When I was in Theology at St. Leonard Theology School in Dayton, Ohio, I was
assigned to do my Pastoral experience at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Dayton. The Chaplain Priest assigned me to rooms to visit and go door by door and see who you meet. One afternoon I walked into a room with only two beds. An older man was in one of the beds. I introduced myself as a seminarian studying to become a Franciscan Priest. He asked me many questions about how I had decided to try to become a Franciscan Priest. I told him of my childhood experience where Franciscans would come to help out in our parish, and they always seemed to be happy, joyful, and enjoyed coming and helping us. I liked them and realized that a Priest could laugh and joke and tease and be interested in us. Our elderly Pastor was more like a serious grandfather, which was good too. But the Franciscans just seemed to be what I would like to be.

When I was in 1st year of college, I asked myself, what I want to become: a math teacher like my high school math teacher or a Franciscan. When I wrote for information and Fr. Paul Scales sent me information and wrote to me, I decided that I had to try it out and see if that was what God is calling me to do. So I entered the seminary to try it out. Then the gentleman said this to me: “I regret that I did not become a Priest.” I left him and the next day went back to his room to continue to visit this man who did not seem to have family or visitors. One day when I went into the room, I found two empty beds. I went to the nurses’ station and asked where the gentleman was or if he had gone home. She said: “He passed away last night." I went back to the empty room and thought how sad his dying words were: I REGRET THAT……….” And as I stood there, I said to myself: I am not going to die regretting that I didn’t do this…….”

This experience has guided me many times when I wondered if I should go to work in Juarez or volunteer to go to the Peruvian Jungle as a missionary. Many times when I get an idea, I use this story to guide my decision making: I don’t want to die regretting that I didn’t do this or I wish I had done that.” We have been ‘locked down” for six months in our homes with our children and families. When we look back in a couple of years, will we say: “I regret that I didn’t do this, or I WISH I had
done this during that time? I wish I had gathered my family more, I wish I read a book or turned off TV or Internet, I wish I had read the stories that Jesus told or shared stories that inspire me."