Dear Knights,
I was born in St. Cloud,
Minnesota, land of snow, Vikings and people who move elsewhere. Our
family fit into that last category, as my father was in the military.
We moved frequently - during the first several years of my life I lived
in Minnesota, Connecticut and California (maybe elsewhere too, I'm
afraid I don't remember!). My first memories are of California,
however, where we lived until I was about five. By then I had a brother
(who was born in Connecticut), Frankie, one year younger than I. Being
as we moved so often, our family learned pretty early that we had to get
along. Although we were typical brothers (which meant fighting, yelling
and general mayhem), we spent most of our time together.
We moved to Washington
(state) when I was 5 or 6 - Puget Sound Naval Station in Bremerton,
actually. A little while later we moved to Virginia. We stayed there
for three years before moving to the Philippines, then Singapore and
then Hawaii. Our final stop was Washington state, again (although we
moved twice before my parents decided that they'd scared us all out!).
My dad worked as deep-sea diver,
working repairs underwater. Mom was (is!) an organist. Although we
have always been Catholic, mom worked at Protestant churches because of
the higher pay as well as the fact that there are more organs in
Protestant churches. Growing up, we would go to the Saturday night Mass
and then the Sunday service at the church mom played at.
Although I didn't think
about it much then, that experience has really helped shape my own
beliefs and how I regard Christians from other sects. Most of the
friends that my parents had were Protestant, because we tended to be
more active there. In fact, almost all the families that knew me
growing up were not Catholic. This didn't stop us from being fast
friends, however. Because of the better Biblical knowledge in
Protestant churches, our parents put us with the youth groups there. As
a result, we got the best of both worlds - a strong catechesis from our
parents and the Church as well as a solid background in the Bible. But
perhaps more important, we learned that Protestants are not so different
from us.
Also interesting in our
family was the addition of new family members. While living in
Washington we adopted my sister, Renee. She was five years old and two
years apart from me. Adoption is always rough at first and this was no
different, but as time went on, she became (and still is!) a part of our
family. Several years later, in 1990 (in Virginia), shortly before we
moved to the Philippines, we adopted another child - a mentally
handicapped infant whom we named Gabriel. In a funny twist of God's
grace, our name hadn't been taken off of the adoption agency's
list. Shortly before we moved to the Philippines (a month!) they called
us to tell us they had a child for us! Although it adoption was the
furthest thing from my parents' mind (remember, we were moving to the
Philippines!), my parents decided that if God had left us on that list,
He had a reason for it.
Being the oldest child put
in me in the position of helping / guarding / ruling (or so I thought!)
my siblings. Although I was jumping in a fight as often as not with
them, I realized early on that as the oldest, I had to be fair and be
able to place myself beyond sides. As I got older I learned to help
more than rule (which never worked anyway!) and try to resolve things
with the least amount of hurt feelings on all sides.
As a child, I had a mild
interest in Mass. I'm afraid there wasn't any extraordinary devotion as
a kid - I got bored during Mass like any other kid! But in Virginia,
when we were allowed to serve as altar boys, I began to get very
interested in Mass. Although I didn't understand much about it, I knew
something important was going on. It was there that I began to really
notice what the priest was doing. By that time, I was receiving the
Precious Body & Blood. As an altar server I found that my favorite part
of the Mass was the Eucharistic celebration.
It was in Hawaii that I
really started exploring my faith as well as discerning God's call for
me. I was 13 when I started figuring out what I believed. I began to
get involved in my parish youth group as well as the youth group at the
church where my mom worked. In fact, I found myself more involved in
the Protestant youth group than the Catholic one! It was after a 4-day
youth conference with that youth group that I decided that it was time
to make a choice about my faith and stick with it.
To my parent's chagrin, I
decided that I was going to join the Protestant church. They decided
that they would allow me to choose, but they insisted that I talk to
both the pastor of the church (Pastor Wally) and our parish priest (Fr.
Bob Phelps) before I did. My first meeting was with Pastor Wally and
although I liked him a lot, I really struggled with what he told me
about their beliefs especially things that I found the bible explicitly
condemned (homosexuality, for example). I wasn't a theology expert, but
saw enough flaws in his beliefs that I was convinced that that church
just wasn't for me.
I have to admit, however,
that when I went to Fr. Bob's office, I was a little downtrodden. My
image of the Church was one of a stuffy institution that was out of
touch with the things I believed. Ironically, I considered Fr. Bob, a
'cool' priest. I don't know how long I spent in his office, just
talking about Catholicism. We must have covered a good portion of the
Catechism, though. But a good portion (the last hour!) of our
discussion was about the priesthood. Some of my questions were a bit
off - 'What do you do when nobody comes to Confession?' (he wrote
poetry...) but I found myself asking a lot of unexpectedly heartfelt
questions. I'm sure you can imagine my parents' surprise when I came
home and declared that I wanted to be a priest!
Although I didn't act very
much on that idea for the rest of my time in Hawaii, I found that my
conviction was just as strong three years later (when we moved to
Kingston, Washington). It was then that I decided to get my act
together and started exploring a vocation to the priesthood. I started
seeing our 'local' priest, Fr. Hung Nguyen (St. Olafs, the closest
parish, was a good 40 minutes away). Eventually, he directed me to
Richard Shively, the archdiocese's vocation director along with Fr.
Timothy Sauer. Both of them, especially Rich (Fr. Tim, after all is a
priest - with 6 parishes!) helped me get a clearing understanding of
diocesan priesthood. When I turned 17, shortly before I graduated from
high school, I entered the diocesan vocations program and formally
applied to join a seminary. Not long after I graduated, I was accepted
in St. John's Seminary College here in Camarillo, California.
Now, I am in my last
semester here at St. John's. My time here has been well spent,
discerning and learning about my vocation and faith. Seminary life has
been more challenging than anything I've ever done, but very rewarding.
Being with guys who are also looking at a possible call to priesthood
and in a place that encourages that exploration has been a great gift to
me. The opportunity to build habits such as daily prayer and the
availability of daily Mass (a gift that has given me grace beyond
anything I've known) are things that I find irreplaceable.
With graduation only a week
away, a bit of change is coming my way. I still feel God's call to
explore priesthood as strong as ever and I intend continue to move
closer to that life. It is my hope that I will be able to enter the
major seminary in September (the archdiocese tries to avoid having
seminarians enter mid-year). Where I would go is still uncertain,
although I know that God's will has it all planned out. Between now and
September, I will be working at a parish, probably in Seattle for
several months. A pseudo-internship, if you will. Following that, this
summer, I will be entering into an immersion program in Mexico to learn
Spanish. I have to admit that I'm looking forward to several months of
non-academic life!
Thank you for your prayers
and financial support. Although I'm moving into a stronger commitment
to the diocese, I'm still discerning just what God wants with me and how
to best do what He wants. With the graces that come from your prayers,
I know that I will be much more able to figure out my calling and work
with God's plan. Thank you for everything that you do for me and all
seminarians. Know that your support really does make a difference. May
God bless you all.
Yours sincerely,
Jacob Maurer
