Through “good family, good friends, and good influences,” the priesthood was encouraged for a family in suburban Washington, D.C. Thanks be to God, three brothers from the same family are currently attending seminary for the Archdiocese. They joined Morning Air® to share their story.
Deacon James Morrison, 26, is a transitional deacon who will be ordained on June 20, 2020. He says that his call to the priesthood was unexpected. “Towards high school and we’re asking questions of discernment of where to go to college, I began to ask, ‘What does God want me to do with my life?’ And so I took that to prayer and through the course of two or three years began to kind of feel this tug toward seminary,” Deacon James explained.
Nicholas Morrison, 24, is studying at the North American College in Rome. God willing, he will be ordained to the transitional deaconate at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on June 20. What a blessed day for the Morrison family!
“Growing up in the family we had a lot of the same influences. We had a lot of the same friends; we had a lot of the same priest mentors. Obviously, my mom and my dad were just invaluable in giving their own witness to the Faith and their own encouragement first as growing as good Catholics and then pushing us forward to understand what it is particularly that God’s calling us to, to live out that Catholic Faith,” explains Nicholas.
He acknowledges that his older brother, Deacon James, also had a positive influence on his vocational discernment. As a high schooler, visiting his brother in the seminary had a profound impact on his journey. “Seeing that team of men that were striving for virtue that were striving for holiness, it was very inspiring for me and something that I wanted to definitely be part of,” said Nicholas.
Danny Morrison, 20, is in his third year of seminary in Washington D.C. He credits his brothers with helping him to find his call to serve the Church. “It’s such a big blessing to have their influence on me. And really, from their ‘yes’ to the seminary, that ultimately gave me the strength and honestly, from the Lord’s grace to kind of see their joy, which allowed me to have the courage to apply to seminary.”
Outside of the wonderful influence of a homeschooling, devoted family, the brothers all remember the witness of faithful priests in their lives. “I always really remember being surrounded by priests, whether it was at daily Mass or we’d always have priests over for dinner. They were always kind of part of our family. And I think the Lord really used that too at a young age to give me this attraction to the priesthood even when I didn’t really know what the priesthood was,” said Deacon James.
St. John Vianney, patron saint of priests, pray for us!
St. Charles Borromeo, patron saint of seminarians, pray for us!
Listen to the full segment here:
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