Fr. Craig and Fr. David discuss signs from God, how we can prepare for them, and what signs might indicate a calling to the priesthood.

Subscribe to the Men of the Hearts Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google, or Spotify.

(0:59) Fr. Craig and Fr. David share updates from the past month. Fr. David mentions the snow chapel Divine Child built and the outdoor Mass they held, and Fr. Craig shares that the Vocations Office has started making sweatshirts, mugs, water bottles, and other merchandise. Fr. Craig also talks about the idea he’s had to use his artwork as a visual way to explain what vocations are. Fr. David also gives us a monthly Costco update!

(8:14) Fr. Craig introduces this episode’s topic: the signs we receive from God. He reflects on the goodness of a push in the right direction from God, but also the risk we run of almost testing him. Fr. David talks about the stories of Zachariah and Mary, the basis of the incredulity each one felt when visited by the angel, and, as a result, the different outcomes of their responses.

(11:42) Fr. Craig reflects on Mary’s fiat as a vocation and considers artistic depictions of the Annunciation in which she is always reading scripture, preparing herself for whatever is to come. He and Fr. David both share experiences of times in their lives when they’d been asking for signs, maybe even testing the Lord a little.

(16:10) The two reflect on the need to, like Mary, be prepared when you receive a sign, because the sign is just a guide or instruction, not a full description of what’s supposed to happen. Fr. Craig discusses the need for relationship in following the signs that God has set.

(19:42) Fr. David talks about his life before applying to the seminary. He mentions his family praying the Rosary together, jobs he worked in high school, and his relationship with the Bible helping him to hear God’s voice. He also mentions choosing St. Matthew as his confirmation saint for Matthew’s immediate response to Jesus’s call.

(22:30) Fr. Craig reflects on the small signs we tend to miss, and how common this is when men are considering priesthood. A notable sign that Fr. Craig and Fr. David mention is the frequency of others telling them they’d make a good priest. They share some of their reactions when people would say this.

(29:28) Fr. David and Fr. Craig share that individuals who want to support the mission of vocations can do so by telling men they’d make good priests, and that this action can help people share in the graces of those priests. They relate this to St. Therese of Lisieux, who never traveled but is the patron of missionaries because of her intercessory prayer. They swap stories of others who are praying for them and discuss the power of prayer not only for priests but also for vocations.

(33:11) The two consider more signs that drew them to the priesthood, and Fr. Craig reflects on being attracted to the Church and being interested in being in and around her. They look at this especially through the lens of being altar servers.

(37:10) Fr. Craig shares a story of a grand, miraculous sign the Lord showed him that led him to eventually apply to Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He affirms, too, that God can work in big ways, but he usually moves in the everyday.

(42:42) Fr. David shares the sign God gave him in the form of complete peace that helped him fully realize that he wanted to be a diocesan priest rather than a religious order priest. The two discuss the joy of seeing priests as real people, and the grace that comes from being in the seminary with a hundred other men with the same interest.

(46:38) Both Fr. Craig and Fr. David affirm that the seminary is still time for more discernment and no one has to have the whole plan figured out in order to take the next step, but that everyone they know who attended the seminary — whether they became priests or not — remembers the formation fondly. They reflect on the great faculty and formatters at Sacred Heart, and that the Church is discerning your vocation as well.