 Fr. Jerome Cudden,
OP
Growing up, I did not care much for my faith and was never too enthusiastic about
going to Church. Needless to say, when I left for college I stopped attending Mass
and did not think much about God. Instead, I pledged a fraternity and spent the next
three years modeling my college experience after John Belushi. By the end of these
three years the partying was starting to catch up with me, so I decided to leave school in
an attempt to “find myself”. I continued to live the fraternity lifestyle
for another two years, until I hit a bottom. At this bottom, I had a moment of
clarity, in which I was shown, that the path I was on was leading to the ultimate end.
This realization started me on a spiritual journey and started to get my
life in order. I returned to school and finished my degree. Then I decided to
follow a little voice that had been telling me for some time to “Go west, young
man”. This voice landed me in Tempe, Arizona where I starting to work in the
computer industry. Once I had settled in, that little voice again said I might find
answers to some of the spiritual questions I had at church. After fighting that
voice for a while, because I believed that church had nothing to offer me, I decided to at
least try it.
One Sunday I attended Mass at the All Saints Catholic Newman Center
on the campus of Arizona State University. There was something different about this
church in comparison to the one I grew up with. The spirit was active and I could
see His presence in the great music, excellent preaching and tons of young people that
attend Mass on Sunday. Shortly after rejoining the church, I went on a weekend
retreat with the Newman Center to Flagstaff. Over the weekend I met 50 young adults
who were fun, loving and in love with the Lord. I never realized that Catholics
could be fun to be around. A few weeks after the retreat I was asked to sponsor a
young man in the RCIA program. The weekly catechetical sessions I attended open my
eyes, and I could not believe what I was seeing.
The faith that I had left started to come alive for me. I began
to learn what Catholicism believed and not what I thought it believed. My
relationship with Jesus Christ started to grow. My passion in life started to shift
from the fast paced world of corporate sales to the spiritual development that I had been
reintroduced to. I began to spend less time at the office and more time around the
Newman Center. Something was changing in my life, because the “American
dream” I was living was not fulfilling me. I was dating a wonderful woman and
there was talk of marriage, I had a high paying sales job and I drove a brand new SUV, but
something was missing. Then one day, I prayed to God and asked for
guidance.
A short time after I prayed, God answered my request for guidance.
Friends and total strangers started to say to me, “Did you ever think of being
a priest? “You look like a priest,” and, “I think that you would make
a great priest.” I was scared -- Anything but that! Never in my wildest
dreams did I ever think of becoming a priest. I barely knew my faith. I had
strayed from the path of the righteous. And there were so many other young men at
the Newman Center who would make great priests. Why me? So I prayed again to
tell God that I think He sent me the wrong answer and asked Him what He really wanted me
to do. But again He answered, “You, I want you, I want you to be a priest in my
church.” I tried to run and hide, but where can one go that God cannot find
you? Finally, I resolved, if I think that God is calling me to the priesthood, then
who am I to question Him.
On August 15th of 1999, I entered the Dominicans and received their
habit on September 2. My novitiate year was a year of spiritual and personal growth.
I learned that I am no longer the center of the universe and that God is the one
who is in control. Living in community made me aware of the growing areas I have so
that I will be able to live in community and serve God’s people effectively.
After further discernment during my novitiate year, I decided that I was ready to take the
next step in religious life and took simple vows on September 2, 2000.
Now that I am in vows, I have begun my studies. Learning the
philosophy and theology that is behind the Catholic teachings on faith, morals and social
justice has been instrumental in my journeying closer to God. The more I learn about
God the more I want to shout from the mountaintops that Good News of Jesus Christ and to
carry His message to the four corners of the world. I am so grateful that God chose
to call me to this life; a life based on contemplation, study and community, so that I can
be an effective preacher of the Word of God.
In closing, I would like to ask you to keep me in your prayers as I
continue to strive to complete the good that God has begun in me. Also, if you feel
God is calling you to a closer union with Him, don’t be afraid to answer the call.
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