May 29, 2008

Ordination of Newest Priest to be June 7

Seminarian Deacon Dennis Schenkel will be ordained a priest for the Diocese of Memphis on June 7. The following is an article written by Schenkel describing his journey to the priesthood.

By Deacon Dennis Schenkel

Seminarian, Diocese of Memphis

Though I waited until my mid-thirties to begin seminary, on some level I have known my whole life that I should become a priest. My own experience of being around priests who were good, holy men, in love with Jesus Christ, led me to see priesthood as a special role in the life of the Church.

The priests I knew growing up were excited about the Gospel. They brought us the sacraments, and they were good, trustworthy advisers. While priests do not marry or start their own families, they are part of every family.

Priests share the privilege of being an intimate part of all the most important passages in people's lives, from welcoming a new child into the world, to helping a young couple prepare to start a new life together, to helping a family grieve the loss of a loved one, bringing light and hope to these moments of grace.

For me, the desire to become a priest started when I was still young. My mother worked as a bookkeeper at St. Michael, where we went to church. My father, now the soccer coach at St. Benedict, had his own business, and he set his own hours. He was always a dad first and a business-owner second.

The values they modeled, that family and faith came first, had a huge impact on me and my two brothers growing up.

It was during my years at Memphis Catholic High School that I first noticed a desire to become a priest. However, in college at the University of Memphis, I decided to pursue a career as a teacher, delaying more serious vocational discernment.

I taught first in the Catholic schools of our Diocese, and later in the Shelby County Schools, and eventually left teaching to work for a computer networking company, where I learned a few things about business and about working with people to get things done. Since college, I had been a member of St. Louis parish, and part of the music ministry there.

In 2000, at the diaconate ordination of my high school classmate, Father Michael Werkhoven, I felt the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart, reminding me of the desire I had as a youth. Afterwards, during the reception, when more than half a dozen people approached me and asked me why I had not yet become a priest, I decided to talk to the Vocations Director. That day was like running into an old sweetheart, my vocation to priesthood, and suddenly remembering all the things I liked about her. Not only that, she was even more attractive now than she was those many years earlier.

In 2003 I entered seminary, and since then I have had the chance to study, to pray, to learn, to grow. It has honestly been the best thing I have ever done. And now I look forward, with the rest of the Church, to the day of my ordination as a priest on Saturday, June 7.