Fr. Patrick Mary
I’m originally from Florida and am the oldest of eight children, but grew up in a military family, so we moved around a good bit. Looking back, I'm grateful that we attended Sunday Mass regularly as a family growing up. However, personally, I did not know my faith very well. Growing up, I played a good number of sports but eventually dove deep into music in High School and eventually began playing in a hardcore metal band with my cousin and some other friends.
After my first semester of college, my family decided to do something different for Christmas that particular year. We drove up to Northern Alabama and rented a cabin for about a week or so and ended up going to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville for the Christmas Midnight Mass. It was Christmas of the year 2000 and Mother Angelica and her community of Poor Clare nuns had just built and moved into their new monastery there the previous year. It was in the midst of that Mass that I felt strongly drawn to the priesthood. The thought of the priesthood was nowhere on my mind going into that Mass. I was struck not only by the beauty of the Shrine itself, but also by the sense of reverence during the Mass, as well as the use of the Latin, Gregorian chant and polyphony sung by the nuns. Reflecting back, I find it fascinating that I had been immersed in an extreme form of music during that time of my life – heavy metal/hardcore - and yet this encounter with beautiful sacred music at the Midnight Mass blew me away! In the midst of the Mass, I simply had this sense that I was being drawn to the priesthood.
On our return trip to Florida, we stopped by EWTN and I ended up speaking with the vocation director of the friars there. He gave some good counsel and encouraged me to finish my first year of college and to keep in touch. He also gave me a biography of St. Francis of Assisi and the Act of Total Consecration to Our Lady according to St. Louis Marie de Montfort. The simple life and witness of St. Francis trying to radically live the Gospel inspired me, but I think the Act of Total Consecration had the biggest impact on me when I made it during the Spring Semester of my freshman year of college. I think there was just this sense, interiorly, that whatever the Lord was calling me to do, I was ready to go for it.
I attended a discernment retreat with the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word in the Summer of 2001 and experienced a great sense of interior peace. I really did not know much about the religious life prior to the visit, but very much felt drawn to the way of life the friars were living. These were normal guys striving for holiness, and there were some really good basketball players among them as well, which was a bonus, as I still very much enjoyed playing sports!
I ended up entering the Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word in October of 2002 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2012. I'm grateful to God for the gift of the priesthood and the religious life!