He's finally stopped running from his call
By Catholic Register Staff
Henry Smolenaars, 40, was born and raised in Nova Scotia on a dairy farm. He loved working with his hands, so after high school he became an industrial electrician. As a teen, thoughts of being a priest had come to him. But it took some time to make the call.
“I ran from the call as long as I could,” he said.
God gently guided him to the realization that it was the priesthood that would ultimately fulfill him.
“As the years went by, I started feeling more and more restless inside,” he said. “I sensed something missing in my life. I thought maybe I needed to do more, so I got involved in the church. But the restlessness was still there. It just wouldn’t go away. The thoughts of priesthood started coming back into my head again like they had when I was younger.
“Then one day, God intervened. A seminarian came to my church to help with some renovation work that I’d been helping with. I started asking him a lot of questions about the seminary, so many that by the end of the week, we started talking about me going to the seminary.”
He studied one year at Christ the King Seminary in Mission, B.C., two years at the Oratory of St. Phillip Neri in Toronto and then entered St. Augustine’s Seminary in 2004.
After ordination, Smolenaars will serve the people of the dioceses of Yarmouth and Halifax.
Please support The Catholic Register
Unlike many media companies, The Catholic Register has never charged readers for access to the news and information on our website. We want to keep our award-winning journalism as widely available as possible. But we need your help.
For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.
DONATE