I have been a priest for the Diocese of Rochester for 36 years.  My journey to the priesthood was a journey that I had not expected.  I had gone to college to study accounting but after receiving a BS degree from the College of Business at RIT, I realized I wanted something else.  I just did not know what!

 After graduation I was drafted and served in the U. S. Army for two years.  But during that time I began wondering what God had in store for me.   The influence of family and friends who had experienced God’s grace and spirit stirred up in me a desire to seek God more deeply in my life.  After serving in the Army I accepted a job as a Produce Manager in a grocery store where I had worked during my college years.   I vowed to myself to do that job for at least a year while I was discerning in what direction my future was pointing. 

I began to realize that I had never asked God what I should do with my life!  So I began to seek God‘s will for me.  I believed God could see more clearly than I!   Soon I began attending a Charismatic prayer group and was touched by God’s grace through many experiences I began to have and the faith-filled people I encountered.  I now believe that even though I had not expected my journey to lead to the priesthood, God had planned it all along!