Fr. Brian Crawford, OSJ

Can God call someone to a religious congregation before that person is even aware that the congregation exists? That was my experience! God made his call known to me for the first time when I was twelve years old and living in St. Louis, Missouri. I felt the call through the friendly and caring disposition of the new associate pastor at the Parish/School I was attending. His name was Fr. Jim and he was young, vibrant and interested in knowing if I wanted to be a priest. From the moment he made that invitation, posed that question, I thought of nothing else. I told my parents, my brothers and sister, my friends, anyone who would listen (and even those who would rather not!) that I was going to be a priest. What had not been made clear to me as of yet, though I did not know it, was what sort of priest. 

See, since Fr. Jim was a priest in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, I thought I would be a diocesan priest as well. Truth is I did not know there was any difference. Priests were priests and that was all I knew. Sure, some of them wore robes, others just a collar, but as far as I was concerned, they were all the same: humble, simple men who lived and worked together to help people know and love God more, especially in celebrating mass. This was the picture of the priest that I had in my mind and, I believe, that God had planted there. That picture came to life for me when I met the Oblates of St. Joseph for the first time…but not in St. Louis. It was only when my father was reassigned by the Air Force to California that God made clear to me what sort of priest he wanted me to be: an Oblate of St. Joseph. 

It was in California, when I was looking for a high school seminary to attend, that I encountered the OSJ and saw that image of the priest God had given me come to life. I discovered that the Oblates, at that time (in long off 1980!), were sending their seminarians for studies to the same Jesuit High School in Sacramento that I had been attending for two years! The seminary itself was located in Loomis and who knew where that was! My father (a navigator in the AF, so accomplished in such things) found out where it was and we travelled up (since it is in the foothills) to see what it was like. Well, we arrived, I got out of the car, and something inside of me said, “This is home”. I met my first Oblates, Bro. Francis Sues, Fr. John Warburton, Fr. Arnold Ortiz, Fr. Phil Massetti and each one of them showed that image of the priest that God had planted in me: humble, uncomplicated men who were dedicated to serving God and the church. In almost every room there was a picture of some man, who turned out to be St. Joseph Marello, the founder of the OSJ. In all of the pictures, what impressed me was his peaceful and loving smile, a man, I thought, who knows who he is and is comfortable with that.  

In short, everything about Mt. St. Joseph Seminary in Loomis and the Oblates of St. Joseph told me that God wanted me to be a part of this group of men. It was, and is, a great feeling to know that I am seeking to be and do who God has created me to be and what God has created me to do. As I seek to be faithful to that call of God (with both successes and failures), there is one thing that always keeps me going and striving to be even more faithful and it is that same image of the priest. It had not left me because God has not left me. God used a priest in another place and in another circumstance to begin to make known to me my vocation. That priest, Fr. Jim, was the first to bring forth that image and it was brought to full relief for me and presented to me in the Oblates of St. Joseph, a congregation of men that I did not know at the time, but God knew them and God knew he wanted me to be part of them. Thanks be to God that he let me know it as well!