VOCATION STORY

By: Gale Hammerschmidt

Why am I studying to become a priest?  This is not necessarily an easy question to answer.  It is also not a question that I feel I can answer with one hundred percent certainty.  As I look back on my journey it seems clear to me that God has played a larger role in getting me to this point than I have.

I grew up in Hays, I have two wonderful parents, and I have three great sisters.  As a youngster I went to church every weekend, attended religious education classes, and was a pretty good kid.  I attended Thomas More Prep- Marion High school, and I was filled with a solid knowledge of the Church.  After I graduated high school in 1990 I attended Kansas State University.  Although I still went to church almost every weekend, it would be a lie to say that I continued to keep God at the center of my life.  Through college and even a few years after I had graduated from college, I allowed my own selfishness to lead me into making a number of bad decisions.  These decisions, and the emptiness I felt after making such decisions made me realize exactly how much I needed God to be the focal point of my life. 

I was very blessed by the fact that after I had graduated from K-State in 1995, I was able to obtain teaching position at Monsignor Luckey Junior High in Manhattan.  While in the midst of thinking mostly about myself and what I wanted, I was being surrounded by people who were helping me realize that life was not just about my own personal desires.  I was introduced to Eucharistic adoration in 1999 and I begin to spend an hour a week in silence simply being in the presence of our Lord.  I soon came to look forward to this hour and I realized how God had the ability to transform all things.  Through time I allowed God to break through the hard shell that I had built around my heart, and I began to allow Him to take control of my life.  I started to feel the rewards of such a decision in the summer of 2001.

At this point in my life I was 29 years old, and I was single guy who spent most of my life teaching, coaching, and playing golf.  This seemed to be the perfect life.  I was having fun, and my life was great.  Without knowing it my life was about to become even greater.  In June, I had agreed to go on a week long mission trip as a sponsor of a local youth group to Garden City KS.  During this trip I realized exactly what it was that I had been missing.  I was finally able to forget about myself and to put God and others first.  This trip to Garden City was followed by another mission trip the next year to Illinois, which was then followed by me working for a mission organization for the entire summer of 2003. 

It still amazes me how much joy living your life for God can bring.  During these past four years practically every aspect of my life has changed.  I have made many new friends, I look forward to attending daily mass, I pray more, and I have realized that God knows exactly what makes me happy.  Things that I used to think were important have become less important, and my life has been transformed before my very eyes.  I can remember a time in 2002 when I won a local golf tournament, and I remembered thinking to myself, “Is this it?  Is this all the joy that comes from such an accomplishment?”  The one thing that would have made me so happy in the past seemed so trivial now.  It had become clear to me that living a life for God was the greatest joy.

Well I guess at this point I still haven’t come close to answering the question of why I am studying to become a priest.  The short answer to this question is that I have never gone wrong when I put my full trust in God.  Even now, although I don’t know exactly what my future holds I trust that He does.  The longer answer goes all the way back to my childhood.  Throughout various periods of my life I have felt an attraction towards the priesthood.  I have also realized that the many gifts God has blessed me with point me in the direction of such a vocation.  I have formed wonderful relationships with various priests throughout my life, and I admire them very much.  As I mentioned earlier, I received a good formation in the Catholic faith during my childhood, and as time tested this faith, I have always been able to turn to good priests who could guide me along my journey.  Without these priests in my life, I can only imagine where I would be right now.

After my summer of mission work in 2003, I became even more involved in the church, and my love for the Catholic faith really started to take shape.  Every time I would question the faith, I would find that the Church was solid.  It was also at this time that I started to realize that my potential calling to the priesthood should not be ignored.  I began to talk to people about it, and I started to receive some good advice.  I realized that I would never know for sure if God is calling me to the priesthood unless I went to the seminary to find out.  I was moved by a story of a guy who had even broken off his wedding engagement because he simply needed to find out if God was calling him to the priesthood before he could feel comfortable getting married.  I even spoke with a few people who had attended the seminary and then decided it wasn’t for them.  Through these conversations I realized that there was no shame in giving it a shot regardless of the outcome.

I guess this brings me to where I am now.  At the age of thirty- three, I am in the process of beginning my first year as a seminarian.  I feel that I am taking a courageous step, and I am excited to see where it leads.  I know that there are many people in my life who have doubts about what I am doing, and at times I have the same doubts.  I am leaving a life that I have absolutely loved, and I have such fond memories of the times I have spent with my students.  I have also never been far from my family.  These are some of the things that make me anxious, and I wonder if my life as a priest will be able to provide me with the same amount of joy as my previous life has.  I also at times worry about the thought of never getting married.  I really believe that I could be very happy as a husband and a father. 

Ultimately, though, I don’t spend much of my time worrying over such things.  I realize that worrying is pointless, and I do have a tremendous amount of trust in the Lord.  As I mentioned earlier; He has not let me down in the past and I know that He will not let me down in the future.  In the end I gain strength by focusing on the fact that everything I have was given to me by God, and that my life is in His hands.

If I had any advice for those of you who are discerning a call to the priesthood it would be to stay open to the call, grow through the Eucharist, and always pray that God’s will be done.