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 Peter Foley is from St. Peter Parish in Lincoln. He was ordained a deacon in May 2025. He is now in Theology 4 at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
A holy hour to pray for the men to be ordained will be held Friday, May 22, at 7 p.m. at the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center in Lincoln.
Ordinations will be Saturday, May 23, at 11 a.m. in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln.
“Jesus, please tell me what you want me to do with my life, and help me to do it.”
This is the main thing I remember from my early years at St. Peter School in Lincoln, and it has really stuck with me throughout the rest of my life. As she was discussing how to receive Jesus in the Eucharist worthily, Sister Mary Angela told us that one way we could do this was to go back to our pew, kneel down, and in the silence of our hearts say this prayer: “Jesus, please tell me what you want me to do with my life, and help me to do it.”
And, surprisingly, I actually did that. Many times throughout my years at the daily school Mass at St. Peter, I would make this prayer. As I did so, my thoughts would naturally rest upon thinking of my future self as a priest. As I became more aware of the fact that this phenomenon was not happening to many of my male classmates, the first seeds of my priestly vocation were planted.
As I continued to grow up at St. Peter School, I became an altar boy. As I learned how to serve the Mass, I also learned a lot about the Mass as I was forced to pay closer attention to what was going on at the altar. I got to see the prayerful witness of many priests, principally Father Michael Christensen, who was my childhood pastor at St. Peter. His stability and consistency as a pastor gave me my first example of what it means to be a priestly father, and the way he spoke in his homilies and the way he carried himself inspired in me a sense of wonder about the faith.
A couple examples of this would be the story of the Trumpeter of Krakow, who was killed in the act of warning the city of a Mongol invasion, or the story of my Confirmation saint, St. Maximilian Kolbe. In the Auschwitz death camp, St. Maximilian Kolbe gave his life in place of another man who was the father of a family. Both of these stories taught me about self-sacrifice, about which Jesus Christ taught us and witnessed most perfectly in his passion and death: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
Throughout my time at St. Pius X High School, this theme of self-sacrifice became an important part of my vocational discernment. As I began to come into more proximate contact with the temptations of the world, I realized that there were different forces pushing me toward different goals. On the one hand, there was the voice of the tempter, who encouraged me to set as the goal for my life the satisfaction of my own desires for pleasure, honor and riches. On the other hand, I was blessed by my parents, my family, and my Catholic faith to have received the example of Jesus, who taught me that “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
As high school progressed, the question began to crystalize: “If everyone has to give their life to something, to whom should I dedicate my life?” Ultimately, I found the answer to this question in Jesus in the Eucharist. Through regular reception of the sacraments of Eucharist and confession as well as times of Eucharistic adoration, I became convinced of Jesus’ real presence in His gift of the Eucharist, where He gives us His Body and Blood.
As it turns out, the answer to my life’s question was right in front of me all along: The One to whom I want to give my life is Jesus. From here, it became very easy to discern the fact that Jesus was calling me to go to seminary and give my life as priest.
Throughout my journey of seminary formation, I have only become more excited to become a minister of those same sacraments which have become the source of my life and joy. My prayer is that through my upcoming ordination, I will be conformed ever more perfectly to the heart of Jesus, so that I can offer my life in union with Jesus for the salvation of all the souls in the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln. “Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine.”
