Deacon Nathan Folz
Home Parish: Good Shepherd Parish, Evansville
Seminary: St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology
Ordination Year: 2027
Editor’s Note: This year, Diocesan seminarians focused their annual seminarian articles on the theme: “Encouraging Discernment.” Our seminarians wrote about a non-ordained person from our Diocese who encouraged them to discern priesthood.
By Deacon Nathan Folz
During my senior year at Memorial High School, I was trying desperately to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life. I had felt God nudging me to go to seminary, but I was terrified by that thought. There were so many unknowns. Would I be happy? Did I have the skills a priest needed? What would that path look like?
In the middle of one calculus class that year, our teacher, Mr. Hupfer was talking about the importance of faith. He pointed out that we have faith in all kinds of things in our daily lives. For example, when we sit down, we have faith that the chair we sit on will not collapse. If we have that much faith in a chair, shouldn’t we have even more faith that God will always support us?
Mr. Hupfer’s words stuck with me, and became a source of encouragement in the face all the unknowns around my vocation. Although it took me four years after that calculus class to say “yes” to God’s call, I still remembered Mr. Hupfer’s words about having faith in God, about trusting that he will support us.
I would venture to say that Mr. Hupfer had no idea his words would be such an encouragement to me in my vocational discernment. But encouraging vocations can take all different forms — sometimes we may not even realize we’re doing it.