|
|  | |
| Fr. Gregory Francis Heslip | |
 |
From a very young age, I discovered that life
is a gift and all that I am and have
received are from someone else. God created me and my
parents always helped me to see that He had a
plan for me. Seeking out God´s plan for me is
the most important thing in life because this plan
is surely what I will do best and it will
make me happiest, very contrary to what we breath,
learn and live in our modern day society. These
words of wisdom were coming from a man and woman
who were told they would not be able to
have children… and brought into this world fourteen children.
I was born on October 31, 1980,
in Howell, Michigan. I am number eleven. As if it was
not exciting enough to have so many brothers and
sisters, just imagine that of the fourteen children, ten
were boys. My father worked for several years with Ford
as a mechanic and then became owner and manager
of two Midas Muffler and Brake shops. My mother was
home taking care of us. Mom and Dad always did
their best to teach us the faith and help
us to be good Catholics, above all with their
example. We all went to a good, private Catholic school, which
was no small sacrifice for such a numerous family.
We went out to eat about once a year,
on Mother´s Day, so that mom could have a break
from cooking. We never knew a new car and
the most common place for solving clothing needs was the
closet or drawers of an older brother or sister.
Did this make me jealous of my friends who
came from much smaller families and had all new things
in abundance? Yes, but as life went on, this
changed. I would never change such a beautiful family
experience!
Priesthood as a Possibility
Even though I grew up in a
Catholic family, the idea of the priesthood was not that
present. I knew my parish priest who was elderly and
at the point of retirement and I knew the
priest who celebrated daily mass at the private, Catholic school,
St. Thomas More Academy in Burton, Michigan, which I
attended, but never had the opportunity to speak with
them. It was not until I got to know a younger
priest from the Legionaries of Christ, Fr Lorenzo, that
the idea of the priesthood became a possibility for
me. For the first time, I got to know a
priest outside of Mass and saw that they are
normal, like the rest of us, and that they
do everything out of love and desire to respond to
God´s love. By the age of eight, God started
to show me the beauty of the priesthood through the
testimony of several young Legionary priests. On the other
side, my dreams for the future became more
numerous: professional football player, doctor, any big, money making career
and last of all the priesthood. But this last
one stood out. Why? The priesthood had nothing to do with
money. Priesthood is about living for others and their
needs, living for Christ and what He wants. This seemed much
more heroic, much more generous and so it would
probably bring much more happiness.
Christ´s Call
As my family got to know the Legionaries,
my older brother Tom and I began to get involved
in different youth activities that they organized. From the age
of ten to fourteen, I was very active in
the boys´ youth group. I participated in several spiritual retreats,
door to door missions, helped out at soup kitchens of
the Sisters of Charity and visited the minor seminary
and novitiate of the Legion of Christ in New
Hampshire and Connecticut. When I was eleven, my older brother,
Tom, entered the minor seminary of the Legionaries in Cheshire,
Connecticut. His decision had great influence on me since he
was the closest in age of my older brothers.
This was another motivation for visiting the seminary several
times and that really moved me to think about the
vocation to the priesthood more seriously. My brother only
stayed in the seminary for two years and then,
before entering the novitiate, decided God was not calling
him to the priesthood and returned home. This made me
reflect a lot about what I was going to
do with my life. Was God calling me to the
priesthood? The fact that my brother gave it a shot, even
|
|  | |
| Fr Gregory in 2009 giving a Gospel reflection to a group of pilgrims during a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee in the Holy Land. | |
|
though it wasn´t for him, in the end helped
me to see that I should give God a chance.
I attended World Youth Day in Denver, Colorado in
August of 1993, and after hearing the words of
Pope John Paul II, I was convinced I had to
give God a chance to see if He was
calling me to the priesthood. The decision was to wait
until high school like my older brother had done.
From August of 1993 until August
of 1995, when I entered the minor seminary of
Legionaries, I continued to be active in the boys´ youth
club. These were two years in which I had
to renew my decision to enter the seminary many times
but I always found special strength in moments of
adoration and on weekend retreats. I will never forget one
adoration in which God spoke to my heart in
a very special way and gave me the grace and
strength in order to leave behind my family so
as to enter the seminary. I attended a weekend retreat
in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and as usual, there was a
sign-up sheet for those who wanted to do adoration. Normally
the shifts lasted about ten minutes, but for some
reason, the one scheduled to go after me never showed
up. I ended up staying for about half-an-hour. I did not
realize how much time had gone by. For a fourteen
year-old that is not a short time. I remember asking
Christ if he was calling me to the priesthood and
if so, to show me because it would be
very hard to leave home. I remember crying for a
moment because something inside told me He was asking this
of me and it was not going to be
easy. Could God ask this much from a fourteen year-old?
This was the spring of 1995.
Finally in
August of that year, I went to the summer program
for the minor seminary of the Legion of Christ. This
was a moment to get a taste of the life
in the minor seminary so as to decide if
I would stay. I knew I was young and still
had a lot of maturing to do and so even
before I started the summer program I had decided
I would stay for the whole school year so as
to give God some real time to show me
His plans.
The Best of Both Worlds: Which Did God
Want of Me?
After two years in
the minor seminary, I finished high school at the
age of sixteen. These were two years in which I
continued in my search to find what God wanted of
me. At the end of this period, I still wasn´t
sure but decided to continue on to the novitiate. This
is a period of intensified prayer or the “university”
where you get to know Christ. I needed to
give God more time because I was still young and
wanted to be sure to do God´s will and
not my own. My two years of novitiate continued to
be a struggle.
Before
entering the seminary, some of my older brothers and sisters
got married and several times I would baby-sit for
my nieces and nephews. I saw the beauty of forming
a family and how they were very happy. This experience created
in me a deep longing for matrimony which I
thought I could never set aside. I spent a lot
of time with my spiritual director and even more time
in prayer. Was the strong attraction for the married life
a sign from God that I was not called
to the priesthood or was it something completely normal? It
seemed God had shown me the best of both worlds,
matrimony and the priesthood, and I wanted both. Finally, at
the end of my two years of novitiate I
still was not sure what to do. Before making my first
profession of religious vows I wanted to be sure
God was calling me because for me the profession
was a serious commitment, one which would be for life
even if officially it was a commitment for 3
years. With the spiritual guidance of Fr Anthony, who had
helped many young men discern their vocation, I was finally
able to see that my strong attraction to matrimony
did not mean God was not calling me to
the priesthood. For the first time, it was possible to see
that this attraction was so strong simply because it
was what I wanted. Would I be willing to give
it up so as to live completely for God?
Finally, a day before entering an
eight day silent retreat in preparation for the profession
of vows, I placed everything in God´s hands. I told God
that yes, I would follow Him because I thought
the priesthood was what He was asking of me.
After giving Him my, “yes,” a great peace filled my
heart. I had been looking for this peace for
four years already. I made my first profession of vows
on September 4, 1999. Since then, twelve years have passed by
in preparation for my priestly ordination and never once
have I doubted the call of God. Yes, there
have been difficulties, but these are moments to grow which
we all have to pass through in all walks
of life. How is it possible that from one day
to another, after four years of continual doubting, I was
suddenly convinced God was calling me? This is the great
mystery of God´s call. One must be willing to
spend valuable time in prayer with an attentive heart so
that God may speak with His love. God can
only speak if we are truly willing to listen
and He will only reveal His will to us when
we are ready to receive it. For four years I
struggled to discern God´s will, but God only spoke
to my heart when I was ready to accept His
will. These were four necessary years in which God prepared
me, little by little, to embrace His will for my
life.
God has shown me the best
of both worlds, something which not all young men have
experienced. I know God allowed this so as to prepare
me for my future as a priest and I
can never be thankful enough for this experience.
FR GREGORY FRANCIS
HESLIP was born October 31, 1980 in Howell, Michigan. He
attended St. Thomas More Academy in Burton, Michigan, for grade
school and junior high. He entered the minor seminary of
the Legionaries of Christ in August of 1995, at the
age of fourteen. From 1997 to 1999, he did his
novitiate in Cheshire, Connecticut. He went to Rome, Italy to
study philosophy in 2000. After two years, he was sent
back to Cheshire, Connecticut, for apostolic internship: three years as
a formator of novices and a fourth year as formator
of minor seminarians during the founding year of Sacred Heart
Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. In 2006, he returned
to Rome to complete a master��s degree in philosophy and
studied theology. He was ordained a deacon on July 2,
2011. Now he is studying for a master��s degree in
theology while helping
as a formator in the Legion’s Center
for Higher Studies in Rome.
Los testimonios vocacionales de los legionarios de Cristo que
recibieron la ordenación sacerdotal en el año 2011 han sido
publicados en el libro "Dios lo da todo". |
Do you wish to addCalled to Life: Experiencing the Best of Both Worlds to your favorites?