When he was six, Andrew MacDonald blessed himself like a priest following Mass one Sunday. At 31, he is now becoming one.

“The Lord was slowly opening my heart to the reality of the priesthood,” he said.

“I had no idea at the time, but that’s the case.”

God continued to gently lure MacDonald to the priesthood throughout his youth, when he attended a number of retreats in Prince Edward Island, where he was born and raised. Attending public school in a Protestant community, MacDonald was “blown away” by being with so many other passionate Catholics.

Whenever Eric Mah thought of the priesthood in his Grade 9 year of high school, he felt an “enduring sense of peace and joy and consolation.” But he spent more than a decade ignoring this feeling, however, before choosing to follow it.

While studying law in university, Mah was invited by his friend to a Lenten reconciliation service, where he had his first Confession in 15 years.

“After hearing the words of absolution, I remember feeling this huge weight lifted in my heart,” said Mah.

He was later asked by another friend to visit the seminary

Ante Market can still remember hearing gunshots from his childhood home in a violent Toronto neighbourhood. This didn’t stop him from also hearing the call to the priesthood at the age of seven.

Market’s parents and their Croatian heritage, he says, gave him a solid grounding in the faith at a young age. His mother died only three years after his father did, when Market was 18. He says their influence and prayers are why he felt the call to the priesthood.

“(My mother) never shared with me who she was always praying for,” said Market. “I am convinced that the silent prayer of my mother is the reason why, God willing, I will be a priest.”

Bradley Markus’ vocation to the priesthood began 25 years ago, at the age of one, when his father passed away on Good Friday.

“In the midst of this world of suffering and pain, my vocation, my path in life was formed,” he said.

“I was schooled in what I think is the most important lesson in life — the lesson of what it means to truly love and the lesson of what it means to suffer with others.”

But until he was 17, Markus was unaware of this call. After spending a number of years in foster care and being uninvolved in the faith outside of First Communion and Confirmation, Markus began “searching for a greater meaning in life, something beyond drinking and partying and going out with friends.”

When Allyn Rose was younger, he was always under the impression that life as a priest would be miserable.

That thinking changed so much over the years that now he is about to enter the priesthood.

Born in Orangeville, Ont., Rose was the middle of three children. He studied accounting at Sheridan College and the University of Windsor. All along, however, Rose volunteered in various capacities, including youth ministry, at St. Timothy’s parish in his hometown.

“Over time I was finding more happiness and fulfilment working as a volunteer in parish ministries,” said Rose, “and I was even more miserable working for a good salary at the chartered accountant firm.”

Jan Michael Kusyk faced the greatest obstacle to his vocation to the priesthood, and to his life, before even being born.

“I was only six weeks old, still in my mother’s womb, when my mother’s doctor informed her that her body was rejecting me and that the only alternative that made any sense was for her to abort me,” said Kusyk.

His parents returned from that visit to the doctor and prayed for the intercession of St. Joseph. A month later, they consulted another doctor, and to their surprise, their son was doing fine.

Kusyk was born healthy in Bamberg, Germany, and spent his childhood in London, Ont. At 13, he remembers feeling a call to the priesthood in the most unlikely of cicrumstances.

St. Jerome’s University took two steps toward peace between professors and administrators March 24 as a first contract between the faculty’s union and the university and a plan to set up a senate-like body to oversee academic matters by May 2012 were ratified by the university’s board of governors.

The union contract will see St. Jerome’s faculty keep pace with colleagues at the University of Waterloo in terms of salary and benefits. St. Jerome’s is the Catholic college federated with the University of Waterloo.

It was how the school is governed, rather than money, that inspired the professors and librarians to seek union protection. But in the end, governance issues were not part of union negotiations.

A separate working group with representatives from the board of governors, administration and academic staff was struck to report on possible reforms to how St. Jerome’s runs itself.

Editor’s note: This is one in our series of profiles on the men who will graduate from St. Augustine’s Seminary this spring and be ordained to the priesthood for various dioceses.

When Paul Hrynczyszyn was 15, his mother forced him to attend a Catholic youth retreat over the March break. Now, 11 years later, he is about to be ordained a priest.

“I thank God and I thank her to this day for forcing me to go, because it was life changing,” he said.

“It was at that moment I rediscovered my faith. I fell in love with Jesus Christ.”

TORONTO - The Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association conference takes place April 28 to 30 at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto.

Ontario Minister of Education Leona Dombrowksy will be a keynote speaker at the conference on the opening day of the annual conference.

Among the topics conference speakers and participants will discuss will be the Ontario government’s equity and inclusive education strategy and how it applies to Catholic schools and how the strategy will be implemented in Catholic schools. The issue has caused controversy as Catholic school boards try to implement the strategy while staying true to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

OTTAWA - The House of Commons has found the Conservative government in contempt of Parliament in a non-confidence motion that has triggered a May election.

A Liberal motion passed by a vote of 156-145 Friday afternoon. Prime Minister Stephen Harper will now ask Gov. Gen. David Johnston to dissolve Parliament, sending Canadians to the polls for the fourth time in seven years.

The non-confidence vote derails a voter-friendly federal budget tabled on Mar. 22 that had proposed millions of dollars in new spending. It also kills more than 30 pieces of pending legislation, including Bill C-393 that is supported by Canadian bishops and aims to make affordable generic drugs available to the world's poor to treat illnesses such as tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

Harper said he was disappointed by the defeat of his government because it heralds an election he maintains Canadians do not want. A federal election will cost taxpayers upwards of $300 million. Canada now faces its fifth election in little more than 10 years.