Visit mosaic.shms.edu to watch an interview with
Deacons Todd and Garry.
Father Bill walk off alone “with his fancy book with the
ribbons” to pray the Liturgy of the Hours. Gary was watching
his uncle from the front steps of the house when suddenly the
thought came to him: “Gary, if you want to get to heaven one
day, you should be a priest.” From that moment on, “the idea
kind of stuck with me. This is what I probably would do.”
A second calling came around the same time, while
praying a favorite prayer before bedtime, “Lord, help me to
know your will, but if I ever forget to ask, do it anyway!”
Suddenly, another thought: someday he would be attending
seminary. Although Gary resisted the idea as a teenager—
doubting his public speaking abilities, for example—the calling
never left him.
Brotherly Competition
Father Bill presents newly baptized Todd and Gary to the congregation
of Most Holy Trinity Parish in Fowler, Michigan, January 1988.
shoveling manure, milking cows, and driving tractors.
Yet, Father Bill made an even greater impression upon
young Gary with the spiritual “work” of praying his breviary,
the Liturgy of the Hours every diocesan priest is required to
pray daily. “I can still see Uncle Bill take an old bucket and sit
in front of the pole barn with his breviary. We all knew what
he was doing—and all of us kids knew to give him room for
his prayers,” Gary says.
“Here was a priest providing a great example of the priestly
life lived out,” Todd concurs, who laughs when he recalls that
“there wasn’t much quiet time for Father Bill with ten kids
running around!”
Joyful Exemplars
For Todd, the third great influence on his priestly
discernment was the witness of Fr. Ray Radamacher, pastor
of Most Holy Trinity when the twins were growing up. Altar
boy Todd would watch Father Ray celebrate Mass even though
Father had a terminal illness that gave him great pain—and
still he was “so full of joy and happiness.” Todd recalls one
Mass when Father Ray slowly bent over the altar to recite the
Eucharistic prayer.
“You could tell he was in pain. Then I looked to my right and
a woman was also watching. She was weeping and I knew why.
“Here was a man who was dying. Yet, he was doing what
God was calling him to do,” says Todd. “Here are my parents,
running the farm, having ten kids that takes one hundred
percent of their time—and also being so loving, so happy.
“We had before us these great examples of living out their
priestly and married vocations well.”
Suddenly a Thought
People often ask the brothers, “When did you first receive
the call?” For Gary, it was as an eight-year-old while watching
Another defining moment on Todd and Gary’s pilgrimage
toward the priesthood came, again, from parents Agnes and
Brian. They took each son aside separately around their
freshman year in high school (as they did with each of their
children) and quietly asked, “Have you ever thought about
being a priest as an option in life?”
The answer for both brothers was “yes,” but, surprisingly,
neither brother knew the other was considering the
priesthood. From then on, Gary says he had a “new context”
from which to derive support for pursuing the call, from
his twin brother Todd; and, he says with a laugh, “from the
healthy competition between us.”
For instance, as a high schooler Gary recalls knowing
he should be praying a daily rosary, but “wasn’t ready yet.”
Then he noticed Todd praying the rosary before bedtime and
thought, “Son of a gun, I really have to do it now!”
But both brothers acknowledge the real support comes from
encouragement not competition. “Once we got to seminary,”
Gary says, “just helping each other stay faithful, going to daily
Mass and praying the breviary, has been a great blessing” during
the normal ups-and-downs of seminary life.
Help from the Blessed Mother
Another blessing of support has come from the Blessed
Mother, the brothers believe.
“To turn to her and say, ‘How do I continue to say yes?’”
has been an important spiritual approach for Todd. He recalls
thinking during his Marian consecration ceremony during
his first year at Sacred Heart—“Mary, take all these graces I
can ruin with pride. Protect them. Protect me!” Gary says his
relationship with Mary “really came alive