“I sure have,” I replied. “I thought for certain that I was going to enter the seminary and
become a priest when I was thirteen, but that didn’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“My dad stopped it. He said that I wasn’t old enough to decide.”
“Do you think you are old enough now?”
For some reason at that point I almost broke down and cried.
“I was always old enough,” I whispered, and worked to gather my composure.
“Why are you not still in the Catholic Church, then?” Rev. Shaw asked gently.
“I... had some problems with its theology.”
“I see.
We sat quietly for a moment.
“How do you feel about Presbyterian theology?” the minister asked at last.
“Comfortable.”
“It would seem so. We’ve had a few people around here comment on your Scripture
readings. You seem to get quite a bit of meaning out of them.”
“Well, there’s quite a bit of meaning in them.”
Rev. Shaw smiled. “I agree,” he said, then looked at me intently.
“May I ask you a personal question?”
“Of course.”
“Why haven’t you pursued your obvious love of theology? You’re able, now, to make your
own decisions. What’s kept you out of the clergy? Some clergy, somewhere. Surely you
could find a spiritual home.”
“It isn’t as simple as finding a home. There’s also the challenge of finding the money. I’m in
the middle of a career, with a wife and two small children. It would take a miracle at this stage
to find a way to just drop everything and take this up.”
Rev. Shaw smiled again.
“Our church has a program through which, if we identifr a member of our congregation we
think is particularly promising, we sponsor that person in studies at seminary. Usually Prince-
ton.
My heart jumped.
“You mean you give them the money to attend?”