When I first thought about the priesthood, I was 17 years old; it was during a weekend visit with my cousin to a Trappist Monastery in Conyers, Georgia. 

After a conversation with my father, I went to an interview with the Vocation Director of our archdiocese.  He told me that I should go to college first, and so, without question, I began looking for a good Catholic college, this being the normal path of all my friends and family members.

In the fall of 1987 I began undergraduate studies at Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, NC.  Thanks be to God, I met a holy priest, now Abbott Placid Solari, O.S.B., who was a spiritual guide throughout college and the years that followed prior to entering the Legion.  While at Belmont Abbey, I was an Army R.O.T.C. Cadet, Member of the North Carolina Army National Guard, Captain of our Cross-Country Running Team, Student Body President, and member of a social fraternity.  Along with graduating Magna Cum Laude with a Business Administration Degree, I was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army on May 10, 1991.  It was during these college years, amidst success and disappointment that I began to ask the following questions: Why do I believe what I believe? Do I truly act in accordance with these beliefs?  What am I suppose to do with my life?  Will the Military be my career?  Will I find a wife?  Is God calling me to be his priest?

Two weeks after graduating from college the above questions were temporarily put on the back burner as I enthusiastically entered the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant.  The six years of service were fast paced and included assignments to Ft Benning, GA; Ft Rucker, AL; Ft Drum, NY; and three years of my time in service was even spent in Germany.  Ranger, Airborne, Air Assault, along with Basic and Advance Infantry Office Courses highlighted the areas of formation.  I served as an Infantry Rifle Platoon Leader, Support Platoon Leader, and One Star Generals Aide while in Germany.  During my assignment to the 10^th Mountain Division in upstate New York, just prior to getting out of the Army, I served as a Division Operations Officer and One Star Generals Aide. 

Throughout my years of military service, and above all when leaving the military, I continued to ask the questions lingering from my college years.  I even put look into the priesthood as an option when getting out of the Military.  Yet during my high school, college and military years one important thing was absent: a constant prayer life.

In March of 1997 I was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army as a Captain and began a career as an Information Technology Project Manager at the Corporate Headquarters of Quest Diagnostics Inc. in Teterboro, New Jersey, just outside of New York City. It was an excellent career opportunity with a promising future; after two years I had received two promotions and three pay raises.  But while my business opportunities increased, so did my life of prayer, along with a more frequent reception of the Sacrament on Reconciliation and Mass attendance during the week.

In January of 1999 I signed up for a Test Your Call retreat on the weekend of February 20^th.  After a business trip to Pittsburgh that enabled me to visit my cousin at Franciscan University at Steubenville, I made the resolution to attend Mass, pray my rosary, and pray morning and night prayers every day.  This resolution inspired by the Holy Spirit helped prepare the fertile ground of my soul for the February Test Your Call retreat.

On the first day of the retreat I knew decisively and definitively that God wanted me to test my call during the 1999 Summer Candidacy Program.  The three months of Candidacy and next two years of Novitiate were the most spiritually enriching years of my life and, with the help of Gods grace, resulted in my total consecration to God when I professed my vows on September 1, 2001.  I am currently studying Philosophy at our Center of High Studies in New York and never let a day go by without thanking God for this unmerited gift of my vocation.  My life for Christ!