Editor’s Note: The Register invited the men who were ordained transitional deacons last year to write columns for the Register, to introduce themselves to the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln.
Deacon Isaac Wahlmeier (pronounced Wall-my-er) is from St. Michael Parish in Hastings. He was ordained deacon in May 2024 and served at St. Teresa Parish in Lincoln last summer. He is now in Theology VI at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, in Philadelphia, Pa.
Ordinations will be May 23 (new deacons) and 24 (new priests) in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln.
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By Deacon Isaac Wahlmeier
I have never struggled to find an introductory “fun fact.” Mine has always been that I am one of 15 Wahlmeier children.
My family has always been instrumental in my vocation, as it was the first place I learned about sacrificial love. And as St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus says, “At last, I have found my vocation. My vocation is Love!” My mom and dad are incredible witnesses of this, as they witnessed to a love that finds its fulfillment in giving one’s life away to another (15 “others” to be exact, although this number is growing all the time). As I grew up, watching my siblings embrace their own vocations has continued this witness!
My mom and dad were the hands that planted the first seeds of Christ’s love in my heart. They nurtured this through daily Mass and praying the rosary together as a family.
When we went to Mass, the two qualities that struck me most about my childhood pastor, Father Michael Houlihan, were his humility and reverence.
Now that I say that, the two qualities that I probably lacked most as a little kid in the pews, were humility and reverence. But when he celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, I always thought there was something otherworldly about it. There was a deep peace in the liturgy. He treated the Eucharist as if he had found the love of his life; as if what he was doing in Mass was more important, more transcendent than anything else.
It was around the time of my first Communion that the desire to be a priest entered into my heart. It was a longing to be a part of something so much bigger than myself, and to be as close to Jesus as He was to me in the moment of my first reception of His Body and Blood.
But as I grew older, I tried to suffocate that longing with other aspirations, dreams, and plans. Still, I went to St. Cecilia High School, got involved with retreats, mission trips to Gallup, N.M., and was formed in the faith by incredible priest teachers and witnesses to the faith, such as Father Matthew Rolling, Father Joseph Faulkner, and Father Jonathan Haschke.
While in high school, I remember one day when my brother, Joe, had come home from college and told my family that he was going to the seminary! This was a welcomed experience for me (because in my mind, that meant I did not have to think about going anymore). But the truth is that his own vocation brought me so much closer to mine. I was able to visit him at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, and eventually in Rome where he studied. (I so look forward to the day I can call Father Joe Wahlmeier my “brother priest” in addition to my actual brother.)
It was while I was in college at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and attending the Newman Center, that I started to pray in Eucharistic Adoration daily, and this same longing to draw closer to Jesus was enkindled. That summer, I decided to teach Totus Tuus summer catechesis. As you may know, sometimes kids come to Totus Tuus just for a summer camp experience. That is where I met a 6-year-old who asked a question I hadn’t heard before: she pointed to the crucifix and said, “who is that, and why is He up there?”
At that moment, I felt an immense joy and peace to be the first proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to her. To tell her about the wonderous Love of God was an experience that surpassed all I ever knew. After that, I could no longer return to the ordinary course of life. Jesus had let me experience His love and the immense freedom that being His disciple brings. That’s when I accepted the call of Jesus to follow Him, by going to seminary.
As I look forward to priestly ordination and ministry, I am humbled to be a recipient of God’s plan and His love. I am awestruck to be a steward of the sacraments, by which our Lord loves, heals, and transforms His Church.
I am overjoyed to say with St. Thérèse: “At last I have found it. My vocation is Love”; and to say with St. John Vianney, “the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus.”
