Meeting the New Seminarians
Michael Churchill
decided to start praying the Rosary on a daily basis. From starting this devotion I realized the importance of faithfulness to daily prayer. Secondly, I have realized over time that I was becoming more patient, joyful, and welcoming. These graces are fruits of the mysteries of the Rosary that Mary has granted me which opened me up to the life that Christ wants me to live, and not my own. Who were the most influential people in helping you discern this vocation? There is so great a number of people I can include in this question! First, I think of my parents, Steve and Marie, who got all ten of us to church every Sunday and my mom who taught most of us two different grades of religion class. I think, too, of my Viterbo Campus Minister, Emilio Alvarez and Viterbo Chaplain, Fr. Conrad Targonski, OFM. I came to these two men frequently with questions and they gave me great advice. They challenged me to pray, to listen and to respond with love. And of course I had so many wonderful friends who shared the love of our faith. These friendships allowed for us to talk freely about our faith, to challenge each other, to hold each other accountable to the faith and to pray for each other. What advice would you give to a young man or woman considering a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life? I would love to encourage them with four words: Trust, Surrender, Believe and Receive. These four words have a significant meaning to me and my time as a Camp Gray counselor. First we must learn to trust that God has a plan for each of us and to trust that His plans are greater and will lead us to true happiness and joy. Second; learn to surrender, to allow God to work through us in our everyday lives and actions. Surrender to the desires of the world and cast yourself at the foot of the Cross. Third, believe in His Resurrection and His power to work through our hardened hearts. And fourth, to receive the great mercy, love, and joy that He desires to bestow upon you in your vocation. Be not afraid! A life in Christ devoted to serving the people is a great and wonderful adventure. Now that you have lived in the seminary for almost a semester, has your outlook changed? Looking at Seminary years ago was a scary thought as I thought it meant giving up so much. Since I have visited and moved in, my view is completely turned around. I rarely look at what potential things I am giving up but rather look at what I am currently receiving. I am receiving a great education that takes me to a deeper understanding of our faith. I am receiving Jesus everyday, which is an indescribable gift. I am receiving abundant graces and blessings in prayer and fraternity. I am receiving more now than I could have ever imagined. Finally, what do you look forward to for this upcoming year? There is much I look forward to in this first year and the years to come. I look forward in getting to know each of my brother seminarians as well as grow in communion with each other. I look forward to learning a lot more about our
Catholic faith so that I can bring this to my home and to my friends to share the awesomeness of our faith. I look forward to taking more personal time to pray and serve others. I look forward to the unknown ways God
Levi DeLong
11
Vocations
After that retreat, I started praying more about my vocation and tried to be intentional about listening to where God wanted me to follow Him. I never heard Him speak directly to me but I started to get much more involved with our Campus Ministry, going to daily Mass as often as my schedule would allow, and serving within the community. My faith grew as I surrounded myself with fellow students who shared the same love for our Catholic faith. I also took on leadership roles as I began to lead Campus Ministry retreats, prayer services, and Mass services. Ultimately as my love for Jesus grew through prayer, strong friendships, service and in sharing my love for Jesus, so did the seed of a priestly vocation. After being an assistant director on a retreat my Junior year, I felt a great pull on my heart to start taking priesthood Michael Churchill is from Dexter, more seriously, so I started meeting with Minnesota. a spiritual director monthly. That summer Michael, please tell us about your I worked at Camp Gray, a Catholic camp family; what was it like growing up? in Reedsburg, WI. Here I got to share I am the ninth child of ten kids- 5 my love for Christ daily with my friends boys and 5 girls! (Sarah, Adam, Rebecca, and young high school students. When Peter, Kathryn, Emily, Andrew, Alexander, I returned to school for my senior year Me, Michelle.) I also have one nephew I knew God was working on my heart. and two nieces, with another nephew I officially decided to apply at a large on the way. Growing up in the Churchill Catholic college student conference last household was a little wild and crazy at year in Nashville, TN. During a Matt times, but it was also so wonderful. There Maher concert I was filled with profound was always someone around to talk to joy and confidence and I told myself and play with. As a family, we worked several times “I can do it. I can be a together, played together and prayed Priest.” As Director of the same Viterbo together often. My parents Steve and retreat a year later, I got to share my plans to apply for Seminary to all who were present. The joy in my heart as Rev. Will Thompson well as all the retreatants Director confirmed in my heart I wthompson@dow.org was on the correct path. The spark that the priest started in my heart my Freshman year had turned into a wildfire of love for Marie were certainly supportive of our Jesus and for the desire to serve Him as faith formation. They got all ten of us to His priest. church every Sunday at Saint Finbarr in What were some of the steps you Grand Meadow, where we would all sit in went through after first thinking of the front pew. (When we all get together Seminary to having just entered? Were now with our growing family, it usually there doubts? How did you overcome? takes two pews!) My mother also taught My initial thoughts of Seminary were most of us second and eighth grade that priesthood is great but I can’t do religion classes. it - I have always thought about having When do you think the very first seed ten children of my own one day! I feared of a priestly vocation was planted in the thought of discerning out and then your life? not knowing what to do after. As I grew I think seeds of a priestly vocation in knowledge of what the priesthood is, started to be laid in middle school and I began to be more open to it. I thought high school when I started to realize I would graduate from nursing school just how much I loved the Catholic faith. and work for a few years, and if I still However, the definitive seed that I recall thought about it after that, then I would happened on a retreat my freshman do it. However I must have realized that year of college at Viterbo University. A this was selfish. One of my biggest fears priest sat down at my breakfast table and also was that I was not smart or faithful very bluntly asked if I had ever seriously enough. These doubts that entered in considered the priesthood. In response I were mostly overcome through prayer, admitted that I had never given it serious spiritual direction and talking them thought. I do not recall the rest of the out with my friends. My thoughts have conversation but from that moment on since changed, of course! Seminary is a I started to question it a lot more and I challenge but I love it. I am living with started praying for God to reveal to me profound purpose and joy. my vocation. I was eager to know so that What spiritual devotion was most I could serve God in whatever way He helpful and why? wanted but I wanted to know for sure it In an unknown way I believe Mary has is what He wanted. been the most helpful Spiritual devotion Can you tell us more about how that that helped me discern my vocation. seed grew? Going into my Junior year of college I
will work in me. Most importantly, I look forward to the growth in this intimate relationship with Jesus, as I continue to surrender to Him and His plans for me, so that one day, God willing, I will be a priest of Jesus Christ, willing and ready to serve His people in the Winona Diocese. Levi DeLong, I am from Sacred Heart Parish in Waseca, Minnesota. Levi, please tell us about your family; what was it like growing up? I am from a family of four originally, now in a family of six. I’m the oldest in my family. It’s hard to describe my family growing up because I have been through so much change. When I was 10, my father passed away from his second open-heart surgery and three years later, my mother remarried to a farmer where I received a much bigger part of my family. My family was a good Catholic family, and it has continued to be that way. When did you seriously begin to think about discerning the priesthood? And how did your vocation develop from that first seed to entering the seminary? The first time I actually thought seriously about it was on the Epiphany of the Lord in 2014. During the blessing of the Eucharist, I had a thought come into my mind because I didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school. I thought “What if I was a priest?” Immediately, a deep calming washed over me and after mass, I talked to Father Gregory Leif about it. From there, I started to meet with him and I had spiritual direction. What were the steps you personally went through after first thinking about the seminary to having just entered it? Were there moments of doubt? How did you overcome those? I didn’t really question it that day. Slowly, I started to realize what kind of decision I was committing to and tried to not think about. I thought long and hard about it. Of course, moments of doubt Seminarians, cont'd on pg. 16 December, 2015 w The Courier