Valentine’s Day is a time for love stories, and some school staff members have shared with us their best memories. Today we highlight a person whose love story is a bit different, a man who decided to devote his whole life to God.

Father Christian, our school chaplain, grew up in India and with hard work and dedication gained a unique opportunity to enrich himself, as well as many other people, by preaching the gospel of our Lord in the USA.

Let’s take a closer look and carefully read about his story filled by his love of Jesus.

Fr. Christian grew up in Trichy, which is considered one of the holy cities in India. Many Hindu temples and King’s palaces make Trichy one of the cleanest cities in India. The city is well known for the Trichy Rockfort, an ancient temple built in the 6th century.

Fr. Christian is the youngest of four children. He says the unconditional love of his mother has influenced him in many ways. For example, her daily prayers and teachings about scripture were a great example for him.

“My mom forced me to go to school during second grade, which I hated so much,” said the Norbertine priest.  Such difficult, as well as funny, moments contributed to his becoming a priest.

Despite the fact that Fr. Christian attended a Catholic high school, his passion led him to  computer science with thoughts of being a teacher. Luckily, one priest in a local parish inspired Fr. Christian and provided him with a great example of a Catholic servant leader.

At the age of 16, Fr, Christian started considering becoming a priest.

It’s a decision he doesn’t regret at all.

“The best thing about being a priest is carrying the Lord everyday during Holy Eucharist and feeling a change of bread and wine into the body and the blood of Jesus Christ,” explained the chaplain.

It has been seven months since he said “bye” to his family at home and left for the USA. When Fr. Christian mentioned this idea to his family for the first time, they were a little bit worried.

“I’m truly grateful for my family because they encouraged me to travel to the U.S, in order to serve the people of God,” he said.

Fr. Christian often thinks about his future. He would like to stay in America as a pastor of a parish. But, more importantly, he emphasized, “Everything is in God’s plan. I am ready to accept whatever God’s purpose is for me.”