Editor's note: This is the fourth in a periodic series spotlighting those in formation for priesthood at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo.

My journey toward priestly formation has been unconventional, especially when I consider that for most of my life, I never so much as imagined priesthood as an option.

I was born in San Pedro in 1975, attended local area schools, graduated from Loyola Marymount University with an undergraduate degree in Psychology in 1998, and then from LMU's School of Education with Master's degrees in Counseling (2000) and Educational Psychology (2001).

In 2001, I began working as a school psychologist. My time as a school psychologist was wonderful; I learned much about public education, human relationships and children's lives, and found great love in the inherent meaning of simply being available to people as a compassionate and empathetic listener in times of conflict, stress, pain and loss.

More often than not, it was what I did not say more than what I did say as a school psychologist that mattered most, finding the truest healing component in the silent spaces between words even more so than in the words themselves.

But…as my career progressed, I found that while I was indeed "doing good" as I had originally hoped to do, I was nonetheless finding less and less satisfaction with my career over time. I was seeking deeper meaning from my life and the world around me, and felt increasingly starved by the absence of a spiritual component in public education.

It became clear to me that while school psychology was indeed a wise choice for me at one stage, it was destined to be so only for a season of my life. By the end of the 2004 school year, I had come to a very difficult but incredibly rewarding realization: I had to move on if I was to really live the life that was waiting for me.

These internal movements prompted and coincided with a re-discovery of the depth traditions of my own spiritual heritage (Roman Catholicism), coupled with a "search for truth" in the spiritual traditions of India. I traveled throughout India for several months of pilgrimage, exploring the outer world and my own inner life. My only agenda during this time was one of self-emptying, that I may be allowed to truly experience God in ever new and deeper ways through the rich spiritual traditions of India, and to integrate these experiences with those that I have lived in my own 29 years as a Catholic.

For many years I have felt called to build bridges at an experiential level between the sacred traditions of East and West, knowing that "dialogue" can only go so far. I sought, and found, a very real lived experience that I hope will allow me to labor sincerely in the place where all connections of depth are made: in the recesses of the heart where the Holy Spirit speaks in a language beyond words to us all.

My experiences over the months that I spent in India ranged from very active to very contemplative, on one end working with Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity at the Home for the Dying Destitutes in Calcutta, and on the other end spending 40 days of completely unbroken silence and solitude in the Himalayas. I was given the grace to experience first hand the Gospel passage that assures us that we need only "knock and the door will be opened," living the paradoxical truth that the more we surrender to God, the more God will carry us in love on our way.

Through all of this, my path toward priesthood --- the path of prayer and service --- was made clear. Home again, I am now studying at St. John's Seminary to be a priest for the Los Angeles Archdiocese. And the surrender continues.