Recruitment Day

Yesterday was 'recruitment day' at church. I believe that the Catholic Church technically calls it "Vocation Sunday". Basically, it is the Sunday that during the homily, the priest speaks to the young people of the parish about considering a vocation of priesthood or other religious life and at the same time trying to encourage the parents of these 'young people' to not freak out if their child is called to such a vocation.

Anyway, the priest that celebrated the mass was a visiting priest and he was fabulous! He was a young, down-to-earth, dynamic speaker and I really, really enjoyed his homily. I wish he was a permanent priest at our parish!! His homily was basically about his journey into priesthood. Let me tell you, it was quite a journey. He came from a family with a Baptist mother and a Methodist father, but went to a Catholic HS because they had a good baseball team, he went to college in the "Bible Belt" at the University of Mississippi, then he played minor league baseball for the White Sox, but it didn't work out so he became an actuary.

An ACTUARY!!!

How funny is that?!?! The priest actually laughed and asked if their were any actuaries in the congregation because usually there is one or two. Do you think my actuary/husband raised his hand...NOPE...not on your life. He did turn about 4 shades of red though so, anyone could have guessed. LOL!

The priest's story got even funnier because he said that he was soooooooo BORED with being an actuary that he quit his job and went into the SEMINARY!!! LOL...I've heard a lot of actuary jokes before, but that is a new one even for me!!

On the way out of church, I told Spencer that it is really a good thing that we were not dating when he heard that priest's inspirational story. If he would have known that baseball lovin' protestant actuaries could enjoy an exciting life as a priest, I could have found myself in a head-to-head competition for Spencer with the 'big man upstairs'. ;)

As far as the influence that the homily had on my little boys....Ben, Jack and Drew missed the homily because they were at the childrens' liturgy and I can tell you that Charlie was unmoved by the dynamic priest. Well, maybe "unmoved" is the wrong word because he was "moving" a lot...just not about what the priest was saying. I think our potential for having a lot of granchildren is still very high!!