At McGill Catholic High School, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart taught me the infinite difference between our short life on earth and the eternal life prepared for us in heaven. Brother Warren even started a “Vocation Club” for students considering religious life. After two more years of prayer and sincere desire for the salvation of my own soul and the souls of others, the call to the seminary suddenly became clear.

On a trip to Chicago, I asked Father Nicholas, OSB, if a seminary existed there. “Absolutely,” he said. “From ninth grade through the first two years of college.” When I told him I was interested, he replied, “You are two years too late.” Those words haunted me all the way to Chicago. On the return trip, I told my father that I wanted to enter the seminary in two weeks. Though I was already registered to attend McGill, my father, good and understanding, relented. I soon began a ten-year formation for the priesthood.

The Benedictine Fathers at St. Bernard’s Abbey shaped my spiritual and academic life profoundly. Though I often felt the pull toward Benedictine life, the diocesan priesthood continually drew me back. I even wrote Maryknoll for acceptance and the Mobile bishop for a release. Before making the final decision, I prayed a Holy Hour for guidance. The answer was unmistakable: Stay with the diocese. And the closer I came to ordination, the more deeply I longed to serve as a parish priest.

There were distractions along the way. My sisters seemed determined to invite only the local beauties to the house, a challenge for their seminarian brother. During my third year of theology, I became seriously ill but kept it hidden, fearing I might be sent home and lose the chance of ordination. The summer before ordination, I traveled alone through Europe for nine weeks, turning it into a personal pilgrimage. Lourdes and Rome were the highlights, especially Lourdes, where I received a “favor”: the return of my health.

By the grace and mercy of God, I was ordained in 1957 and stepped into the strenuous life of a teacher, 40 boys in each class at McGill Catholic High School. The greatest test of my priesthood came after three years, when I was still at McGill Catholic High School and was then assigned to St. Pius X in Mobile, while also working on graduate studies at Catholic University. Then came the shocking letter from Archbishop Toolen: I was being transferred to Birmingham to teach at John Carroll High School and to live in the priest faculty house. I did not want to go.

It was the one assignment I did not want. The only way I survived that first year, which was far from parish life, was by making the Stations of the Cross daily. Our Lord did not want to be crucified, yet He did His Father’s will.

By the end of that difficult year, I had begun to adjust. I asked the bishop if I might offer Mass somewhere on Sundays, and he assigned me to three small missions, each in a different location. This proved to be a wonderful gift for a young priest and a time of real spiritual growth. For 23 years, I also had the privilege of offering daily Mass in the chapel at John Carroll.

Though I was gradually being groomed for administration, my heart remained in the classroom. I believed a priest should teach the faith not with Latin or English, but by doctrine and Church history, and also through attitude and example. Each class began with student-led prayers and a meditation. Over the years, I saw many seeds of vocations take root.

For 40 years, I taught the RCIA class — five years as an associate pastor at Our Lady of Sorrows and 35 years as pastor. Through God’s mercy, I also hosted a dialogue program on Channel 42 for 13 years and later offered a televised Sunday Mass for the shut-ins for five years, before the days of Mother Angelica and EWTN.

When the diocese was preparing to be divided in 1969, the bishop privately offered to transfer me back to Mobile. I immediately said, “No, no, no, no!” When I was first assigned to Birmingham, I couldn't imagine how God was working, but His plan was better than anything I had envisioned.

The priesthood is not so much a gift to God as it is an extraordinary gift from God, given when the seeds of a vocation are present in the soul.

Over these decades,I have learned three essential truths:

Prayer

Living consciously in God’s presence, speaking with Him often, praying the breviary, rosary, and Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and     especially listening to God are the prayers a priest should say.     After serving nine months as administrator at Our Lady of     Sorrows, I asked to be considered as the pastor.

God’s protective care

In His wisdom, God knew that Birmingham was better for me than Mobile, though at the time no one could have convinced me.     I have experienced His protective care numerous times in the material world. In the spiritual world, His greatest protection was dying for our sins on the hill at Calvary.  

Two women were pushed by Jesus to start perpetual adoration at Our Lady of Sorrows, and they pushed me as well. I challenged them to get 300 committed adorers, and they did! They did not choose Jesus for this; Jesus chose Our Lady of Sorrows for the one parish in Birmingham with perpetual adoration. Jesus also pushes certain men to think about the seminary. No one is worthy. The divine election theme in the Old and New Testaments lives on in our own day.

I literally see and feel the power of prayer streaming from the Chapel of Our Savior. Someone praying alone in the chapel once heard Jesus say to him, “You will never know how much I love you.” We pray earnestly for something, and sometimes the answer is not “yes” or “no,” but “I have a better plan.”

Perseverance

Perseverance is based upon trust. Trust is based upon looking forward to something good in the future. We can persevere if we look forward to a future of good. Saints persevered because they looked forward to Heaven. How else could the martyrs suffer persecution, unless they looked forward to eternal life with God?

On this earth, I had to look at the good of teaching at John Carroll, offering Mass three times every Sunday for devout people. What motivates me to persevere in struggling with health issues is the hope of getting well or the possibility of recovery because even the prospect of improvement helps to maintain hope and persevere.

Now, as I reflect on God’s goodness and mercy at age 94, I feel like green leaves that have turned red, yellow, and brown, soon to fall. With deep gratitude for His constant care and unmatched generosity, I offer endless praise for the privilege of serving as His priest in His Church. As a few leaves remain on the tree awaiting the breath of wind, so I wait now for the Spirit of God to move me from this life to the next.