Thank you Father. God has been calling me to join the priesthood since I was a kid and now, at 25, I am finally beginning to feel ready to answer the call

God is calling me to be a priest too. And it is amazing he choose me.

Thank you Father. This Homily was a blessing for me. I am a caretaker for family members who are not well. I cared for both parents as they were elderly and dying. Now I care for two other family members who need me. I have been feeling discouraged these past few days. Your homily is an answer to my prayers.

Thank you for being a priest 😊

It's encouraging to hear priests discuss their dating life, especially those who looked forward to married life with children. I want my pastor to be a virile spiritual father. A diocesan priest is the father of a large family -- he must be loving and firm, and it's not a job for wimps. I give thanks to Jesus for the gift of the priesthood, because through you, He heals us.

Yes, lord what is it that you want me to do. Speak to me and I will listen. Amen..

Jesus, I trust in You. Guide and protect me in all my decisions. Be the light on my path.

Hi Father, That was a great homily. I have to say I feel the call and I’m going through the formal acceptance process into my diocese now here in Duluth, MN. It’s something I can never get off my mind so I hope this is what Gods vocation is for me

Father, how are you feeling?? I miss your frequent videos!! I pray you're getting better everyday! Blessings to you!!

Father, as ever your words are truly inspired, just what I needed as I try to discern my purpose. May God continually bless your mission and ministry

It’s really wonderful how you speak from the heart...I have tears in my eyes. You made the right decision and are a wonderful Priest❣️😊🙏

Thank you Father. I needed that.

Great homily Fr. H. I'm sure this video will be a blessing to many who are discerning what it is the Lord is offering them as well. I'm very glad you decided to become a priest and decided to put your homilies on KZfaq. . They truly are an awesome blessing!

Que gran personaje yo vivo en México y me gusta escuchar frecuentemente a éste sacerdote me da una tranquilidad tremenda , yo creo que Dios si se vale de gentes como él para transmitir sus mensajes

I pray God will protect our priests. Especially in our salvation from original sin.

Jesus calls. He doesn't force anyone into the religious life or priesthood. It's our choice. Whatever we choose, He's with us forever.

Well spoken, Father. Reassuring to hear...

Aww. My mom lived in a convent when she was homeless and I also stayed on the weekends and a couple of days during the week. Also when I came into the Catholic church I made a promise to God through the Sacred Heart statue. I live with friends and the convents want to make sure you are being called. Can't just go on a whim. But I have been anxious in single life and in the community of the religious life. I love teaching. I love working around foods and plants. I need community. I am blessed with church friends and pro-life and music friends. Even blessed with a difficult mom who is disabled yet no longer paralyzed. I also thought and still think if I were to become religious that it would still be scandalous for me because I enjoy my life. God bless you father and I hope you are still with us and not suffering much. Continue to pray for us and please pray for my mom and I.

Thank you for answering God's call to you. May He bless you in a special way today.

Thank you very much

I want my sons to be chosen as Catholic priests by our Lord

Your story about the homily you heard is beautiful!

thanks for sharing this it is an inspirational story for us all to understand what vocations are truly about

God is really, really good all the time!

Thank you Father for following the call! Thank you for the lesson in this homily.

Father, your story is very inspiring! It is the best version of yourself!

Pray for me for my vocation. May God guide me to his will

you are really doing a great job

Best novus ordo priest ever!

God bless you father. Thank you for your vocation.Amazing story.

Beautiful sharing ❤

Praying for your Intentions fr 🙏 John were are you based 🙏

Thank you Father for your sacrifice which is another word for love.

Much love watching this from Philippines. Father, please pray for my brother to become a priest.

Hello Father Hollowell, For the last five years I have been having dreams about faith. I have had four dreams, that have stood out. I dreamt that a Rabbi, was holding a bible, the pages of the bible were encrusted with colored stones. These stones never covered the words of the bible, which were in Hebrew. ( a language that I do not know ) As the rabbi, turned the pages, aside from the pages beings encrusted with the colored stones, each page also had a wax paper divider. The Rabbi continued to turn the pages, he then looked at me and said "Your name is in this book". Rabbi looked through the pages then stopped, ( I saw no number on the page that he stopped on ) he fingered at the bottom of the page and said "This is your name" He pointed to two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. When I awoke I searched via the internet for the Hebrew alphabet, I learned that the first letter that I saw in the dream was the "Hay" and the second was the "Vov". also I learned that each letter pertains to a picture; Or visual, the "Vov" means "Nail" and the "Hay" means Revelations, of the bible. These dreams that I have been having, I believe that this is God telling me, to be one of his workers. I am applying to The College of New Rochelle, in New York, I want to take "Religious Studies" I don't know if this is the correct path to take, ( Going to this college, but I don't know another way ) I was raised Catholic, but strayed from the church, to be honest and will be re-entering the church. The church that I went to as a kid was St. Catherine's of Genoa, in New York City; and the priest was Father Bob, whom is now the Monsignor of St. Patrick's Cathedral . Thank You

God bless you father, thank you for answering the call of God. Without the priests there’s no Holy Eucharist and other Sacraments, we owe to everything to priests. Amen.

Thanks for your very inspiring vocation story Father... May you be blessed and please pray for us, seminarians❤️🙌🏻

amazing, i would like to be a priest

Amen Father.You are exactly where God wants you to be.

Thank you Father for your sacrifice, submission and obedience to God's will and call on your life to serve him as a holy priest

How did you become a priest?

Thanks for another wondeful Homily. Would you ever consider doing a speaking engagement to an audience of young adult Catholics in Chicago? What would be the best way to reach you? Thanks again.

I'm proud of YOU FOR YOUR TESTIMONY FOR CHRIST JESUS THE SOURCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT...SHOWING THE TRUTH OF GOD. AMEN TO THAT THE ALMIGHTY LOVING GOD IN HUMANITY..

Hope all the priest like u they explain properly what r they reading in the Bible god bless u Father John Hallow

Father, why...you looked like Pope John Paul II when he was young...

Refreshing to hear real back story of how you came to be a Priest…Thank you…Father Holloway. God Bless your ministry…

ive thought of becoming a priest in a similar way, about 2 months ago i was struggling to discern and i walked into the cathedral and i asked god to tell me what your will is for me, and ill do it no matter what, and as i walking away from the cathedral down the street, i heard a voice saying "FEED MY SHEEP", do you think god is calling me to be a priest.

13 years is a long time

Father John, I enjoyed your vocation story. I try to always wanted to be a priest but I eventually lead a lifestyle I'm quite the opposite. So I still had a lot of grief I'm not being honest with myself on being a priest. So right before Easter one year our pastor at my church I happened to get him for confession and I expressed this with him in long story short he said to me Marty look at it this way God will take you places weather collar will stop me and that was such tremendous relieved because I know exactly what he was talking about. That innocence I already was evangelizing as a lay person. Jesus was my booking agent if you would bring people to me to love them back to the faith or to strengthen it. But I really did enjoy your story. Thank you and God bless.

I am 15 and want to be a priest. the problem is that my family is not catholic, they are Presbyterian and don't know I am catholic. how should I tell them I want to be a priest and how should I go about becoming a priest?

My fav story on guys becoming priest.... some college grad was basket case in church asking god how can I be a priest when I owe all this money from college loans.... all of a sudden , a lady who was saying rosary in the back taps the college grad on the shoulder and asks “how much do you want?”... she paid off the entire college debt and became long time grandmother to a priest.

Praise God for all who answer His call in their lives...Jesus strengthen all of us seeking YOU FIRST💙💞🙏🤗

Father, I want a question, why are we sent here down from God and also just because of one apple and why God forbid the two peeps to not eat the apple?

Want YOU as our Pastor, Father! We have beaches!! ❤️I was an RN for thirty years. Now that I’ve gotten clean, I’m able to do private duty care-as a CNA. But hey, it’s ok; my little bit of Purgatory here on Earth. I did it to myself. Mea culpa. It is what it is. There were times where I HATED nursing and everything about it; especially the massive amount of accountability that over the years was dispatched to me. What I always have enjoyed doing is basic. bedside care. I love it. As a CNA I’m able to do that; I’m very GRATEFUL that I’m still working under the “umbrella “ of healthcare and that my boss trusts me. It is an honor. It also is an honor to help the sick and dying. THIS was MY vocation, pretty much from the age of 18 when I started nurses’ training. As always, Father, THANK YOU for being in this sinner’s/recovering drug addict’s life; you have inspired me in ways you’ll never know.........❤️

The Church should really do a thorough job of vetting priests in terms of examining their motivations for becoming a priest. There are some priests where ego may play too big a role in their decision. It could be that the reluctant priest might turn out to be the best. The guy who is struck by lightning and then decides to become a priest. A priest needs to be a leader, a hard worker, unselfish, patient, humble, person with laser focus on Jesus. Who believes ahead of time that they can possibly fill such a role?

I love you father and thank you for sharing this

What church is this?

Generational

The inherent problem in the Catholic Church is its on division. There is no real unity in Christ’s Church. If there is no unity there how can unity exist and peace prevail elsewhere?

I think there was a moment, that moment was the week or so just before my confirmation. That was when I first felt the calling.

How can I know that I have a call to become a priest?

Father, I wish instead of having a majority of homosexual priests, there were many, many more like you.

Dear Padre: You should have, then, just inquired about how to transfer canonically from the Roman Church into one of the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome. Marriage . . . then, ordination to Priesthood. The best of both worlds. Problem solved.

I am 43 the nxt day after tomorrow. That's one of the reason's I keep on holding back, aside from my age, I keep on thinking about the purpose of my life. I hope I could find a confidant priest who can guide into the vocation.

..(teary eyes now.. tears of Joy) i know how it feels because i ask also a sign like this, and every time i attended mass my back then the homilies were related to vocation. Now i am a seminarian , an incoming 3rd year A.B. Philosophy student in the seminary college.

YOU NEVER READ THE BIBLE?

Ive been having obsessive thoughts about becoming a priest its like i must or else. I honestly dont like it. I wish it would go away i heard its scrupulosity.

It's important to hear a Priest talk about his consideration of a marriage. It shows that they are both callings and vocations. It also shows that Priests are men.

Our Messiah JESUS CHRIST did not establish priests! HE Called disciples to Follow n Obey HIM. Check it out in the bible!

Stop talking about vocations and start talking about praying, especially after receiving Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It’s at that time that you can ask Him, please help me to be, what you want me to be. Help me to be the man you want me to be? Help me to be the woman you want me to be? Then you can answer the call to your vocation.

Father thank for choosing to answer Gods call for you to be a priest

Long after you get the call from Jesus, God will have you encounter a lot of young people. DON'T FUCK THEM!

I wantto be priest plz help me

An old song "When A Man Loves A Woman," resounds with all the essentials of love, which can be translated over to "When A Man Loves Jesus." The joy of being in love with Jesus God Almighty will be the foundation of a life dedicated to His Church and His Holy People. For Roman Catholics, their Deity is The Blessed Trinity of Divine Persons: Father God Almighty; Jesus God Almighty; Holy Spirit God Almighty. The singular "God" to refer to These Three Persons is, IMO, slothful. And please, Father John, along with "Christ" and "Lord," get into the habit of using the Holy Name of Jesus. If you go back over your homily, you'll see that you-off the cuff-mentioned Jesus only once along with a sea of "I's."

That's when you discovered you weren't normal so the next best thing is the priesthood

There are to many gays in the priesthood , as a matter of fact the priesthood has become a haven for gays and that as far as I'm concerned is the end of Roman Catholic priesthood as we once knew it to be. I am 89 and I know what I'm talking about.

You mean the night you decided you were too lazy to work a real job, and decided instead to live off of social security checks from grandmas?

Why do you call yourself father? Doesnt that give you pause? You are no one's father.