Hometown: Madison, WI
Year in Formation: Temporarily Professed – 2nd Year in Vows
High School: Madison Memorial High School (Madison, Wisconsin), 2003
College: University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN), 2007
College Major: Political Science
Graduate School: University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, IN), 2014
Graduate Degree: M.Ed.
Previous Jobs: Theology teacher at Bishop Kelley High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma; Political Assistant at National Right to Life in Washington, D.C.
Patron Saint: St. Thomas More. He integrated humanism and Catholicism during tumultuous times, and bravely witnessed to the truth of the faith.
Favorite Movie: A Man for All Seasons, Dunkirk, O Brother Where Art Thou, Napoleon Dynamite
Favorite Books: The Brothers Karamazovby Fyodor Dostoyesvky, The Divine Comedyby Dante Alighieri, The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, After Virtueby Alasdair MacIntyre
Favorite Music: The Hamilton soundtrack, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Matt Maher
Hobbies: Cycling, hiking, camping, running, cooking, reading, writing, following politics
Your Discernment Story: Around my First Communion, I started wondering whether God might be calling me to be a priest. My confirmation and then my undergrad years at Notre Dame kept this question alive. During my senior year, I joined the Holy Cross vocations pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. It was there I received a powerful and prayerful (yet perplexing!) sense of vocation to the priesthood. God was very patient with me; rather than actively pursuing this call further, I went to work in Washington, D.C., after graduation.
But this persistent tug on my heart never went away. I spent some time as a novice at a Benedictine monastery, but it was not the place for me. Then I taught for eight years at a Catholic high school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, all the while growing in important ways. It was there, in 2019, that I received from God the interior freedom I had sought to return to active discernment of priesthood and religious life. And now, in a way I have returned to where I started: to the community and the ministry of Holy Cross, where I am even now growing as a man with hope to bring. Thanks be to God!
Ways that you resonate with the Holy Cross charism, “Educators in the Faith”: Teaching the faith through the Alliance for Catholic Education has brought me great joy and has inspired me to discern with the Congregation of Holy Cross. I love that Holy Cross schools awaken and deepen the faith of some of the most capable young men and women in the world, and I hope to be a part of that ministry someday.
One aspect of Holy Cross spirituality that speaks to you the most and why: The Cross as our only hope does speak to me, since I realize more and more how the “world” does not save us. I also better appreciate how Divine Providence is at work in our lives and the life of our community. Our hard work reflects our good zeal, but ultimately it is God’s grace at work in our lives that brings us together and saves us.
Favorite Quote: “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” – John 10:10
Favorite Bl. Basil or St. André Quote: “Love causes love.” – Bl. Basil Moreau