Joshua Krischel

My name is Josh Krischel, and I am originally from Dwight, Illinois, a small town in northeastern Illinois. I was born to my parents, Joe and Paula, in 1998. I also have two siblings, Mason, who is older than me, and Adin, who is younger. My siblings and I were raised Catholic attending St Patrick's parish in Dwight. I was educated in the Dwight public school system, graduating from Dwight Township High School in 2016. I then moved to Iowa State University, where I studied Agronomy with the intent of becoming a Certified Crop Advisor, receiving my Bachelor of Science in December of 2019.

Where/when did your sense of call develop?
Growing up, I never sensed much of a call. I just saw the priest as this individual that the church magically produced and sent to a parish to administer sacraments. Then after beginning college, I spent about a year and a half away from the faith for some ambiguous and selfish reasons. However, after a powerful reversion experience back to Catholicism during the fall of my junior year, I began to seek a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith, and roughly two months into that venture, I began to recognize the Lord calling me to enter the seminary.

Were you invited by others to enter seminary?
I don't recall ever being encouraged in my younger years to consider entering seminary or discerning a vocation to the priesthood. Primarily my calling was an internal one. However, once I began to speak more openly about my discernment, the Lord blessed me with much affirmation from family, friends, and priests.

What was your main motivation in pursuing your call?
My biggest motivation for pursuing my call was that I wanted first to pursue my primary vocation of holiness, to pursue sainthood. So when the Lord showed me that the priesthood was a somewhat clear and definitive possibility and that He may want me to serve Him in that way, I knew it would be wrong for me not to at least continue my discernment by pursuing seminary.

Who were/are your biggest influences?
I certainly want to give credit to my parents for having raised me in the Catholic faith and for instilling within me some sense of the importance of pursuing a relationship with God. However, I think my biggest influencer was my pastor from the Catholic Student Center at Iowa State. To watch him live out the priesthood with such great love helped me to recognize how beautiful the vocation of priesthood indeed can be and helped me to desire it even more deeply.

What advice would you give other men who are discerning their call?
I think the most important advice I received when I began discerning and which I would echo to anyone who is considering seminary is to ask God for courage. If the Lord is continually placing on your heart the idea of becoming a priest, then it may be time to actualize some of that courage and take the next step in your discernment. So if you think the Lord may be asking you to go to seminary, or even just within your everyday discernment, ask the Lord for great courage to make the hard decisions He may be calling you to make.