Fr. Edwin Leonard

If you get nothing else from this post remember to stop making excuses, stop telling God what He can’t do...

The Bible is full of stories of God taking the weak and making them strong and changing a little into a whole lot, from Moses to the multiplication of the Loaves to the our celebration of the Eucharist where He takes our humble offering of bread and wine and does something far more then we could ever imagine, He meets us in his body blood soul and divinity.

Many of you will understand the difficulty of being a young man who also goes to daily mass. That was me. The Lord had done a lot in my life by the time I was a junior in high school, through the witness of upperclassmen my heart was set on fire for relationship with God. Slowly this grew into a profound appreciation for the Eucharist which could even make me get up to attend 7am daily mass before school.

Now for those young men going to daily mass let me explain something...you can’t be a young man at mass without being constantly being bombarded by... little old ladies. Little old ladies aren’t very quick, but they are persistent and they will catch you. When they do they always asked me the same question, with hope for the future of the church in their eyes, “Have you ever thought of being a priest?”

With a well practiced response I would say, “I have thought about it but no I am not going to be a priest, I am dreadfully afraid of speaking in front of people and I am pretty sure you need to do that at least once a week AND don’t we also need good holy Catholic men to be good holy Catholic fathers of families.” They would always go away dejected...

Fast-forward to my freshmen year of college where I was still going to daily mass. I met some wonderful upperclassmen in college that had just finished a year with NET ministries, which I had never heard of, but as they talked about it my heart yearned in that familiar way for a deeper way to know Christ. At that moment I knew He was calling me to serve.

By the grace of God, I got accepted to NET ... however within a few days I knew I was in trouble. Still paralyzed by a fear of public speaking, the staff during training told us all that everyone on NET had to be able to get up in front of a crowd and tell their personal story of how God had worked in their life. I went up and told them I didn’t like speaking in front of people...and to make the story shorter they said too bad everyone has to, no exceptions.

So I practiced and I did it...and to my surprise the world didn’t end and I didn’t die from the awkwardness.

But soon my NET leaders came back and asked me to do MORE, they asked me to do the closing talk...only 8 min they said. I begrudgingly said yes...a couple months later after becoming comfortable with that they asked me to do the 20 minute main talk... a couple months later after becoming comfortable they asked me to lead the whole retreat!

And so it went for the entire wonderful 2 years I served with NET ministries. God was slowly stretching me. I can never thank God and NET enough for all that those years of service did for me.

Eventually I went back to my normal college life, back to my rhythm of school and daily mass and as one might expect there were still little old ladies. One day again a little old lady tapped me on the shoulder as I was hurrying off to class and asked, “Have you ever thought about being a priest?” I looked at her and with my well-practiced response I said, “I have thought about it but no, I am dreadfully afraid of speaking in front of peo...ple...” then I froze mid explanation.

I realized for the first time, that my standard excuses wasn’t true anymore...not only was I no longer afraid of speaking in front of people...I actually liked it... more importantly I thought I was good at it. I didn’t go to class, I stayed in that chapel and prayed.

Have you ever seen Karate Kid, the good one not the new one? Where Daniel San is taught to paint the fence and wax the car by Mr. Miyagi and then all of a sudden he knows Karate...

Well God “MR. MIYAGI”ed my life. By little moments of faithfulness He prepared me for my vocation to the priesthood. He transformed my fear into a gift that destroyed my excuse and changed my life.

That was the first day I stopped telling God what I couldn’t do and asked Him what He wanted me to do. That is my invitation to you today, don’t limit God’s power, just ask and trust He can make you who He needs you to be.

And to all those little old ladies, thank you, and keep it up. I bet I was asked over 50 times about being a priest before I ever really thought to ask God what He wanted for my life. Don’t be dejected...keep asking, be that 23rd time or 37th time or 49th time in some young person’s life that causes them to open their lives to God’s will.

In fact we should all be like little old ladies...they are my Heroes.

Today is my 3665th day as a priest, it has been a wonderful gift, richer and fuller than I could have expected.