Meet Your Seminarians
In All His Disguises
I
Mark Livingston, 37
Archdiocese of Detroit
First-year Theology
first felt a call to priesthood when I was
an altar boy, at thirteen, and then, more
strongly, when I was seventeen. I was
dating a great young woman at that time, so I
passed the call off as “imagination” and kept
dating. I disregarded my call—and my faith—
throughout my twenties until, after “going it
alone” without God for too long, I became too
weary to continue without him.
Around that time, I decided to start praying
again (a grace!). So, hanging an old, beat-up
crucifix in my room, buying a cheap glow-inthe-dark rosary and rediscovering how to pray
it, I promised Our Lady that I would pray it
nightly for thirty days . . . and I did (a daily
ritual that has not stopped since, including
using the glowing plastic rosary). Through
a series of “coincidences,” I joined a young
adult group, gradually started going to daily
Mass, went on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, was
introduced to Franciscan University, and joined
the secular Carmelites. “I was lost, and was
found.”
It was clear that Jesus was calling, not again,
but still! The thought arose, “I’m in my early
thirties. Am I too old?” No way, baby!
After a few more years of prayer and
discernment with my pastor, Fr. Bob McCabe, at
St. Pius X in Southgate, and Fr. Brendan Walsh,
a Pallottine priest at the Gabriel Richard Center
at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, I called
Fr. Tim Birney at the AOD vocations office and
applied to enter Sacred Heart.
Each of my three years here has been a
blessing. I want to be a priest because Jesus
has loved me back to his Heart, has loved me
through the doors of the seminary, and has
loved the desire for the priesthood into my
heart. The Lord is giving me a missionary heart
full of love. I want to be his priest and serve
him at his altar and, as the expression goes, in
all his disguises.
Medical What?
W
Stephen Brunner, 28
Diocese of Madison
First-year Pre-Theology
18 MOSAIC
MOSAIC
18
hen you go to the seminary, a lot of
people naturally are inclined to ask,
“So, what did you do before going to
the seminary?” I usually respond, “Medical
physics,” to which they usually respond,
“Medical what?”
Medical physics is the study of how physics
can be applied to medicine. The jurisdiction of
medical physics can be quite broad, but classic
examples of medical physics include medical
imaging (for example, MRI, CAT scan, and
ultrasound), as well as radiation therapy (for
example, external beam radiation therapy).
Over the past five years, I have been
immersed in research as a member of the PhD
in Medical Physics program at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison. As of September 2013,
I was able to complete my degree officially
by defending my dissertation dealing with
dose reduction in computed tomography
(commonly known as CAT scan).
It may be surprising to know that I first
felt the call to the priesthood during my third
year in graduate school. As I started that year
in September 2010, I was not a practicing
Catholic. However, as the year went on, I
began to become aware of a strong desire to
know and to reflect upon the faith that I had
been given as a child.
Who is Jesus Christ? Who do people say he
is? More importantly, who do I say he is? As I
began to sift through these questions, I began
to become aware that the Lord was drawing me
closer to his Most Sacred Heart.
I have no doubt that Divine Providence has
brought me to Sacred Heart Major Seminary
to discern a call to the priesthood. As I reflect
on my first year, I am most surprised by the
intellectual formation I receive here.
Pope Paul VI once said, “Modern man
listens more willingly to witnesses than to
teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it
is because they are witnesses.” The beauty of
Sacred Heart is that our instructors are both
teachers and witnesses. This combination truly
gives intellectual formation wings.