Vocation Story - Jerry Shantillo '09
	Seeking Jesus Christ: From the Boardroom to the North American College Why change from executive to seminarian? In May of 2003 I was employed as the Chief Operating and Financial Officer of a healthcare organization. I had just finished a long day of individual meetings with my management team as well as colleagues throughout the healthcare system. I wanted them to hear the news from me before they read the corporate news releases. The meetings were similar to those with family and friends during the preceding week. There were lots of questions, concerns, and in many ways more support than I expected. The central question was, “Why? You seem very happy!” I understood their surprise. I never imagined I would be entering a seminary. My first thoughts of a priestly vocation occurred in college. These thoughts were greatly overshadowed by my joy of being in college. During college I was a business student, collegiate athlete, and had an active social life. I had planned out my life and a priestly vocation was not part of it. I was to have a business career and a family. After college I attended graduate school where I completed an MBA and started what turned out to be a fifteen year career in Healthcare Administration. Despite a demanding schedule my first joy and priority was spending time with my family and friends. Although I never married I did regularly date. In many ways my plans had yielded greater dividends than I ever thought possible. Then, one day, it all changed. While attending Mass in April of 1999, I became aware in a profound way that I was called to be a priest. For the first time in my adult life I felt lost. My plans were suddenly in question. This awareness grew stronger with each passing day. A day did not go by when I did not feel conflicted. I was, however, still enamored with the life I had created for myself. The thought of leaving everything to follow Christ was not very appealing to me. Feeling the internal conflict I reluctantly entered into a formal discernment process. I spent time telling vocation directors, priests, and spiritual directors why I should not become a priest. To my surprise, my prayer life opened up in a way I could not have expected. Eventually I came to understand God’s plan for me. Slowly but surely my plan lost some of its luster. The wisdom in pursuing a priestly vocation became clear to me. Nothing else made sense. I still tell people, in retrospect, that no one is more shocked with my decision then I am. People still ask me why I made the change. The answer is simple - because He asked me to. God has been enormously generous to me with gifts of family, friends, health, professional and financial success, and the ability to prosper in difficult circumstances. These gifts although enormous, pale in comparison to the personal relationship God has allowed me to have with Him through no doing of my own. by Jerry Shantillo Diocese of Scranton Class of 2009