April 5, 2008
Seminarians reflect on how they discerned their call to priesthood
By Susan Laird
Herald correspondent
Editor’s note: Thirty men are currently studying for the priesthood as seminarians for the Diocese of Sacramento. Below are profiles of two of the seminarians.
Michael Ritter: An ‘ongoing conversation with God’
Michael Ritter, who is studying theology at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, processes into the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Sacramento as an altar server at a Christmas Eve Mass in 2006.
“Hearing the call to the priesthood is like falling in love,” said Michael Ritter, a first year theology student at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park. “When God calls you, you can’t resist.”
A native of Carmichael, Ritter grew up in a Catholic home, the second of four siblings. He grew up in Rocklin and graduated from Rocklin High School in 2002. He regularly attended Mass and religious education classes at Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Rocklin.
While attending junior high school, Ritter began attending discernment retreats with the Oblates of St. Joseph at Mount St. Joseph Seminary in Loomis. There he met Oblate Father Brian Crawford, who was the vocation director at the time. Father Crawford mentored Ritter.
“My mom attends First Friday Mass and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament every month, and I went with her,” Ritter said. “It was in attending eucharistic adoration and the sacrament of reconciliation that I really felt called to become a priest.”
Ritter spent nine months discerning his vocation as a novice at Mount St. Joseph’s Monastery in San Jose.
“I loved the Carmelite spirituality, but I felt the place for my gifts was in the parish,” he said. “I have a strong desire to be with people, and I like the spontaneity of parish life. It works with my sense of humor, too.”
With a vocation as a diocesan priest in mind, Ritter completed his undergraduate philosophy studies at Mount Angel Seminary in Oregon in 2007. At St. Patrick’s Seminary, he is pursuing a master’s degree in divinity as well as a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology. He has at four more years of preparation for the priesthood.
When asked how others have responded to his calling to the priesthood, Ritter said that when God calls, the criticisms don’t matter – and that he has received lots of encouragement.
“There’s tremendous support for me from my family, the parish community and the priests who’ve been in my life,” he said. “And even in the struggle, that’s when you are close to Christ.”
Ritter looks forward to becoming a minister of the sacraments, especially being able to preside at the Eucharist, hearing confessions, anointing the sick and witnessing marriages. What he looks forward to most, in the context of the sacraments, is the opportunity to be with God’s people and walk with them. A priest experiences the fullness of life and God’s grace with his people in all its joy, in all its sorrow, he said.
“One of the challenges today is that the church is growing culturally and in numbers – with so few priests,” he said. “I see a priest as someone who is available to the people. I want to be available. I want to be able to say, ‘Hey, when you need me, I’m here for you.’”
Ritter prays that he might be able to make Christ present to people the way the priests in his life have made Christ present to him. He encourages others to pray for vocations.
“We need men who love God’s people and who love the church,” he said. “At this point in our culture, there is a great need for great witnesses. Vocations have to be fostered by the parish and the community. If God is inviting us, his people have to send out the invitations.”
Ritter’s advice for those considering the priesthood as a vocation is to “talk about it.”
“Seek some guidance,” he said. “God is not outdone in generosity. God has not left you alone – nor will he. Entering the seminary is not the end. It’s a beginning. What does God want, but that we choose him. He loves us so very much.
“If you give God one inch, He’ll give you a mile,” he added. “Create a space in your life for him and you will never lose.”
Mathew Olson: Hearing a call to serve God’s people
Mathew Olson is in his first year of studies for the priesthood at Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Ore., where he is shown on his first day of school last fall.
“Nosce te ipsum.”
These words in Latin translate to “Know thyself.” The maxim is prominently displayed at Mount Angel Seminary in St. Benedict, Ore., where Mathew Olson is engaged in his first year of studies for the priesthood.
To the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, to “know thyself” meant to strive for the ideal of understanding one’s behavior, morals and thought. At Mount Angel, Olson and his classmates are in the process of seminary formation – a process that enables the individual to accurately view his life academically, pastorally, spiritually and as a human being.
The formation process helps the seminarian to see where changes are needed, to set goals for those changes and to take action on those plans that will see results.
“At seminary, it’s not really a ‘training course’ on how to become a priest,” Olson said. “It’s a process of growth as an individual to be a good, solid Christian man – who can then become a good, solid priest.”
Olson was born in Anaheim, Calif. and grew up the oldest of two children in Elk Grove. He attended both St. Joseph and Good Shepherd parishes in Elk Grove and his family continues to be active in various ministries at St. Joseph, while Olson is currently a parishioner at St. Joseph Parish in Clarksburg. Olson felt a calling to the priesthood as a small child. He was fascinated by the Eucharist and the priests in his life who set a good example to him by their love of God and their service to others.
“Msgr. Albert O’Connor (former pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Elk Grove) was a tremendous role model to me,” he said. “To me, he represented just what a parish priest should be.”
The calling to the priesthood faded somewhat in junior high school, but was to resurface dramatically during his sophomore year in high school in 2005.
“I was shot after leaving a basketball game at Arco Arena with my family,” Olson said. “A member of a gang just started shooting into the crowd. I still have the bullet lodged in my spine. Doctors say it’s a miracle I wasn’t paralyzed.”
During his hospitalization as he was heavily medicated for pain, Olson kept asking for a priest.
“I don’t remember a lot of that part, but my parents said that’s when I kept asking for Msgr. O’Connor,” he said.
Msgr. O’Connor came to the hospital, and Olson received the anointing of the sick and the Eucharist.
“It was during that time during my recovery at the hospital that I knew I wanted to become a priest,” Olson recalled. “I knew that I would want to be able to give someone, like myself, that hope and care when giving the sacraments. People today are hungry for the sacraments and the love of Christ, and there need to be young men who are willing to help them. As a seminarian, I am forming myself every day so that I may better serve God and his people.”
He chose to write a report on the priesthood as a career for the Manufacturing Production Technology Academy at his high school during my junior year. “Father Brian Atienza at St. Joseph Parish in Elk Grove spent a lot of time answering my questions and helping me discern,” he said.
His fellow students in the class of 2007 at Laguna Creek High in Elk Grove were impressed by Olson’s calling – so much so that two color pages in the 2007 yearbook are dedicated to him. “What drives Mat most to becoming a priest is helping the people who ask for his service,” it reads.
Olson is one of several young men at Mount Angel who are discerning their vocations to the priesthood for the Sacramento Diocese.
“It’s fun to be with other young men who are learning to become men who can become priests,” Olson said. “You know you are not alone.”
The young seminarian is an academic leader in his class, pursuing a double major in philosophy and literature. Olson is also a leader in his class’ academic counsel and the seminary’s art and environment committee. He plays guitar in the Irish Band, sings tenor in the traditional schola choir and coaches a competitive swim team in the community.
Because of his leadership and involvement, Olson is one of nine men selected to represent the seminary during the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to New York later this month.
Olson recommends that those considering a call to the priesthood pray, speak with a priest and go on a religious retreat. He also recommends reading “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas à Kempis.
Ultimately to understand oneself is to be able to relate to and understand others. As he continues to grow in his formation, Olson says his respect for the priesthood and all it entails has grown. He doesn’t take it for granted. He knows that he has eight more years of learning ahead of him, should the call to the priesthood continue. He wants to be used by God to make a difference.
“The priest gives himself up for the people,” he said. “We’re looking for Christ’s face in everyone we meet. We need priests who aren’t afraid to preach the truth to a secularized generation of people.
“If I get to become a priest, the most inspiring thing for me will be to baptize a kid, hear his or her first confession, see his or her first Communion and eventual confirmation, and then be there for their marriage. Or perhaps I will be there for their calling to the priesthood or religious life — to be a part of inspiring some little kid, just as I was inspired.”
