Author: Lindsey Tynan

The possibility of being called to the priesthood was intimidating for a long time. Once I oriented my life towards God in college at Kansas State University, still the prospect of a life of service and celibacy caused me to avoid asking God meaningful questions about what I was really made for. This hesitation was based on my doubts that God’s Goodness would intervene in my life to prevent loneliness and regret in such a culturally radical decision. However, I kept praying and growing in virtue, and I began seriously discerning seminary late in college and into my time as a FOCUS missionary. 

Immediately upon arriving on campus, I realized that my decision to serve in a ministry after college opened wide the doors to trusting God. Delaying my career, fundraising, and taking a different path than my peers introduced an uneasy risk into my life, but God proved his faithfulness by blessing my experience greatly. Finally, I felt the freedom to go where the Lord calls — the freedom that is built on trust in His Goodness. If my loving God was calling me to be His priest, then why should I fear the outcome? The unexpected simplicity of the call helped shed scrupulosity and brought a peace within discernment that I really hadn’t known before. Two years of service within FOCUS still remained, which I was happy to fulfill, but I resolved to apply for seminary at the end unless God called me off this path.

Those two years serving in FOCUS were not easy, and often my ongoing discernment was unfortunately based in escapism — a longing for this future that was free from current challenges I was experiencing. My heart was in the right place, but I did not have the space to discern healthily and with others in community. My vocations director then introduced the High Calling program through the Avila Institute. Already I had many opportunities for formation within FOCUS and personal devotions, but I accepted nonetheless and began attending their weekly classes. The teachers were phenomenal; they truly were some of the most educated in their fields. Not only that, but they responded to each written assignment personally with intentionality. Despite my busy schedule, I was able to dedicate myself to the classes and discern my vocation in a space of fellowship, mentorship, and the prayerful acknowledgement of the Lord’s love. The High Calling program aided in preserving my vocation through the year preceding my application, and I’m grateful that I feel evermore prepared to begin this next stage of life!

I was raised in the Catholic faith, baptized as an infant at two months old, and later received my first communion in elementary school and confirmation in high school. My faith life at the time primarily centered around these sacraments and the religious education classes I attended to prepare for them. For me, faith meant attending CCD for an hour on Sundays, followed by Mass—that was the extent of my spiritual involvement. Because of this, the idea of priesthood or seminary never crossed my mind.

However, when I started college, my perspective on faith began to shift. I attended Seton Hall University, a Catholic diocesan institution. While I would like to say I chose Seton Hall because of its Catholic identity, the truth is, I didn’t. My focus was on studying secondary education and mathematics, and the school had a strong program in those fields, so I decided to enroll. But during my time there, my faith truly came alive. I made a conscious effort to attend Mass every Sunday, got involved in Bible studies and men’s groups, and experienced transformative moments through retreats and conferences. It was in these moments that I encountered the Lord fully, especially in the Eucharist. These retreats became the foundation of my faith journey, inspiring me to cultivate a daily prayer life.

In my senior year, I accepted an opportunity to serve with Saint Paul’s Outreach (SPO), a college campus ministry that focuses on building missional communities and forming lifelong disciples. SPO had a profound impact on me during college, and I felt called to help others experience the same transformation. At this point, the priesthood was still not on my radar, but that soon changed as I embarked on my first year of mission with SPO.

During my first few months of mission work at Washington State University (WSU), I felt the Lord calling me to something greater—the priesthood. A few months into my mission, I attended a dedication Mass for our newly renovated chapel at WSU. During the Mass, a thought came to mind—almost as if the Lord was prompting me to consider the priesthood. I was startled by this idea, knowing it wasn’t my own. However, I agreed to explore it, convinced that through discernment, I would realize it wasn’t for me and could move on. That assumption quickly proved wrong.

As I continued praying and researching seminary life and the priesthood, my perspective shifted. The idea began to take root within me, growing into a genuine desire. Eventually, I reached a point where I knew I could no longer discern this path on my own—I had to reach out to my vocation director. I hesitated, knowing that taking this step would make the possibility of priesthood real, no longer just an internal reflection.

On Holy Thursday, while meditating on Jesus’ commandment to love one another as He has loved us, I asked Him, “How can I love like You?” Almost immediately, I sensed the Lord’s response: “Be a priest.” That moment of clarity led me to contact my vocations director and continue my discernment journey.

Throughout the process, one of the greatest supports was the High Calling Program. It provided me with structured guidance for discernment, deepened my understanding of the faith through its classes, and offered intentional time each week to reflect on my vocation. It created space for the Lord to speak more fully into my life. Without the program, I wouldn’t feel as confident in saying yes to the call He is placing on my heart. Now, I am officially accepted as a seminarian, ready to embrace this journey. The Lord calls everyone to radically say yes to him throughout our lives. When called, we must be willing to respond.

Reflecting on my life, I now see that the signs of discernment were always present, though I often ignored them. It wasn’t until my baptism and confirmation three years ago that I began to take discernment seriously. Growing up agnostic and later embracing Buddhism in my early twenties, my life took a transformative turn when an encounter with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament profoundly changed me. I was fortunate to have a Newman Center at my parish and supportive friends to guide me through discernment, but I still felt something was missing.

During a discernment group hosted by the Los Angeles vocations team, the associate vocation director asked me if I would like to participate in the Higher Calling program. Initially, the idea was intimidating. Being part of a group of discerners from across the country seemed daunting, especially as a recent convert. I worried that others might be on different levels of holiness, making it hard for me to connect. The professors and classes, touching on topics like celibacy and chastity, also seemed overwhelming.

However, my fears proved unfounded. I soon discovered that the Higher Calling program brought together individuals facing similar struggles, fears, and uncertainties as my own. As a recent convert, I deeply appreciated the classes on liturgy and apologetics, though my favorite sessions were on spirituality. The program encouraged me to aspire not just to the priesthood but to a life of sanctity and holiness. It also helped me confront and overcome personal issues, detach from vices, and align myself with God’s will.

Through the program, I experienced healing from wounds and emotional challenges. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities Higher Calling provided—not just in preparing for seminary but, more importantly, in helping me grow in holiness as a beloved child of God.

My name is Eric Quebedeaux. I am a thirty-three-year-old seminarian for the Diocese of Lafayette, currently in my propaedeutic year of formation at Saint Joseph Seminary College in Saint Benedict, Louisiana. Ever since I was young, I have felt a strong connection to God through the priesthood. I used to gaze at the altar and envision myself as the celebrant. However, as time passed and I began my career, my focus shifted towards other pursuits. During various trials in my life, I sought the Lord’s guidance, asking Him to show me the path I should take. My first step was to reconnect with Jesus through attending Mass, allowing Him back into my life. I committed to deepening my prayer life and ensured that I attended Mass every Sunday. As 2022 came to an end, I felt a strong urge for something more profound in my life. I wasn’t certain if I was being called to the priesthood, but I spent many nights praying and asking God for a sign. At that time, I had been working in the service industry for fifteen years. Interacting with the public helped me realize that I could connect with God’s people in a unique way. It was then my heart started to open up to the priesthood.

In the spring of 2023, I would frequently visit the vocations website, glance at a few things, and then quickly log off. The magnitude of the decision, which would change my life forever, was overwhelming. However, as summer began, I finally contacted our vocations director, set up a meeting, and started the discernment process. Throughout this process, I had the honor of participating in the High Calling Program offered by the Avila Institute. My vocations director, Fr. Blake Dubroc, recommended this incredible online program, which helps men discern their calling to the priesthood. The various modules provided me with a deeper understanding of who I was as a son of God and clearer vision of what to expect upon entering the seminary. Entering the seminary with a solid understanding of the terminology used in formation was invaluable. The High Calling Program, with its exceptional professors and instructors during the 2023-2024 year, provided me with this foundation. Dr. Joseph Hollcraft’s exemplary leadership skills were particularly impactful. I feel incredibly blessed to have been part of this program and continue to benefit from the tools and resources it provided as I progress in my formation.

My journey to priesthood was not a direct one. We frequently hear of young men who feel called to the priesthood early and respond immediately after high school or during college. I was not one of them. I also wasn’t the man in his twenties or thirties who had already started a career and then chose to leave it behind to heed the divine call to priesthood. That wasn’t my story. Although the call came to me in my early childhood, it wasn’t until the age of fifty that I finally responded.

The seed of becoming a priest was planted in me as an altar boy at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. I was in elementary school. I mentioned my interest in the priesthood to my father, who sought the advice of Fr. Kao, our pastor, and Fr. John, a visiting priest at our parish and the Director of Vocations at the St. Charles Borromeo seminary. Fr. John invited me to visit the seminary with my father. After our visit, I said I wanted to attend the seminary, but Fr. John said, “Let’s see what you think when you get to high school.”

Years later, as a high school student, I remained an altar boy, yet my aspiration to become a priest was dormant, overshadowed by the allure of sports, academics, dating, and the myriad interests that captivate high schoolers. During my sophomore year, our church youth group went on a retreat to Pecos, Texas. There, Bishop Raymundo Peña led the Mass. In a moment of the prayers of the faithful, as the deacon called for more to join the priesthood, Bishop Peña caught my gaze, pointed at me, and gestured to “sign up.” That night, I engaged in a deep discussion with my youth group leaders about the prospect of entering the seminary, feeling uncertain about my calling to priesthood.

Rather than attending seminary, I pursued college, graduated, and answered a different calling as an educator. Throughout nearly two decades, I dedicated myself to my vocation as a public school educator. Yet occasionally, a passage during Mass or a segment on Catholic radio would stir the thought of priesthood within me.

I began feeling the desire to serve God not as a priest but as an educator. After much hemming and hawing, I took a leap of faith, leaving public schools to obtain a position as principal of St. Dominic Catholic High School. Looking back on this decision, I think
it was a way for God to lead me back to hearing the call to the priesthood. While at Savio, I was immersed in an amazing Catholic environment that I had never experienced before in my life. I came from a strong, Catholic family, active in parish life. Working at Savio offered a unique experience as an educator. We participated in weekly Mass, monthly exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, and prayer was the foundation to each day. The Catholic faith was central to our engagement with students, parents, faculty, and staff. Dominican Sisters served as teachers, and over the school’s ten-year history, ten alumni and former students have pursued vocations in the priesthood or religious life. In such an environment, I began to discern a calling to the priesthood or possibly the diaconate.

After four and half years as a Catholic high school principal, and just having turned fifty, I decided to take time off from working in order to discern the priesthood mindfully and earnestly. I started off on my own, following the self-directed program provided by the Diocese of Austin.

The going was hard. Providentially, however, after six months on my own, I learned about the High Calling program and was accepted to participate. I’ve spent the last year in the program, going deeper into Catholic faith than I ever have before and going deeper into myself, my relationship with Christ, and really asking what God’s plan and purpose is for me. The result? More than forty years after the seed was initially planted in my heart, that seed has matured and grown, and I will apply to the seminary in my hometown of El Paso.

I was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I grew up in the Church but did not make it my own until I was a junior in High School – that was the year of COVID-19. God used this period of time to get my attention.

I would consider myself someone who was a good Catholic in high school but lived on the surface of things. In the Spring of 2020 (during COVID), the Lord told me to slow down, make the Catholic faith my own, and enter into a more personal relationship with Jesus. My deeper conversion did not happen in a flash but over time. Slowly, Jesus revealed Himself to me. Through prayer and Scripture, I learned about the gift of His mercy and what it means to abide in His grace.

At the end of my senior year, I was in prayer and the Lord put it in my heart to go to a discernment day with the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico. While there, I had a deep encounter with the Holy Spirit, experiencing the excitement and joy of being confronted with the idea of being a priest. Coming down from that mountain high, I recognized the need to be thorough in my discernment. I met with the Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, who suggested I enroll in the High Calling Program.  It would be an opportunity to not only receive formation from some of the top minds in the Church but also meet other men my age who were discerning. So, I enrolled in the program while taking classes my freshman year at the University of New Mexico.

Over the High Calling Year, I learned about the foundations of prayer, tools for navigating the spiritual life, testimonies from Church leaders, John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, and many more essential truths that helped me grow in my identity as a beloved son of the Father. Later, I learned that a team of prayer warriors was praying for me at the Avila Institute (High Calling Program). The many blessings I received were the fruit of that prayer. 

After the year of weekly courses, I continued contact with the vocations team with the Archdiocese. What was once an “idea” of being a priest was now becoming a reality, and after completing the application process in the late Winter of ’23, I was accepted into the seminary. 

In July of 2023 I moved to Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon. My studies here have been challenging, but in a good way – God is calling me to go deeper and deeper in my faith.  I am now finishing up my first year of seminary. I am eternally grateful for the many prayers and support of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the people put into my circle through the Avila Institute and the High Calling Program.