Sep282025
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Where Dreams Come True.

I have been a priest for almost 35 years, and no one has ever asked me what I gave up to enter the seminary. So, I will share with you now what I gave up to be a priest: everything. Yes, I had it all. I had a great job with my own carpentry business. With my motto, “Large or small, we satisfy all.” I had my own workshop. In addition to that, I had a wonderful girlfriend who was the sweetest person I had ever met. Whenever there was a problem, she always said with a smile, “No problem.” I also had a dream of a house with a family, and I was so close to having it. But, I also had an itch since the second grade–to be a priest. So, I did what most people do with an itch: I scratched it and became a priest.

Ten years after my ordination, I was asked to be the vocation director. At the time, not many young men were interested in becoming priests. However, a Catholic college offered a Vocation Awareness Day and invited me to promote vocations. I set up my table with all my propaganda and free giveaways. Every student in the college passed by my table, twice. I put the table in front of the doors to the cafeteria. Not one student came over or was interested.

Sadly, I started to pack away my things when I heard my name called in the distance, “Pedah, is that you?”  I replied, “Amy?” It was my old girlfriend. When she approached me, I apologized for dumping her so I could go to the seminary. She answered, “No problem; I met this great guy who is doctor and I told God in prayer, “Hands off, this one is mine.” She told me about her home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and her family. She described exactly my dream that I had before I entered the seminary. After she was done speaking, she stepped back and declared, “Just look at you; you’re a priest.” I replied as I kicked the dust on the floor, “Ya, I guess.”  And then she said it all. In one sentence, she perfectly captured why I wanted to be a priest. “Think of the people you are going to be able to help.” Do we not say that every time we remember that Christ sacrificed himself on the cross, “Lord, think of the people you can help.”

Every sacrifice that you make, a door opens, and you enter a space of great opportunity to help others. And it does not take much. All the rich man in the Gospel needed to do was gather a few leftovers in the fridge and grab an old t-shirt from the drawer. Every sacrifice you make allows you to enter a place of great opportunity. It is a great place to be because that is where dreams come true.

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