Parish: St. Therese Parish, Appleton
Birth Date: June 24
Seminary: St. Francis de Sales Seminary
Seminary Address:
3257 S. Lake Drive
St. Francis, WI 53235-3702
 

Are there any books that you love so much that you
have read them twice (or more)?
I love the book “The Case for Jesus” by Brant Pitre. This is a solid book to
deepen one’s understanding about the biblical and
historical evidence for Jesus.

When you find yourself with a “free night,” what
is something you are likely to do?
This past summer, I found myself watching videos by Fr. Luis Toro about the
biblical evidence for the teachings of the Catholic Church.
As the various apologetic topics were discussed, I followed
along with my Bible and began memorizing biblical texts,
which are key for defending our Catholic faith.

What do you remember from your First Communion?
I remember wearing black dress pants and a long white
sleeve shirt and walking about a mile to the church while
holding a Catholic prayer book, a rosary, and a candle. I
was the first child to receive holy Communion. I went home
with the commitment to pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, and
Glory Be until there was nothing left of my candle as a sign
of my thanksgiving for the gift of the Eucharist.

Where is one of your favorite places to pray, and
what makes it special to you?
I love praying at perpetual adoration chapels, especially the ones that
have the Blessed Sacrament exposed in a monstrance.
It is good to be before the loving, compassionate, and
merciful presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Jesus’ humility to be truly present under the species of
bread is a mystery that captivates my eyes and my heart.
I often meditate on what a great mystery it is that the
King of the Universe, the Son of God, the One through
whom all things were made, is right in front of me under
the appearance of bread.

What role has the Eucharist played in your discernment
of the priesthood?
It was during a night of Eucharistic
Adoration when I clearly heard Jesus’ call to follow him
as his priest. That night, I also received abundant graces
to respond to the call fearlessly. During these past five
years of seminary, I have grown closer to Jesus because
of receiving the Eucharist on a daily basis. As I approach
diaconate ordination, I am meditating more on the
Eucharist as a sacrifice since I will be assisting the priest
at the altar. God willing as a priest, I will be entrusted
with the grace to celebrate the Eucharist with and for the
people of God. Certainly, there is no Eucharist without
the priesthood, and there is no priesthood without the
Eucharist. I live for Jesus in the Eucharist as he lives for
me in this most Blessed Sacrament. Thus, discerning the
priesthood for me has been a Eucharistic journey where
the priest and the Eucharist are inseparable.
If there was one thing you could communicate to the
faithful about the importance and role of the Eucharist
in our Catholic faith, what would it be? The Second
Vatican Council states that the Eucharist is “the source
and submit of our faith.” We should abandon the nonbiblical
claims about the Eucharist. The Bible does not
say that the Eucharist is a symbol, simply a spiritual
meal and not a sacrifice, or simply a memory of the Last
Supper. When Jesus declared, “This is my body,” and
“This is my blood,” within the context of his passion,
death, and resurrection, he truly instituted the sacrament
of our faith and commanded his apostles to offer it in
remembrance of him until he comes again in glory.
I invite all Catholics to reclaim this mystery, to safeguard
it, and to celebrate it faithfully. We should renew our acts
of thanksgiving toward the Eucharist by coming back to
and living more fully the Sunday celebration of the most
holy sacrifice of the Mass, by making a dwelling place
pleasing to the Lord through the sacrament of confession
before receiving the Eucharist, by praying for an hour
before the Blessed Sacrament, and by overflowing with
acts of charity toward those in need. We should not be
like the disciples who found the teaching of Jesus about
the Eucharist too hard to believe, as if this is something
impossible for God. Instead, we should remain with the
one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church and confess
with Peter that Jesus has the words of eternal life. To be
Catholic is to be Eucharistic.

Which saint should people invoke for your vocation
and why?
s I prepare for my diaconate ordination this
May, I would ask for the intercession of St. Stephen so to
surrender myself more fully to God’s will and announce
the Gospel courageously.