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Year for Priests: Reflecting on vocation, ministry

Name: Father Bradley Charles Pelzel

Birth date including year: May 12, 1961

Hometown: Born in Milwaukee, Wis., but consider my hometown to be Britt, Iowa.

Education: Graduated from Britt High School, Britt, Iowa in 1979.  Earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Management from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn., in 1986.  Earned a Sacred Theology Bachelor’s Degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, in 2001 and a Sacred Theology Licentiate Degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, in 2003.

Ordination date: Aug. 10, 2002

Current assignment: Director, Office of Vocations and Chaplain, Briar Cliff University

Hobbies/interests: Reading, fishing, numismatics and working crossword, suduko and other puzzles.

Describe your call to priesthood. It took a long time for me to realize and believe that God was calling me to a life of priestly service and ministry.  Growing up I never considered the possibility of a priestly vocation.  In high school I was very involved in sports, band, debate, speech and student government and I had no vision of what I wanted to do in the future.  The problem was that everybody asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, but nobody asked me what God wanted me to do when I grew up.  So I pursued jobs that either I liked or paid me better than any of my other options.  I worked as a construction worker, welder and heavy equipment operator, packing plant worker and hog farm manager to put myself through college. 
I was not a good student in college and actually dropped out of college for a few years and during that time got engaged to be married.  When the engagement broke off I went back to college and finished my degree and even went into the seminary for a year.  But I was doing it as a reaction against my broken engagement and not because I felt that God was calling me and I left the seminary before the first semester was over.  After college I worked as a fast-food General Manager for over 10 years, first with Burger King and then for Wendy’s but as time went on I began to think about the priesthood again.    I had gotten involved in my local parish church teaching 7th grade religious education, lectoring and taking communion to the homebound once a month.  While successful as a restaurant manager, I found the volunteering I did at church to be much more satisfying and while on a trip to Assisi, Italy, the conviction that I was being called to be a priest became so strong I couldn’t ignore it anymore.  After about a year of wrestling with the idea of being called to be a priest and deciding that the call was happening because I had been in the fast-food business too long, I quit my job at Wendy’s and joined two of my brothers in the home remodeling business.  When the idea still wouldn’t go away I contacted the Vocations Director for the Diocese of Sioux City, Fr. Brian Hughes, and the rest as they say, was history!

Did anyone or anything provide you with inspiration to follow the call to priesthood?  I knew many wonderful priests and there are many people who encouraged me to become a priest once they knew I was considering the possibility, but in all truth there wasn’t any one person who inspired me to become a priest.

Was it a difficult decision to make?  Yes and no.  I wrestled with it for a long time but once I stopped fighting with God and simply asked God to show me his will and provide me with the courage to follow it whatever it was, the decision was very easy.

What do you enjoy most about being a priest?  Everything - that’s really true.  Most of all I love the Mass, but I very much enjoy being able to teach about the faith, share my experiences and bring the sacraments to people as well.  Being a priest means that all of your parishioners become your extended family and that is really awesome too. 

Are there any particular devotions or prayers that are dear to your heart?  Since my childhood praying the rosary has been one of my favorite prayers.  In the past 15 years Eucharistic Adoration and praying before the tabernacle, even if the Eucharist isn’t displayed for adoration has become my favorite place to pray.  My favorite saints would include the Blessed Mary, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Philomena, and St. Therese of Lisieux.  

Why do you find priesthood to be a worthy vocation?  I have met many guys who have left the priesthood and I don’t judge any of them, but for me nothing else measures up.  How could I go back to “teaching people how to cook french-fries” and be satisfied with that when I’ve held bread and wine in my hands and seen it become the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord?  One of my classmates from the seminary left the priesthood and today is working as an investment banker.  Again, I consider the guy a good friend and do not judge him, but after having seen the weight of sin being lifted off of people in the sacrament of reconciliation, the joy of a couple bringing their newborn child to baptism and the strength of people who lean on God to get them through death and other tragedies in their lives, nothing else in this world measures up and is a worthier vocation for me.

What would you say to a young man considering a vocation to the priesthood? Do not be afraid!  If you are called to the priesthood you are a very, very lucky man and you have received a gift of incalculable value.  Treat it with all the care and reflection it deserves. 
In your considering of a vocation to the priesthood the most important thing is to keep asking God to show you his will for you.  If you are not called to be a priest, God will let you know and whatever you then become, whether it be a doctor, engineer, farmer, spouse, daddy, truck driver or whatever, you will be a better one because you will know that that’s what God wanted for you - as opposed to you simply becoming it because it paid you the most money or just happened to be available at the time. 
God always calls us to be the most excellent person we can be in whatever vocational capacity that may be.  If you just let God lead you to where he wants you to be, you will find the greatest level of happiness in your life.  And if you think about it, that makes complete since because if God really loves us, doesn’t it naturally follow that whatever he calls us to do with our lives will be what gives us the greatest happiness?  That’s what I’ve found to be true and I’ll bet you will too.  God Bless.