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I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago in a neighborhood predominantly populated with Irish Catholics during the 30s and 40s. At that time the church was the center of family life, the hub that attracted and served all persons of various ages in their spiritual, social, academic, and athletic pursuits and activities. 

As a youngster in a Catholic school, I was instructed in the merit of discipline, the value of academics and the significance of faith and religion. I enjoyed my fellow students and was truly impressed with the religious nuns and priests who taught me because I perceived them as joyful, gracious, and dedicated persons. 

My parish, St. Justin Martyr, was a breathing ground for vocations to the priesthood and religious life. As students we were informed about missionaries and various religious congregations by personnel who represented them. A religious sister, Sister Lydia, and a Father Malloy spoke to me about the possibility of considering a vocation to the priesthood.

 My mother was certainly the primary instrument in the cultivation of my vocation. Since the time I was in fourth grade my mother and I attended mass daily. Under her guidance I grew to appreciate my faith both by what she said about Christ and the Christian life and how she witnessed it in heir daily living by practicing her faith. She taught by her example.

 My mother recommended that I acquire information in my discernment process for my vocation by visiting and speaking with three of my cousins who were priests. In my discussions with my cousins, I became more knowledgeable about the Maryknollers and their missionary spirit, the diocesan ministry and their life- style and the religious vocation with its vowed life, community living, and missionary apostolate,

 Yet, being twelve years of age (imagine), I really was not mature enough to understand or pursue any specific spirituality. The process of decision-making about my vocation to the priesthood became complex and left me in a quandary.

 What was I to do? I came to a point where I desired to become a priest and my mother supported and encouraged my endeavor, but how was I to choose a path I should follow to the priesthood? Should I join a missionary congregation or pursue a diocesan calling or maybe become affiliated with a religious congregation or order?

 Confronted with this dilemma, I began to pray for the grace of discernment and to be opened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. My prayers were answered when Sister Lydia introduced me to Jim Noonan, a seminarian on summer vacation who was studying to become a Priest of the Sacred Heart. Jim Noonan possessed a delightful personality, an animated and inspirational spirit full of vitality, verve, pep, and bounce. He mirrored magnetism or charism, a powerful energy that could touch others. His joyful enthusiasm was contagious and uplifting. His passionate nature seemed to be fired up when he spoke about the Sacred Heart, scripture, lives of the saints, and the need to help people. When he furnished me with information about the Founder of the Congregation, Father Leo Dehon, about the spirituality, history and apostolate of the institute, everything seemed to connect and coincide with my own expectations. Even his "hands-on experiences" of seminary life with its hardships, demands, challenges, and discipline convinced me of my future path and calling to be a Priest of the Sacred Heart.

 With God's grace and inspirational instruments such as my mother and Jim Noonan, I discovered inner strength, confidence of purpose and surefootedness in the pursuit of my vocation as a religious priest of the Sacred Heart.

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