Matt Henry

Seminary:  Mt. Angel Seminary

Birthday: June 8th

Home Parish:  St. Theresa

Hobbies:  Guitar, choir, soccer, basketball

Favorite Saint:  St. Therese

Favorite Food:  Spaghetti

Enjoy most about being a seminarian: The community life and the resources (spiritual director, confessor, etc.)

Vocation Story

When I was in third grade, I overheard some adults talking about the problem in the Church of a shortage of priests.  Somehow I took this problem very personally.  I thought for a little while that when I grew up there wouldn’t be any priests, and I would have to be the only one in the whole world.  That was when I first heard of the priesthood.  

I can’t say I thought about it more than three times before I was a junior in high school.  Before getting into that, I want to talk a little about my faith journey.  When I was a freshman in high school, I first started to get into my faith by going to the Life Teen program at St. Theresa Parish.  I have to admit that at first I was just going there for the girls and because all my friends went (for the girls as well).  It was on a retreat during the fall of my freshman year that I first had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.  

Looking back I can’t really point out a big conversion experience in my life.  It was a long, drawn-out process.  There was never a point in my life that I was away from the Church, but God gradually brought me closer and closer to himself.  

I heard about the priesthood again on a Life Teen retreat about vocations during my junior.  At the Easter Vigil of that same year, I noticed the joy that emanated from the congregation, but most especially from the celebrating priests.  It was at this point that I was truly attracted to the priesthood.  I spent the next few months going back and forth in my feelings about the priesthood.  

Finally I decided to apply for the seminary in my senior year of high school.  During the process I began to have doubts about going to seminary again.  These thoughts came at about the same time that I was being accepted into the seminary.  I decided not to go that fall semester; instead I went to Arizona State University and helped out with Life Teen at St. Theresa.  I put the thoughts about seminary in the back of my mind for a while until I heard a talk one night about vocations at a prayer meeting.  I felt called to say yes to God, even if I did not know what I was saying yes to.  

By living a life of the sacraments and praying that I might do God’s will, I was drawn to consider the seminary again.  So here I am.  Through this whole process I learned that God can only work with what we give him.  By giving our whole selves to God, he can do amazing things in our lives.