Rogers is a small town where around ten thousand people live, located in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. It is here that Michael Sester was born, a Legionary of Christ priest since May 31, at the age of 30, who is currently in Chile as the director of ECYD La Dehesa and an instructor of Formation at the Colegio Everest in Santiago.
Father Michael Sester is the eldest of a family of four brothers, one of whom is also a Legionary. For him, the support of his parents was fundamental, as he always felt supported by them as he discerned his vocation. Although he felt the call at ten years old, it was four years later when he finally decided to follow God’s call in the Legion of Christ at the Vocational Center in New Hampshire.
His ordination ceremony was presided over by Mons. Ned Schlesinger, auxiliary bishop of Atlanta, and took place at the Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Church in Atlanta, Georgia. A few days after the ceremony, Father Sester commented that “God is great and deserves our faith and trust. In these first days of priesthood, I have felt like an observer of everything God does.”
The discernment journey of Father Michael Sester, LC
“I was in Eucharistic adoration at our parish in Rogers, Minnesota, praying and thinking about my future. I wanted to live a simple, normal life, without complications, not with too many riches, have children, and be very close to the people I love, the life of a good father. I was eleven years old at that time, I believe. Then I looked at Jesus in the Eucharist and said: ‘I will be a priest.’ If that didn’t make sense to you, it made even less sense to me at that moment, but I said it so definitively, and so unexpectedly that my thoughts froze. I looked at Him, there was a long pause, and I thought: ‘What? No! Please! No.’ Then I felt a bit trapped by it, although it wasn’t a completely negative feeling either. I felt that He was looking at me very deeply and penetratingly.
After that, there was a long inner struggle. I tried with all my strength to forget or discredit that moment, but I couldn’t, and it’s hard to explain why. It was a bit dramatic, but I wrestled with that decision for a couple of years. When the song, ‘Yo, el Señor del Mar y el Cielo,’ was sung at mass, I didn’t say the part that says: ‘I will go, Lord.’ Looking back, it’s incredible how God takes the deepest desires of our hearts and knows how to transform and satisfy them in ways deeper than we can imagine, if we let Him lead.
I obviously ended up in the seminary, but at the same time, I wasn’t completely sure of my vocation. After a few years there, I remember feeling frustrated with God and begging Him to tell me if He really wanted me to be a priest. Other people left the seminary, and I was jealous that they knew it wasn’t for them, because I wasn’t sure if it was for me.
So what then? All of this might sound a bit negative, but God was digging deep into my heart and had good people around me to help me move forward.
There was an important moment during my last year in Cheshire (the fourth year of major seminary) when I was thinking a lot about married life and was really attracted to it, as it is such a good and beautiful thing. I went to my superior’s office and talked a lot about it. I pushed and pushed until he said: ‘Alright, let’s start talking about that.’ He was referring to the possibility that my vocation might be marriage. It surprised me a bit. I think I needed to hear that because I realized that a part of me, a deep part, wanted to be a priest and that it wasn’t so easy to throw everything away. Usually, people talk about throwing everything away to enter the seminary, but at that moment, everything changed. It’s as if the door opened for me to go in peace (it was always open), and I looked outside and slowly closed it, but this time because I wanted it that way.
Another important moment came during spiritual exercises in my last years of theology before my perpetual vows. There was a moment of prayer in which I felt very free. God wasn’t forcing me to do anything. He could fill my life with meaning just as well as a married man, without any resentment. Then I realized that He wasn’t just telling me this in my moments of doubt, because He wanted me to choose Him out of love. God respects our freedom. His love is too great to let us feel coerced. He invites, then we decide.
