Hometown: St. Louis, MO
Year in Formation: Deacon
High School: Chaminade College Prep. (St. Louis, MO), 2012
College: Missouri University of Science and Technology (Rolla, MO), 2016
College Major: Chemical Engineering
Graduate School: University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN)
Graduate Degree: M.Div.
Previous Jobs: Inside Sales Applications Engineer, Vanco (Tulsa, OK)
Patron Saint: St. Joseph, because of his quiet hiddeness and humility in service to God.
Favorite Movie: The Princess Bride
Favorite Books: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Favorite Music: Pinback
Hobbies: Reading, calligraphy, board games, lockpicking
Most Memorable Prayer/Liturgy you have Attended: Midnight Christmas Mass at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Brentwood, Missouri
Place of Pilgrimage you Most Want to Visit and why: I would love to make a pilgrimage to Le Mans to visit the birthplace of Holy Cross and venerate the tomb of our founder, Blessed Basil Moreau.
Favorite Way to Pray: Lectio divina
Favorite Devotion: Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows
What Drew you to Holy Cross: I was drawn to Holy Cross by the profound vision of religious life and ministry of our founder, Blessed Basil Moreau. He saw Holy Cross as a family of vowed religious, modeled after the Holy Family, committed to imitating the life and example of Jesus Christ and educating others in that same life. I felt called to share that life of trying to know, love, and serve God — and to share in that mission to make God known, loved, and served.
Your Vocation Story: During my senior year of college, I was looking toward getting a job as an engineer in the hopes of starting a family. Through prayer about where God was leading me for the future, I was led to see the priesthood as a real option. I started having conversations with people and praying about the priesthood, and someone told me about the Congregation of Holy Cross. After looking at the Congregation online and reading the Essential Writings of their founder, Blessed Basil Moreau, I felt drawn to their charism and to Moreau’s vision of what it meant to be a Christian and a religious. Six years later, formation has helped me to grow in so many ways, and God has utterly transformed my relationship with him. I now look forward to professing final vows and ordination to the priesthood with joy and wonder, hoping to live faithfully this blessed calling.
Ways that you resonate with the Holy Cross charism, “Educators in the Faith”: I feel a call to help people and society to grow to the image of God that we were made to be. Blessed Basil Moreau teaches us that our mission of education in the faith is the task of forming the person of Christ in others. I see our work of education as a building up of others and the world in Christ helping us to more fully live the divine life of love that we are called to.
One aspect of Holy Cross spirituality that speaks to you the most and why: Imitate Christ – Blessed Basil Moreau teaches us that the spiritual life we are called to as Christians and especially religious is one of radical and total imitation of the life of Christ until we can say with St. Paul, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.” Our life and prayer as Holy Cross religious helps us to grow into this reality, which then helps us to witness to and share it with others.
Favorite Verse: “You seduced me God, and I let myself be seduced.” – Jeremiah 20:7
Favorite Quote: “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.” – G.K. Chesterton
Favorite Bl. Basil or St. André Quote: “The spirit of prayer is a sort of gravitation towards God by frequent longings, by the loving practice of the presence of God, and by the regular renewal of right intention in all one’s behavior.” – Blessed Basil Moreau, Rules
How can visitors to this page pray for you? Pray for me and my class as we prepare for final profession and ordination, that we may be faithful to our calling as religious and priests in the Congregation of Holy Cross.