Careers advice
In the summer of 1959 careers advice consisted of a two minute meeting in our teacher’s broom cupboard sized office.
The conversation lacked enthusiasm on either part but we pushed on regardless.
“Have you got a job?” asked the teacher. “No,” came my reply.
“Well are you looking for work?” he barked. “Yes,” I nodded.
“That’s good. Do you want any advice?” he offered.
“I don’t think so,” I said. “Well off you go then,” the teacher chimed.
In terms of a career, I believed that God was calling me to be a minister. Despite my enthusiasm though, not everyone was convinced by this plan.
When I was 17 our local minister told me to reconsider my dream and at 23, I was turned down for ministerial training.
I was forced to take a different path into another career, but it was a path that was consistently entwined with my undying ambition to serve God as a priest.
When I look back at how it all started for me, I can’t help but compare my apprenticeship as a teenager with my experiences decades later as a ministry trainee.
I believe these key periods in my life were the making of me.