Joseph Starkweather

As I was getting out of high school I began to fall in love with my Catholic faith.  Before, there was not much within myself that I recognized as Catholic except going to Mass with my dad on Sundays, and this I would have readily quit once I left the house.  However, with no expectation of my own, God would draw me to Himself and His Church.

I can point to four occurrences, in order, that guided my conversion: beginning to pray the rosary, encountering John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, finding out that Jesus Christ is physically present to us in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and consecrating myself to Jesus through Mary while on pilgrimage with the Militia of the Immaculatae Youth to World Youth Day in Toronto. 

My conversion, that is, Jesus’ gradual winning of my heart to Himself, has continued especially with frequent reception and adoration of the Eucharist.  It is during these intimate times, in being with Him after communion and quietly glorifying Christ in the Blessed Sacrament that I have heard what I believe is His invitation to complete donation of myself to God as a Catholic priest.
I credit John Paul II with bringing about my attraction to the priesthood.  He’d say, echoing Christ, that it is only in giving ourselves in love that we truly find ourselves.  He also described the priest’s marriage to the Church as a sign of heaven, where all the saints will be united with one another and with God in deep and lasting union.  I knew myself in those words.  I want to give myself totally to God and bring God and His healing and His love to people. 

For some time, following this vocation is something that I’ve known I would do, though I never seriously pursued it.  I would mention this inkling to close friends but never discuss it extensively.  In thinking about what I was going to do for work after college, an assurance would come to me that eventually I’d enter the priesthood.  In a couple of relationships within the last few years, I could never give myself fully because I knew that I needed to follow this vocation.

Last August Father Phil Massetti and Brother John Shearer of the Oblates of St. Joseph came to my parish in Merced for a mission appeal, and I realized that these thoughts of becoming a priest could become reality.  I met Brother John after Mass, and he asked me if I ever considered being a priest.  I told him that I had, but it was something I’d pursue in five or ten years, once I had more experience in the world.  He asked me what was holding me back from going now, and I had no answer.  He encouraged me to follow God’s call while I hear it.  As I drove home that day, an excitement and joy, that I can’t remember having experienced before, swelled up within me.  To think: I could really become God’s priest!  From then I followed up with the Oblates, completed the application, and now I find myself typing my vocation story.

I was attracted to the Oblates for a few reasons: I know them to be faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church and to boldly proclaim them; they’re close to my home; I’ve always loved St. Joseph and have trusted him to raise me to become a good man; I was intrigued by St. Joseph Marello’s conception of a balance between the contemplative and active life; also, I have arrived here by following some signs, such as coming upon Nigerian Oblates in a sea of a million people during World Youth Day in Germany.

Any doubts?  Sure.  Am I sure I don’t want to get married?  Am I sure I’m in the right place? 

My response is to ask God what he wants, to give Him myself and to let Him work on me, to be attentive to His voice and ready to follow.  Someone told me one time that the best way to find out if one has a vocation to the priesthood is to go enter the seminary and there you will know if the life suits you.  I’m glad to be here, following God and finding out.