Tom Venzor
Pre-Theology I
Hello, I am Tom Venzor. I hail from the booming metropolis of Schuyler, Nebraska. My home parish is St. Mary's/St. Augustine's in Schuyler. I have, for the past 8 years been regularly attending the Life Teen Mass on Sunday nights and it has really helped to inspire my faith!
I feel that my call to the priesthood has been a lifelong evolution, a progression that has been slowly manifesting itself into my thick skull. Furthermore, I never really started paying attention to the calling and actually praying about the calling until my senior year of college when I was starting to realize that my life and the things I was doing were leading me closer and closer to a vocation of the priesthood!
At the current moment, as I write this, I have been at the seminary for only two days, but what I like most is the fraternal bonding! The atmosphere reminds me of a passage in Holy Scripture that states "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone" (1 Corinthians 10:13); there is no reason to be fearful or pretentious of those around you because we are all in the same boat arduously traveling against the common tread of our culture, attempting to live a life of humility, chastity, and obedience.
My words of encouragement would be to take time to pray the Holy Scripture, lectio divina. It really gives you a new insight to what God has to say to you and don't forget to pray to the Blessed Mother for intercession. Also, make sure you talk to good priests about the ups and downs of the priesthood and, just as important, talk to seminarians about what it is like to be a seminarian in today's world.
I just graduated from Doane College this spring and now I embark on a new journey. While at Doane, I got my undergraduate degree in Political Science, Religious Studies, and Philosophy. Please pray for me and remember to pray for good holy priests.
