lives and families, and have especially loved the fraternity that I have found within community. My Story
The Catholic faith was everything in my family. We prayed the rosary each evening after dinner and, of course, attending Mass was a given. My Story
When I was in high school I never would have imagined that God might be calling me to religious life. I grew up in a decently Catholic family: we went to Mass each Sunday, we said grace before dinner, and I participated in the youth group at church, but when I was in high school I had never even considered what it was that God wanted me to do with my life… My Story
I was an athlete in high school and into college and didn’t participate in much else but practices. It was all about sports and school work. After high school, though, I had a conversion and I gave my life in service to the Lord when I was 20 or 21. The discernment of a religious vocation to the priesthood accompanied that initial call. My Story
When I was 18, and at a particularly low point in my life, I came to believe in the truth of Jesus Christ and his love for me; leading to a powerful conversion experience. Soon I became involved in a catholic young adult group, attending daily mass, frequent confession, and began to practice quiet prayer each day. My Story
Ever since I was in grade school I had an attraction toward the priesthood and the religious life. After college, I entered the seminary for my home diocese of Brooklyn. Because I enjoyed the seminary very much, I realized that that I might be best suited in religious life. My Story
When I was in elementary school I felt drawn to the priesthood but it was not until the years just after college in the wake of a re-version to the faith that I could finally appreciate and act on this call. I had moved to a new city to begin a graduate program in philosophy. God gave me the desire and the means there to rebuild my life from the foundation. My Story
My vocation story begins while attending CCD classes (called “faith formation” these days). I must have been around nine years old when a priest came in to talk to the class about the priesthood. A call to the priesthood left its mark on me that day. This imprint continued through the teasing of classmates and the deterring of relatives. My Story
I first started to feel drawn to the things of God when I was four years old. My family lives near to the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary Help, Help of Christians, at Holy Hill. At that time, we would frequently attend daily Mass at Holy Hill. Upon returning home, as I fondly remember, I would often don my “vestments” (one of my Dad’s black tee-shirts) and “play” Mass. My Story
It was natural for me while growing up in a faithful Catholic family to consider a vocation when still a young child. Ever since I can remember I felt some vague desire for the priesthood. My first contact with religious was with the Legionaries of Christ, some of whom were very close to my family. My brothers and I attended many of their youth summer camps and retreats. My Story
It was through this that I came to understand something of the intimacy that God wants to share with the soul and I got more and more taken by the desire to live in this intimacy. This gave birth to a desire for the priesthood, being, at the time, the epitome of intimacy with God in my mind. My Story
Part of the promptness was so I could make the deadline for the class for that year; but it paid off, because I was able to enter postulancy on November 1st, 2019, with a warm welcome from our community in Brighton, Massachusetts. So began a new, Carmelite chapter in this lifelong adventure of striving towards a union of love with God… My Story