How and when did you hear the "call" to become a priest?
I know this sounds like a wise-guy answer, but it's not. I knew I wanted to be a priest maybe four or five years after I was ordained. It takes a while to figure out what it is and how you fit into it. It's the experience that makes a difference. It's like a couple marching down the aisle with rice in their hair. They really don't know what married life is about, but after a while they can say, 'I really do want to be married to this person for the rest of my life'.
What were the early experiences in your life that drew you to the priesthood?
I came from a huge, mainly Irish Catholic parish in Brooklyn. I respected the parish priests very much, I was an altar boy and involved in parish activities. But I never felt that strong a desire to be a diocesan priest. But at Brooklyn Prep, with the Jesuit staff that they had there, I said, "This is something I'd like to be part of." They had many scholastics - Jesuits who are not ordained, but teaching - and they provided a model for something to pursue after high school.
I know this sounds like a wise-guy answer, but it's not. I knew I wanted to be a priest maybe four or five years after I was ordained. It takes a while to figure out what it is and how you fit into it. It's the experience that makes a difference. It's like a couple marching down the aisle with rice in their hair. They really don't know what married life is about, but after a while they can say, 'I really do want to be married to this person for the rest of my life'.
What were the early experiences in your life that drew you to the priesthood?
I came from a huge, mainly Irish Catholic parish in Brooklyn. I respected the parish priests very much, I was an altar boy and involved in parish activities. But I never felt that strong a desire to be a diocesan priest. But at Brooklyn Prep, with the Jesuit staff that they had there, I said, "This is something I'd like to be part of." They had many scholastics - Jesuits who are not ordained, but teaching - and they provided a model for something to pursue after high school.
Link (here) to the full interview with Fr. Richard A. Blake, S.J. in the Boston College Chronicle.
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