Age: 34
Home Parish: St. Vincent de Paul, Albany
Seminary/Stage of Study: First Theology, Blessed John XXIII National Seminary
Degree(s): M.Ed. in religious education, Boston College; B.A. in journalism/mass communication, St. Bonaventure University
Work Experience: (Currently) middle school religion teacher St. Pius X School, Loudonville; (Formerly) high school religion teacher, North Cambridge Catholic High School, Boston, MA; manager of foreign exchange students, EF Education; outreach coordinator, Abraham House Hospice; school bus driver
Interests: Travel, reading, nature, music, yoga, friends
Vocation Story: Since high school, I have felt drawn to the priesthood. Because I was raised in a faith-filled family and had a beloved aunt who was a member of the Sisters of the Resurrection, I had always known that religious life was possible, but it was in my junior year of high school that I felt a stronger tug toward it. I contacted the vocation office of the Diocese of Rochester (where I was raised) and I chose a Catholic university where I could nurture the stirrings I was experiencing. That was 15 years ago.
In the years since I have worked in a variety of jobs, traveled to 15 countries during my two years in the Up with People program, participated in a year of AmeriCorps and lived for six years in Boston. Throughout that time, the tug in my heart toward priesthood continued, but the timing never felt right. I thought and prayed about a religious vocation and even talked about it with my friends, but I wasn’t yet ready to take a life-changing step toward it.
In 2007, I decided to move closer to my family in Troy, where my mom was raised and where I have so many happy family memories from my childhood. I began teaching 6-8th grade religion at St. Pius X School in Loudonville, and I took a closer look at what it would mean to follow the pull I have felt for so long toward religious life.
Then last year I moved into the St. Isaac Jogues House of Discernment where I lived with the seminarians studying at Siena College in preparation for the seminary. The space I had to pray and live in community helped me to attune myself to God’s voice and gave me the courage to attend seminary and continue – one step at a time – on an adventure to discover the path God may have envisioned for my life.
My life as a layperson so far has been full of ministry, faith and joy… but I have a sense that the best is yet to come.
