Sean Hamilton-Propaedeutic Stage

St. Ludmila, Cedar Rapids/Vianney House

Introduction/Tell things about you, your family, your Catholic journey

My name is Sean Hamilton, I was born in Cedar Rapids, IA in 1999 to Brenda and Steve Hamilton. I grew up in the country with my older sister and our dogs. I did my entire schooling through the Cedar Rapids Prairie school district. My family were members of St. Patrick's Parish in Fairfax until 2011 when the parish was closed. A fun fact is that my great-grandfather was an altar server for the opening Mass and I was a server for the closing Mass. After the closing, our family transitioned to St. Ludmila's in Cedar Rapids. I graduated from high school in 2018 and proceeded to Iowa State University where I graduated in 2022 with degrees in Supply Chain Management and Entrepreneurship. My time at Iowa State had a profound impact on my faith. After graduation, I stayed in Ames working in the supply chain department of a large manufacturing company, Danfoss.

Growing up, I didn't particularly take my faith seriously until I had a conversion experience at the National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in 2015. This helped to jumpstart an authentic relationship with Christ. Throughout high school, I continued to pray and learn about the faith. My four years at Iowa State served to deepen and flush out my Catholic identity greatly. With regular Holy Hours, reception of the sacraments, and Catholic Community I was able to learn who I am, who God is, and discern where He is calling me. After graduation, I became very involved in St. Thomas Aquinas/St. Cecilia's Youth Ministry program. Here I found a love for sharing my faith with others and helping them to develop their own relationship with Christ.

Where/when did your sense of call develop?

My parents tell the story that as a child I once exclaimed that I would be a priest just like Fr. Schwinn (our pastor at the time) and he could teach me everything! But the first time I truly began to discern my vocation was in 2019 when I joined the Ames Priesthood Discernment Group. I didn't feel deeply called to the priesthood at that time but I kept coming back to discernment and priesthood in prayer so I joined the group to learn more. In the summer of 2021, I had an internship in Omaha, NE where I found as much as I did like my job and coworkers my heart was nearly always looking forward to being in prayer and receiving the sacraments. This feeling continued to grow after graduation until I knew it was the right time to apply to seminary.

Were you invited by others to enter seminary?

In my senior year of high school, Fr. Ken Glaser invited me to discern my vocation and join him and others at a Discernment Dinner one night. I went and had a good time, ate some good food but did not take the idea of discernment to heart. I now see that this planted seeds that eventually germinated into more fruitful discernment activities and eventually into the self-knowledge of where I needed to go.

What was your main motivation in pursuing your call?

In college, I felt a lot of pressure to have my life figured out with the end goal of having a job in four years. When the priests in my life (Fr. Ken and Fr. Kyle) both invited me to consider the priesthood I felt like it was my duty to at least give it a try. At first, I thought it would be easy. I just had to ask God what He wants for my life. After doing that a few times and not receiving an answer I found out that discernment is a lot more than just asking God what He wants for me. I had to actually know myself and find out what I truly wanted to do in my life. I had to know God. Know how He speaks to me, how I can best talk with Him, and how to listen to His response. I started off by just trying to rule out priesthood but the deeper I got into my discernment the more I found myself seeking to do God's will more than my own.

Who were/are your biggest influences?

Growing up my family attended Mass every Sunday, at 8AM, right when the new cartoons were coming out. I repeatedly tried to get out of attending Mass but was rarely successful. This showed me that from a young age, Mass was important, I may not have understood why but I could tell it was important. Then at NCYC in 2015 I saw thousands of other youth excited about the faith, this was another large motivator for me to go deeper in my Catholic faith. Finally, at St. Thomas, I met several men who would become seminarians. These men showed me what authentic faith could look like in a college setting. By their witness and encouragement I learned how to listen to God in prayer and how to discern the Lord's Call. Fr. Kyle Digman and Fr. Ken Glaser were both instrumental in helping me discern, learn more about the faith, and support me on my journey.

What advice would you give other men who are discerning their call?

Learn how you can best talk to God. The Lord made all of us uniquely and speaks to all of us in a specific way. I learned that I best talk or pray to God through a written dialogue. I write about my life or a scripture passage and listen for what God responds to that or what He prompts me to write about. I tried for a long time simply to read or to sit in silence. Both of these had some benefits and I had some fruitful experiences but it has been through writing that I have truly gotten to know God and about what He wants in my life. Not necessarily about vocation, but about what He wants to heal in my life or anything that prevents me from giving Him my whole heart. Learn how you best dialog with our Lord and see where He leads you, He will not lead you astray.