Our Lord first began calling me when I was fourteen years old, just beginning my first year of high school.  I was visiting the seminary of the Legion of Christ in Connecticut when, during a basketball tournament, my older brother told me that he wanted to enroll in the Legions minor seminary. I was surprised, yet very excited. The idea of following Christ as a priest had never crossed my mind until then. I knew immediately that my brothers decision to become a priest meant leaving home and doing something completely out of the ordinary. The call was something novel in itself and it stimulated my imagination. Still, it would be some time before I recognized this call as a personal invitation from Jesus Christ.       

My brother entered the minor seminary at the age of 16, while I continued to attend the local public high school until graduation. This meant I could continue to play high school sports, something that I loved doing. I played quarterback in football, and pitched in baseball all four years of high school. I also played basketball my senior year, but in the previous years I opted instead to play hockey and go skiing. I had no problem with studies, and I enjoyed going out with friends. 

The first major turning point in my vocation to the priesthood occurred that year when I took up an invitation to found and promote a boys club. I took it on knowing that I would have to give up a lot of things that I liked to do, but deep within I knew I was committing myself to do something much better with my time. When I entered college the next year, I continued to hold the same aspirations and convictions about the use of time and the value of doing apostolate. I enrolled in the Franciscan University of Steubenville in 1996 and immediately became involved in the Regnum Christi Young Mens Section. My integration with the spirit of the Movement through frequent readings of the Founder and fulfilling my apostolic and prayer commitments filled me with enthusiasm and motivated me to strive to be the best I could be. I wanted to form myself to be a well-formed Catholic leader so that I could evangelize society. I kept to my studies, and in my second year of college, responded to another invitation to found a boys club in Pittsburgh, PA. 

In addition to other activities, I began what would be a two-year relationship with a female classmate. But midway through my sophomore year, I began to feel the call to the priesthood more acutely. In response, I started to dialogue with a priest about it, as well as some close friends, and even my girlfriend. I was not sure what to do, or what step to take. After a period of unrest, since I knew very well that I liked my girlfriend, and that I did not keenly desire to be a priest, I decided to follow what I was certain about, and pursued the relationship with my girlfriend. 

The decisive turning point came the summer following my second year of college. I was set to attend Oxford University as an exchange student that autumn. But at the Youth and Family Encounter in Indianapolis that July, my life took a definitive change in direction. Over the years, I had grown to admire and love the Founder of Regnum Christi, Fr Maciel. When I finally met him at the Encounter, I thanked him on account of how much I had received spiritually and humanly from my participation in the Movement. I had grown very close to Christ, and I was ready to do anything for Christ. Fr Maciel said to me A vocation, a vocation! and then asked Will you follow Christ if he calls you? The witness of his exemplary life, and the personal relationship I had established with Christ through my involvement in Regnum Christi, prompted me to tell him that I would do so. My love for Christ and sincerity with God helped me to respond to his call, to break off relationships, break with career plans and follow him in the Legion.