Steven Wilson, Holy Rosary Church, Stuttgart

Attends Saint Meinrad Seminary in St. Meinrad, Indiana

Before I became Catholic, I began substitute teaching. I was not particularly enamored with it. “It’ll be different when I am a full time teacher, though,” I often told myself during this period. Full-time teaching is when things will be fulfilling for me, I thought.

However, when I did finally land that full-time position, I continued to be unfulfilled. I thought being able to share the things I was interested in would be joyful, but I more-often came away disillusioned. I heard my coworkers say things about how, “in the end, the sense of meaning and having an impact makes it meaningful,” but I did not have this sense myself.

This was also the period wherein I began to look at Catholicism. Despite my father’s side being Catholic, I knew very little about the faith, and what I knew was through a Protestant lens. It all really began by accident (rather perfect for the Holy Spirit to act, in hindsight). It started with watching YouTube videos to laugh at those whom I considered to be the craziest Catholics I could find.

At some point, I went from watching for entertainment, to being interested in what they were actually talking about. I soon shifted instead to watching and learning from people such as Bishop Robert Barron and old videos of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. The draw and the desire to be Catholic slowly and steadily began to crescendo through 2019 until it no longer mattered to me what I could believe; I knew I had to be Catholic.

I reached out to the local parish in Stuttgart, Holy Rosary Church, completed an informal RCIA program with Father Andrew Hart, and was baptized and confirmed March 30, 2020. Now, I am on the path to becoming a Catholic priest, something genuinely unthinkable not at all long ago.

I started this path ultimately seeking fulfillment and meaning, the same reason I started teaching. I want to lead a satisfying life, not a grandiose one or necessarily easy one.

I want my life to have purpose, and as I have discussed the topic with formators in the diocese and at the seminary, I have grown more confident in the idea that I can’t think of what could be more fulfilling, more life-giving than to play my small part in working with God to build his Church.

To bring him to his flock in the good times, such as when they’re first getting to know God for the first time, and the bad, such as when their lives are upended by personal tragedy.

After two academic years and three summers as a seminarian, I’ve learned so much from what I’ve encountered both in the classroom and in parishes. I’m amazed and humbled every time I reflect back on the grace God has given and continues to give me in my life. It strengthens me as I continue learning in the discipleship stage of priestly formation.

Steven Wilson is in the discipleship stage of his priestly formation. During this stage, seminarians grow their relationship with Jesus Christ through meditation, contemplation, philosophical study and training in Christian virtue. It lasts at least two years. Steven is the son of Robert Wilson Jr. of Jonesboro and Libby Beliew of Stuttgart. His birthday is April 4. If you wish to offer your prayers, mail a birthday greeting or provide other support to Steven or any of our seminarians, please contact Georgina Pena in the Vocations Office at (501) 664-0340. This article was published Aug. 10, 2022, and updated Sept. 11, 2024. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.