Marc - Vocation Story

My name is Marc, a native of Cleveland, Ohio. I’ve grown up Catholic, went to Catholic schools all the way through high school. I am a typical ‘cradle catholic’ if you will; and not at the same time. I started my discernment when I was in my junior year of high school. The first half of my high school career was… well… going down the tubes. It got to the point where I despised all that was Christian and Catholic.

I attended a Jesuit high school in Cleveland, as a policy, every student had to attend a retreat before he could get his diploma. So I signed up for the first one of the year, get it over with. At the beginning of my junior year, I wanted to have a religion; I remembered that when I was Catholic, I was at least a little happier. So I began some soul searching. I started to read about other religions and then I would practice their life for a week. After that week, if I liked it, I would continue to live that life style, if not I would move on to the next one.

I studied Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and a few more. I found the most truth in Judaism, but I didn’t feel that it was enough; there was more I craved that truth. I then tried Catholicism again; Protestant sects were out of the question. I didn’t see the logic in joining a protestant church which was just an off shoot of another.

Back to the retreat, it was a weeklong retreat, at the beginning of my search for truth. A Jesuit priest from Ireland came with us; he was on vacation at the time. Now I will say that it was not on the retreat that I heard the ‘call.’ It was this priest that listened to me, something that I never had. I was amazed! I never knew that priests would do that. My view of them was that they said the mass on Sundays and vanishes or taught class and vanished. And here was a priest, spending time with me, helping me, being a friend. I didn’t understand, I kept asking myself, ‘why?’

So I decided to start reading up on what priests are and why they do what they do. Once I started reading I couldn’t stop. This reading got me more into the Catholic faith, and from then on out, I craved spiritual books, asking questions, and trying to understand the faith as best as I could.

My senior year of high school, I contacted the vocation director of the Jesuits. He advised that I continue with my education and go to College. So I went to Eastern Michigan University, keeping in contact with him. While I was there, I became involved with the student parish. There was a service for resident students called, ‘adopt a student,’ where a resident parishioner “adopts” a student. The idea is to give the student support and the student would meet up with that family every now and then.

I was paired with a family whose son was discerning with the Salesians, Justin Czupinski. We traded vocation stories and the visit was wonderful. The one thing that I took away from that was how Justin taught me how to discern; mainly it takes prayer. That was one thing that I failed to do. So I started and found myself at the vision webpage searching for religious orders.

I was contacted by Fr. Franco Pinto, vocation director for the Salesians, and decided to fly to New Jersey for a discernment retreat. By the time I had to leave, I didn’t want to go. The Salesian had a joy that I didn’t think was possible, a genuine joy, I found myself desiring that same joy. It is hard to express how wonderful they were then and are now.

So I finished that first year of college, went back to Cleveland, and spent that year paying off my student loans. This is my second year with the Order and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Marc Stockhausen