Beginnings
During one of my first conversations with our new bishop he asked, “What is the story of your vocation?” It is not the first time I have been asked this question, but recently I have found myself reflecting more upon how I ended up serving as a priest of the Church. My immediate family were converts to the Catholic faith, my father being a nominal Methodist who found very few people who actually seemed to be living out their faith as they professed. You might call him one who wanted very much to believe in what he heard, but was lacking good witnesses. My mother was also nominal in her faith, which more often than not expressed itself in the Episcopal church. Together they found their way to the Catholic faith, mostly from the witness of an
army chaplain my father met during his two tours in Vietnam as well as the example of Fr. Vincent Hines, a priest of the Diocese of Nashville.
As a result, my parents, my brother and I were baptized into the Church together and began our life as members of the Catholic Church in the mid-seventies. We were very misunderstood by the rest of our family, who at first thought we had joined a cult. But I remember well learning the sign of the cross and simple prayers from my mother, who was just learning these things herself, but already passing them along to my brother and I. I also remember watching Fr. Hines closely at mass and trying to figure out just what he was up to. It was here that I can now say the beginnings of a vocation were born.
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