Diocesan Priest: Directing life to God became a passion
Fr. Jim Kean, pastor
St. Alfred Parish, Taylor

The discernment of my vocation began in a familiar way. I started "discerning" even before I knew what the process meant. At first there was simply the idea of directing my life totally for God. At about the age of 20, when in college, I began to read biographies of several saints and the Gospels.

Though I was inspired, I was convinced that no one in this day and age could live with such passion for the Gospel. I then read about Mother Teresa of Calcutta.The "idea" of directing my life to God became a passion to find this person and pattern my life after her radical response to the Lord. I spent 18 months with a community that was affiliated to Mother Teresa. It included six months as a postulant in Miami, Fla. and one year as a novice in Rome. It was in Rome that I met Mother Theresa on several occasions.

She was a living saint to be sure, and there was a presence about her that went beyond words. At the same time, there was something about her that reminded me of the saintly people with whom I was raised. Not only was there something familiar between her and the pastors of my home parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Emmett, but more than anybody, she reminded me of my grandmother. I realized that holiness is not running off to far-away lands to serve the Lord, rather the most essential ingredient for any vocation is being faithful to God's will.

I returned to the Detroit area and investigated a vocation as a diocesan priest. My discernment began in Miami by trying to fit into ideas of what I thought a priest should be like. The process then changed to become a search for qualities and traits of my character that were compatible to what I understood the life of a diocesan priest to be.

I entered Sacred Heart Major Seminary in the fall of 1989. That philosophy of discernment guided me year by year to my ordination in May 1997, as a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Much to my surprise, the process of learning what "a priest is" goes on after ordination. I have learned in these first seven years that being a disciple means that I have to be open to constant growth. Somehow, I expected that with ordination I would find a "priestly" identity as I might find a new coat. Sure, it might need a little tailoring at first, but then it would fit perfectly and be that way for the rest of my life. The beauty of constantly learning and conforming to a priestly identity is that there is joy and satisfaction in the ministry, for it is always new. Naturally, the activities will often seem the same, and routine is always a danger, but by keeping a reflective heart I can keep a fresh perspective with ministry.

A question often posed to couples is whether they are happier at the end of the year than they were at the beginning? Priests, too, could ask themselves this question. For me, the answer would be "yes." The life of a priest is rich in family, has meaningful interaction with people at the most beautiful and challenging moments of their lives, and it also means joining a holy fraternity of priests. For their dedication to Christ occasionally reminds me of that little woman with whom I had the great blessing to journey, if only for a year.