Fr. Arnold Ortiz, OSJ

People often ask, “When did you decide to become a priest?” My stock answer is that my earliest recollection of a “decision” to be a priest goes back to the 5th grade. I was a student at St. Patrick’s School (St. Rose Parish) in Sacramento. I had the great fortune of being taught by the Sisters of Mercy of Omaha, Nebraska. They were wonderful and gracious ladies committed to their religious life and focused on giving us a good education. They were an inspiration to me because they worked hard and gave every indication that what they were doing was a cause for them to be joyful. I became an altar server and it was common for us to be assigned to the 6:00 a.m. Mass for a week at a time. I marveled that when I arrived for my assignment (somewhere around 5:45 a.m.), the Sisters were already in the church praying and singing.

It was also during my duty as an altar server that I was able to take particular notice of our parish priest. He celebrated Mass with great care and devotion. Parishioners often spoke of him as always being available to them and how he had come to help them in their moment of great need. He was and is greatly loved, admired and respected to this day. I noticed that he, too, enjoyed his work and I decided – yes, in the 5th grade – that I wanted to be just like him!

By the time I had reached the 8th grade, I had found the Oblates of St. Joseph through my older brother, Enrique, who had entered the minor seminary in Santa Cruz. My first contacts were with the Oblate Brothers who, like the Sisters and my parish priest before them, were very happy, joyful people! Surely, I thought, the religious life must be the source of their joy and I wanted that for myself. My story, as you can see, is not one of extraordinary experiences and overwhelming revelations but it is about extraordinary people and the quiet revelation that the Lord worked through them and their joy to call me to the religious life.