Tell us a little bit about you personally: Where are you from, your home parish, what’s your family like, etc.

My parish growing up was St. Columban in Loveland, OH. We lived in Loveland, but I went to school in the Kings School District for most of my life, graduating from Kings High School in 2010. I played a lot of sports growing up, but my main sport was baseball. I also started hunting and fishing when I was young, and still enjoy these today. I went to UC for undergrad and graduated in 2015 with a Business-Marketing Degree. My first job out of college was in outside sales in the dental industry. The job also relocated me to Arlington, VA. I lived in downtown Arlington and worked in the surrounding area from 2015 to 2017.

When did you first begin to discern your calling to the priesthood?

It was during my time living in Arlington, VA that I began discerning the priesthood. The year I moved into the area was the beginning of Pope Francis’ Extraordinary Year of Mercy. These extraordinary graces being poured out on the Church likely had a lot to do with the fact I went back to confession for the first time in many years a few months before the Extraordinary Year began. Upon receiving absolution, I had a powerful and life-changing encounter with God’s love and mercy. This powerful encounter set me on fire for practicing the faith I had grown up with. Almost immediately the idea of being a priest came to mind and over the next two years it grew. Thanks to help of some awesome priests, I discerned this to be the Lord’s call. After about two years of prayerful consideration, and thanks to the support of my family and friends I would end up applying to seminary.

Who has been a mentor for you along the way?

My dad has been the foundational piece in my life. Around the time I was in middle-school my dad went through a “reversion,” in which his practice of the faith began to intensify rather suddenly and fervently. Seeing the effect this had on my dad was pivotal in my own spiritual life. Any questions I might have had about the existence of God or the truth of the Catholic faith were dispelled as my dad became a living witness to both. About 10 years later I would join him in my own reversion to the faith.

Another mentor was the priest God worked through to initially inspire my vocation, Fr. James Searby. I first met Fr. Searby in Arlington where he was the Parochial Vicar at my parish. The first thing that struck me about Fr. James was that he was young and an incredibly talented person. He could probably be doing anything he wanted, but he was a priest. Not only was he a priest, but he also seemed to love being one! Fr. James was a powerful preacher, clearly loved Jesus and the Church, but was also very normal and was easy to hang out with. He was intensely passionate about many different things, but there was one thing that clearly animated his life, and that was Jesus. If you spent any time with Fr. James It would not take long to realize that if the opportunity presented itself, Fr. James would leave the 99 for the 1 every time, and not think twice. Thanks to Fr. James’ love of Jesus and zeal for the salvation of people, as well as him being a truly normal guy, answering God’s call was relatively easy.

Another mentor and close friend I’ve had is Fr. Chris Geiger. Fr. Geiger also played an instrumental role in me getting to seminary. As it became clear God was calling me back to serve in my home Archdiocese of Cincinnati, God put Fr. Chris in my life to keep me going in the right direction. I first heard about Fr. Chris from my parents. At the time, Fr. Chris was the Parochial Vicar at their parishes. They started telling me about this new young priest and his awesome homilies. They eventually also told Fr. Chris that their son in Virginia was discerning the priesthood and thinking about coming back to Cincinnati and Fr. Chris told them to have me reach out to him when I was home. I ended up meeting with him a few times for lunch over the next few months, which helped me continue to follow the Lord. I would end up living with Fr. Chris a few times on breaks the first two years of seminary. These were always great experiences and I learned a lot! Fr. Chris will be my homilist for my first Mass.

Lastly, all the Priests on faculty at the seminary have been mentors in their own ways. One thing that is obvious is that they all love Jesus and the Church and are striving to be good and holy priests. Having such great mentors will have a lasting effect on my life and ministry as a priest.

What are you looking forward to most about being a priest?

It’s hard to say one thing I am most looking forward to the most, as there are many things I am looking forward to. I would say, overall, I am looking forward to bringing the Light of Christ into a world that is dark and searching for the light. I am eternally grateful for what God has done in my life, and am looking forward to sharing this gift with others in whatever form the Lord chooses to work. Some things I am looking forward to specifically are celebrating Mass and hearing confessions. It sounds cliché, but these are really the two things that are most exciting to think about. Offering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and being a minister of God’s ministry of restoration in the confessional are two things I am looking forward to immensely.
I also look forward to just being present in the parish with the People of God. It has been a joy to have already met so many awesome people throughout the Archdiocese through various summer breaks (Milford, Anderson, and Logan County), as well as my awesome internship experience at St. Columbkille in Wilmington, OH. I look forward to continuing to get to know the People of God throughout the Archdiocese.

Do you have any particular favorite devotions or prayers?

Mental prayer, the Rosary, and the messages of Our Lady of Fatima are some of my favorite devotions. Mary has also been an important part of my spiritual life since coming back to my faith, and she remains a close maternal presence in my life.

What’s a hobby or activity you enjoy?

Anyone who knows me knows I like to hunt and fish, and generally just be in the woods. I always say, before I learned how to pray, I went fishing. Now I get to do both. Part of the fun of hunting involves doing habitat work such as clearing woods, cutting trees, planting food for the deer and planting tree, etc. This is something I also really enjoy, and a great way to connect with parishioners who share the same passion. Thanks to some acreage my family owns, I can get out and work in the woods regularly.

Anything else you’d like to share with the faithful of our archdiocese?

I am excited to serve the faith in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Keep me and my classmates in your prayers, that we would be Beacons of Light, shepherding God’s people to their eternal home in heaven.