Hometown: Delmont, PA
Year in Formation: Transitional Deacon
High School: Franklin Regional High School (Murrysville, PA), 2013
College: University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN), 2013
College Major: Program of Liberal Studies
Graduate School: Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), 2014
Graduate Degree: EdM in Higher Education
Previous Jobs: Stonehill College Residence Director, Stonehill College Campus Minister
Patron Saint: St. John Henry Newman. Praying with his life story was important to me when I was in RCIA in graduate school, and he has continued to pray with me throughout my journey to deeper faith.
Favorite Movie: Arrival, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Favorite Books: The Plague by Albert Camus,Everybody Alwaysby Bob Goff
Favorite Music: Trevor Thomson, Lawrence, Lauren Daigle
Hobbies: Talking to people about life, hiking, playing four square, thinking about Catholic education and spiritual development
Favorite Way to Pray: Singing the psalms
Favorite Devotion: The Sacred Heart
Your Vocation Story: Growing up, I thought it far more likely that I would end up as President or a Supreme Court justice than as a priest. I was raised Lutheran, and while I was engaged in my faith and in ministry, I had other life goals. Even after I went through RCIA in grad school, I didn’t really consider priesthood. It wasn’t until I was working full-time at Stonehill College that I started seriously thinking that God might be calling me to be a religious priest. I’ve always viewed my mission in life as helping folks see both how loved they are — by God and others — and that they have the capacity to love in return. That mission has always been clear; I just then had to ask myself how I was going to live it out. God first called me to live it out in college Student Affairs work, but then, through my interactions with students, colleagues, and Holy Cross priests, God slowly revealed to me not only the important role priests play in making God’s love known but also that he had given me the skills and talents to possibly participate in the mystery of the ordained priesthood myself.
Ways that you resonate with the Holy Cross charism, “Educators in the Faith”: The first part of God’s call in my life that I heard was to be an educator. I earned a degree in Higher Education and worked in Student Affairs for a few years. I’m passionate about holistic human development, and I believe that God has given me the skills to live this work. It was then through this work that I heard God calling me to religious life and the priesthood. Holistic education for me had become so intertwined with my baptismal call to become a living Gospel of compassionate love that I knew there was some further step I was supposed to take. I think that God is calling me to love the people He places in my path through being an educator in the faith.
One aspect of Holy Cross spirituality that speaks to you the most and why: In one of Br. Joel Giallanza, C.S.C.’s writings he says “Zeal is faith ministering for love.” This line summarizes so much of the draw I feel to Holy Cross. I believe God is calling me to help Him show His people how much He loves them. Bl. Basil Moreau believed that God gives us the burning fire of zeal within our hearts for this very purpose. So often am I aware of that burning zeal God planted within me, and God has led me to Holy Cross so that my zeal can grow into an even fuller ministry of love.
Favorite Verse: “When he returned he found them asleep. He said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray that you many not undergo the test. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.'” Mark 14:37-38
Favorite Quote: “Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish. Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears. Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Noun
Favorite Bl. Basil or St. André Quote: “How we educate the mind will change with the times; how we cultivate the heart is and will remain timeless” – Blessed Basil Moreau
How can visitors to this page pray for you?Please pray that I always have the wisdom and courage to love people in the way that God created them to be loved.