According to Jim: the pursuit of holiness
Julie Ascosi
Issue date: 10/31/07 Section: Religion
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"I am happy beyond my wildest dreams."
That was the sentence that stuck with Jim Schuster and helped change the direction of his life.
Schuster, who is the youngest of six, was a sophomore at the University of Illinois when a priest said to him, "Before I tell you anything else: I am happier than I ever imagined possible as a priest."
"I'll never forget that," said Schuster, a third theology seminarian at the Mount. "That is really what settled me. That shattered one of my images of the priesthood, 'that priests are lonely and miserable for the sake of the kingdom'."
Schuster had been considering the priesthood for some time, but had not made a serious or concrete decision. But after attending his second Koinonia retreat (similar to the Mount's Kairos); during the Station's of the Cross, the priesthood suddenly became a reality.
"It was the first time it was a real possibility rather than hypothetical," Schuster said. "I went into talk to a priest right away."
That is when Schuster heard the words he never forgot. But Schuster had not always been looking to be a priest.
"[In high school] as much as I knew my faith and believed it, I wasn't really living it that well," Schuster said. "It didn't really have much bearing on my day-to-day life."
And Schuster, who grew up in Altamont, Ill., a small town comparable to the size of Emmitsburg, certainly did know his faith thanks to his father who had been a seminarian before discerning that it was not for him.
"He taught me the faith very well. I would guess I probably had a better education than 90% of Catholics, due to my dad," Schuster said.
Schuster's dad had him sit in on adult catechism classes during high school, where they would discuss the catechism, and over the course of five years they had finished it.
Despite his thorough understanding of the faith, Schuster knew he was still missing something and after a retreat his senior year, he made a commitment to finding what that was.
That was the sentence that stuck with Jim Schuster and helped change the direction of his life.
Schuster, who is the youngest of six, was a sophomore at the University of Illinois when a priest said to him, "Before I tell you anything else: I am happier than I ever imagined possible as a priest."
"I'll never forget that," said Schuster, a third theology seminarian at the Mount. "That is really what settled me. That shattered one of my images of the priesthood, 'that priests are lonely and miserable for the sake of the kingdom'."
Schuster had been considering the priesthood for some time, but had not made a serious or concrete decision. But after attending his second Koinonia retreat (similar to the Mount's Kairos); during the Station's of the Cross, the priesthood suddenly became a reality.
"It was the first time it was a real possibility rather than hypothetical," Schuster said. "I went into talk to a priest right away."
That is when Schuster heard the words he never forgot. But Schuster had not always been looking to be a priest.
"[In high school] as much as I knew my faith and believed it, I wasn't really living it that well," Schuster said. "It didn't really have much bearing on my day-to-day life."
And Schuster, who grew up in Altamont, Ill., a small town comparable to the size of Emmitsburg, certainly did know his faith thanks to his father who had been a seminarian before discerning that it was not for him.
"He taught me the faith very well. I would guess I probably had a better education than 90% of Catholics, due to my dad," Schuster said.
Schuster's dad had him sit in on adult catechism classes during high school, where they would discuss the catechism, and over the course of five years they had finished it.
Despite his thorough understanding of the faith, Schuster knew he was still missing something and after a retreat his senior year, he made a commitment to finding what that was.
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