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During my sophomore year of college at KU, I found myself in conversation with Fr. Scott Wallisch, the vocation director of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas at the time. Father Scott and I were discussing what gave me the greatest sense of purpose in life. He asked me to identify that about which I was most passionate. When I was honest with myself, I realized it was contemplating the life of St. Philip Neri.
I first discovered the life of Saint Philip Neri during my freshman year at KU. My encounter with him happened when Sr. Clara, from the Apostles of the Interior Life, one day handed me the movie, “I Prefer Heaven,” in passing at the St. Lawrence Catholic Center. In the movie, I observed Neri’s character to be full of goodness and, despite a couple powerful yet slightly cinematized miracles, I saw that he lived a simple life. I found myself wanting to emulate him. In retrospect, it comes as a bit of a surprise to admit that, as I became more and more attracted to the simple life of Saint Philip Neri, I was, not coincidentally, in my first season as a student manager for the KU Men’s Basketball Team, essentially living out what had been a dream of mine since middle school. Life was really anything but simple!
My conversation with Fr. Scott about a sense of purpose pierced my heart and, by God’s grace, I allowed God to begin speaking into my situation at KU toward the end of that first basketball season. I began the application process to the seminary after attending the 2014 FOCUS Leadership Conference in Dallas, Texas. Little did I know that, for all that the process involved, it permitted me to think deeply regarding my vocation. Furthermore, stepping into it actually helped me realize that this was not the right time to pursue a vocation. I realized I had been awarded this opportunity by KU Athletics, the dream of hundreds of kids in their youth (mine, too!) and now I found myself thinking about a vocation to the priesthood? Perhaps not! At least, not now!
This was not a surprise to my mother. When I told the family about my consideration, she thought my choice seemed a little impulsive. I was relieved at Fr. Scott’s support of my decision to hold off my application to seminary and his affirmation of my goal to complete my time at KU. For the time being, my focus returned to finishing strong in my last two years at KU, and fulfilling the student manager role to the best of my ability. In retrospect, I believe it was a good decision.
Over time, I realized also many important blessings of the decision to hold fast, not the least of which are many priceless memories and forged friendships - both in athletics and beyond. 
When I graduated from KU, I hugged my mom and told her that I was now free to go live my life for Jesus. Pictured right is my mom, Ginny, and me at Senior Day for the Kansas Jayhawk basketball team. Graduating student managers are honored on the court at Allen Fieldhouse, along with graduating players.
The first years of the seminary journey were foundational – and here I give many thanks to close seminary brothers and my spiritual director, with whom I was able to process my life journey. Relating my experiences to Scripture, I can say I wanted His words to His disciples “Follow me” to apply to my life. The seminary path, which promotes the sacramental life and the silence one needs to follow Jesus intimately, can feel like a big and scary step to a young Catholic man. However, at every opportunity, God has been very present to me over the years.
During the required 30-day silent retreat at the conclusion of the first year, my spiritual director encouraged me to pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, please set me free to be who you want me to be. Please set me free to belong only to You.” I prayed this with much fervor, leading me to experience a great sense of freedom and true spiritual poverty. My desire to make a choice out of love for God and neighbor grew. I continued the journey in making a simple return to seminary at the start of the second year, to begin philosophy studies. The two years of philosophy were my favorite of seminary.
I spent the summer of 2019 working with Prayer and Action, a mission program with the youth of our archdiocese, in Nemaha County. During that summer, Jesus revealed to me the richness of His plan for my life, which began long before I ever dreamed of becoming a manager for the men’s basketball team at the University of Kansas. The Lord makes this known to the prophet Jeremiah when he says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1:5). The fact is, God had my vocation in His mind from all eternity, and only when I opened my heart to receive it did I know.
Both my parents were raised in Nemaha County, KS, an area where I had never spent any time apart from brief visits to see grandparents when I was very young. My siblings and I were raised in Hastings, Nebraska. And the significance of this, you ask?
St. Mary’s Church in St. Benedict, KS, is a national historical landmark. The church sanctuary is pictured left. During that summer of 2018, I was blessed to live in the church rectory, a large, two-story brick edifice that could, I am certain, withstand any Kansas tornado. Next door to the parish rectory, I discovered that my great-grandparents Venzle and Rose (Haefele) Skoch are buried in the parish cemetery, along with my great-great grandparents, Frank and Anna (Baštýř ) Skoch. I learned also that Rose and her siblings, including her older brother, Fr. John Anthony Haefele, grew up in nearby Seneca, KS. Father Haefele was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Leavenworth on April 7th, 1907. There was a Haefele sister, named Katherine, who became Sister Florina Haefele, OSB, joining the Benedictine community at Mount Saint Scholastic in Atchison, KS, in 1907, just two months after her brother’s ordination to the priesthood. Religious vocations were a part of my family history!
The revelations did not stop there. Only six miles down the road to the west, my grandparents Paul and Eleanor Skoch are buried in Sacred Heart Cemetery, Baileyville, KS. God was beginning to make things abundantly clear to me: this is my home. This is where I belong. These are my roots.
The Skochs were generations of farmers. The family farm is still in the hands of my uncle, and lays just four miles northwest of St. Mary’s Church. I now understood more how the supernatural hand of God had been at work for decades in the Skoch family—planting, watering and altogether cultivating a vocation to the priesthood in a field for which it is worth selling everything. To be another man among the family generations to be called to the priesthood, let alone ordained a priest this May, leaves me awestruck, to say the least.
“Humble confidence” were the words my metaphysics professor used to describe a healthy vocation; I beg God for the gift of humble confidence as the May ordination to the priesthood swiftly approaches.
Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus!
