Hello dear friends in Christ! Well, I’ve enjoyed sharing my conversion story with you (bit by bit!) over the last two months, thank you for allowing me. Each of us has a story, a testimony of how Jesus has changed our lives and how He makes all the difference. We are His glory stories being written not in ink on paper but by the Spirit of God in our very souls and flesh and bones…ultimately radiating out in words and smiles and movements that produce an eye catching love. When I think of eye catching love, Mother Theresa comes to mind as an amazing example. She cared for the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta for decades and her witness of love captured the world’s imagination. Day by day, Jesus wants to make us more himself, the one who Mother Teresa radiated. You are His glory story, and He’s still writing! Let’s give Him full permission to do what He wants in our lives, let’s give Him full authority over our lives, trusting that He’ll use us in accord with His divine plan of winning souls with His love! Well how about a little more of my story?
After I had the dream where I saw Jesus on the green sofa (never had one before or after like it since!), and continued to read the gospels and get back into going to Church (after about 8 years away) life really changed. I began to know peace and joy, a real happiness. I became certain that whatever I was going to do with my life (I was 27 at the time), that Jesus had to be the center of my life. So one day I was visiting my Mom and shared with her my conviction that Jesus had to be the center of my life and she looked at me and said, “Patrick, have you ever thought about the priesthood?” I am so glad she asked that question, it was divinely inspired!
There was one time in my life, when I was 25 years old and still deep in the throes of addiction and quite lost that I sat on my bedroom floor one sunny day and began reading the psalms (first time reading the bible in years.) Providentially, I was reading them because my Mom had suggested them. As I read, I felt a strong warmth come over me (a lifting of the heart you could say) and had thoughts and an image of the priesthood pop into my mind and heard in my thoughts “you can give your life to me.” At the time it was a wonderful occurrence, it seemed like a great idea. I wasn’t familiar at that point with the Catholic faith and really wasn’t aware at that time that God had just really spoken to me. God would show me later that He was making an invitation! When my Mom asked the question “have you ever thought of the priesthood” I proceeded to tell her that I had (though I had never shared it with anyone). She then told me about the discernment weekends that Sacred Heart Major Seminary would host. I looked up some information and stumbled across the name of Fr. Jim Bilot, vocation director for the Archdiocese of Detroit. Little did I know then that Fr. Bilot would have a life altering impact on my journey….to be continued!
God bless your week; shine His love Beloved of the Lord!!
–Fr. Patrick