When I was still a student at DeVry Institute of Technology, I visited the seminary with deep desire to know God’s will in my life. I believed that I was asking, seeking, and knocking at the door, waiting for an answer from the Lord.

What I didn’t understand was that the Lord had already extended the invitation — come and see… (Jn 1:38-39) The door was open. All I needed to do was walk through the door and accept the call.

The Lord still continues to call to the priesthood and to the consecrated life. Do we have ears to listen and to perceive His voice? We need to have ears of the heart — ears ready to answer in obedience to the Lord.

Holy Mass and Eucharistic adoration were at the heart of my discernment. I heard in the silence the invitation to follow Jesus Christ with my whole life. Frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist quenched a thirst that I previously sought in the idols of the world.

I would like to encourage young men to at least be open to the invitation to follow Christ in the consecrated life and or the priesthood. The people of God are starving without the sacraments. The words that priests say — For this is My Body … For this is the chalice of My Blood— still contain the solution for all the problems of the world, including our own.