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April 18, 2019Brother Titus Mary Sanchez
(Adam Sanchez)
Graduation Date: May 2018
Major: Marketing and History
One of your favorite saints: St. Therese of Lisieux
Seminary: St. Gertrude Priory in Cincinnati, OH
What does SMU Catholic mean to you?
Going into college I had no plans of ever walking into a “Catholic Center;” but by the time graduation came around SMU Catholic had become the defining mark of my college career. It’s hard to put into words, and grace had so much to do with it….lots and lots of grace. But many of the things available to me at SMU Catholic enhanced my faith journey in college and helped me discern the priesthood:
• Having Fr. Arthur at the Catholic Center helped to make the idea of priesthood concrete. More or less the idea that priests are people too!
• Ready access to the sacraments. Adoration and consistent confession were serious necessities for anyone trying to discern God’s will, priest, sister, husband, or wife.
• Community with other men that were considering priesthood. It was very encouraging to talk to other dudes who were hearing a similar call from the Lord, including the guys who decided that they won’t enter seminary formation.
• Getting involved with FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) opened up a bunch of doors for my discernment. I met many priests from different communities and many holy husbands/fathers through my time with FOCUS.
Describe your call to the priesthood.
I am the oldest of three boys, all three years apart. Growing up as a cradle Catholic, my family went to Mass and my parents sent my brothers and me to Catholic grade school. I had little care for being a Catholic in my youth and adolescence. During Mass, I was far more concerned with who the Dallas Cowboys were playing that Sunday and where we were going to have lunch, than with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The faith was tangentially present in my life, however the truth and love of the Gospel did not radically change my life until the first weeks of my freshman year of college at SMU. Going to college, I expected to live life to the fullest and that included all the world had to offer: I wanted to live a party lifestyle while also succeeding in school, and to receive a prestigious job and salary after college. Three weeks into college I experienced a major transformative moment in my life when I was invited by a protestant friend to make a decision to follow Jesus Christ and to give my life to Him. I accepted his offer and began encountering God through Sacred Scripture. Seemingly overnight, all of my worldly desires began to change into desires for truth, beauty, and goodness.
About two months later, I went on an Awakening retreat through SMU Catholic, where I experienced an authentic conversion to the sacramental life of the Church. In my time in Confession and Eucharistic Adoration, I realized that the Lord was present in the sacraments. The Jesus Christ that I had encountered in Scripture was offering his body and blood to me physically and literally in the Eucharist. I came to the point of realizing that I would be compelled by the love in my heart to follow Him no matter where He led me, even if to the priesthood. To say the least, my life was radically changed during that retreat.
That first semester of college, I fell in love with a person, the person of Jesus Christ, the one for whom my heart was made. In hindsight, all of this grace, without a doubt, came to me through the hands of our Blessed Mother. In the years following, I became heavily involved with SMU Catholic as well as with FOCUS.