Michael Geissinger

I grew up on a small, diversified livestock farm in the heart of central Wisconsin, where I was the youngest of five siblings. After graduating high school, I transplanted to the great state of Iowa where I enrolled at Iowa State University and completed my Bachelors of Science in agronomy, with a minor in animal science. 

Where/when did your sense of call develop?
While serving on a mission trip in St. Lucia through the Fellowship of Catholic University Students during my freshman year at Iowa State University, I encountered the reality of my relationship with Jesus Christ through the witness and joy of people experiencing material poverty. Since, I have devoted myself to a deeper relationship with God through prayer and the Sacraments He gives us in the Catholic Church through Jesus Christ. As I continued falling in love with God and His Church, the Holy Spirit gently inspired my heart to discern the priesthood more. 

Were you invited by others to enter seminary?
I was invited to consider seminary more seriously in Ames by my parish priest and proceeded in discernment with several others noting that the priesthood is something that I should consider. God's invitation to my heart became coupled and fortified by the ongoing invitation of God's people in my discernment process. 

What was your main motivation in pursuing your call?
My heart's greatest desire and movement is that others and I come to know Christ more deeply and live a transformed life. I desire to bring people to Christ and Christ to people in my vocation to holiness, and the priesthood is a beautiful way to participate in this divine love story. 

Who were/are your biggest influencers?
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Saint Pope John Paul II's witness to the love of Christ is instrumental in my discernment toward seminary. While instrumental, the most important influencers are those close to me, encouraging me always to draw nearer to God and inspiring me to serve Him through the beauty of their love for God, myself, and everybody.  

What advice would you give to other men who are discerning their call?
For other men discerning their vocation, I invite them to pray before a crucifix about vocation, pondering the divine act of Christ laying down His life on the cross. Our vocation is meant to draw us completely out of ourselves in the free act of laying down our lives for God and His people. In the emptying of our selfish desires and will at the foot of the cross, Christ fills up our hearts with Himself and the Spirit. The Spirit actively moves our hearts closer to Christ: we can choose to reject His invitations or we can allow ourselves to be drawn closer to Christ's Sacred Heart. I invite young men to choose the latter; discerning your vocation properly and responding to a call to discern the priesthood in seminary is beautifully well worth it. 

"Christ's invitation to the priesthood is an invitation to a way of life that is athletic in its intensity and heroic in its form." -Bishop Robert Barron