My Vocation Story
Father
Tony Taylor Says Parents Provided Example of How to Live as Children
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My perception that God was calling me to
the priesthood developed gradually as I grew up. The two people
who have had by far the greatest influence on every aspect of my
life, including my spiritual life, are my parents, Basil and Rachel
(Roth) Taylor of Ponca City lived their faith sincerely and nurtured
my faith and that of my six brothers and sisters. Our family is
and has always been very close and I have always been aware of God’s
love for me through my parents obvious love for each other and for
me. I likewise have always known that God had a plan for my life
because I learned early on that he has a plan for everyone. My parents
tried to live according to God’s will for them and we children understood
that we should do the same.
The four other greatest influences on my faith early on were my grandparents, to whom I was also very close. Two of my grandparends were converts: my father’s mother from an anti-Catholic brand of Protestantism in rural of East Texas and my mother’s father from Judaism. They both had paid a high price in terms of family rejection in order to become Catholic and even though I did not leam the details of their conversion stories until I was older (or that my grandfather lost 20 cousins in the Holocaust), I grew up always knowing that my Catholic faith is precious and not to be taken for granted.
Formative influences from outside the family were St. Mary’s parish, school and youth group, and Unity High School, the Catholic High School in Ponca City at the time. Also the Boy Scouts, where I learned to: Do a good turn daily, to Be prepared, to keep myself Physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight and to be Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent as I advanced in virtue and self-reliance to the rank of Eagle.
But the key event in the discernment that ultimately led me to hear God’s call to the priesthood was the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr., from whom I learned that following Jesus means far more than just striving [selfishly] to get our own souls into heaven. It also means doing what we can to continue Jesus’ work today, which will of necessity bring us into conflict with the forces of evil and require sacrifices-death to self and maybe martyrdom, like Jesus and Martin Luther King. I realized that I am obligated as a Christian to confront evil and help the downtrodden. This led me to get involved with the anti-war movement in the early 1970s and initially got me thinking about becoming a social worker. I registered as a conscientious objector but luckily was not drafted. In 19721 entered OU and began attending daily Mass at St. Thomas More parish. Then in February 1974 it dawned on me: most of the people I might serve as a social worker are far poorer spiritually than they are materially. If something could be done to feed their souls, give them the same spiritual resources that I received growing up in a happy, secure, faith-filled Catholic home, they would be far better equipped to deal with adversity. That was the day I knew God was calling me to the priesthood.
College seminary at St. Meinrad in Indiana went smoothly for me. I spent one summer with Fr. Wade Damall in Frederick. I was inspired by how lovingly he served his many-mostly poor-Hispanic parishioners and thereafter redoubled my efforts to learn Spanish in order to serve them as best I could too. I was then sent to the North
American College in Rome, where I attended the Gregorian University. During those 4 years I focused especially on biblical studies, for my own spiritual growth and because
Oklahoma is in the Bible Belt. I helped out in a local Italian parish and spent summers working at Lourdes, France and at Karima Mission in Kenya.
I was ordained August 2, 1980 in Ponca City. I served 2 years as the associate at Sacred Heart, OKC with Spanish Masses in Clinton and Hinton, and 4 years at St. Matthew in Elk City and with residence in Sayre. I also had Mass in Cheyenne and continued my Spanish Masses in Clinton and Hinton. Archbishop Salatka then sent me to Fordham University in the Bronx, from which I received a PhD in Biblical Theology in 1989. My dissertation topic was The Master-Servant Type Scene in the Parables of Jesus. Since returning home, I have been the Vicar for Ministries and in 1993 became the founding pastor of St. Monica parish in Edmond. My role in the birth and growth of that wonderful community of faith has been the most rewarding experience of my priesthood so far. Since 2003 I have been pastor of Sacred Heart parish, a marvellous- heavily Hispanic-community of faith where there are plenty of downtrodden and lots of inspiring people of all ethnicities.
The biggest ongoing challenge in my priesthood has been that of learning how to meet the needs of others without neglecting my own basic human needs. I know that just as members of a family need their dad to fulfill his role as father, not be their best buddy, so also my parishioners need me to fulfill my fatherly role as their priest-that’s why I’m called Father! The obvious difference, however, is that most dads have wives to provide them (ideally) the emotional support they need. Luckily I had long established the habit of a daily holy hour-even prior to entering the seminary. The challenge of how to meet my own emotional needs, and thereby avoid the dangeous path of overwork and isolation, remains a major focus of my prayer. I ask God to foster in me the same healthy balance that he has called me to foster in others and in large measure this prayer has been and is being answered. Some of the steps he has led me to take in that direction are as follows: Socially: Early on I changed my day off” from Friday to Monday [the day most priests take off] and began to spend my days off with one or more priest friends. I also began to take greater risks in sharing my thoughts and feelings with them.
Physically: I began to exercise-at first swimming laps and then for the last 12 years racquetball, which is a far better fit for me. The vigorous activity is a great stress reducer and unlike swimming, racquetball is the kind of sport around which friendships can develop. I continue to play racquetball 2 or 3 times a week when possible.
Spiritually: In 19911 participated in a Retreat in Daily Life directed by Sr. Marie Luecke OSB, the 30-day Ignatian Retreat done in a 9 month format. The Ignatian insights into the discernment of spirits and the virtue of indifference [rightly understood] continue to enrich my spiritual and ministerial life even today.
Ministerially: In the late 80s Fr. Joe Ross invited Fr. Bernard Green to conduct a preaching workshop based on Charles A. Curran’s “psychodynamic approach” to interacting with Scripture. Learning this method rooted my homily preparation in my daily holy hour, thereby turning preaching into a much richer experience for me personally. I could now hear the text speaking to my own heart before considering what the Lord might want me to say to others.
In these simple, practical ways God continues to form me and provide for my needs. I am certain that without the habit of a daily holy hour, my growth through these and other challenges would have been much rockier. As it is, the Lord has guided me through my prayer and made me a happier, healthier and more effective priest.
As I look to the future I see major challenges ahead for the Church in Oklahoma.
The clergy shortage has already put our priests on the path of bum-out and isolation. Having faced this threat myself, I am quite concerned about the ongoing emotional and spiritual welfare of my fellow priests. Fewer priests means that priests will inevitably be less available when needed and people will be disappointed. But to achieve the healthy balance socially, physcially, spiritually and ministerially necessary to avoid bum-out, we priests will have to learn to say “No” more often, which we find hard to do because most of us are natural pleasers-we hate to disappoint people. The silver lining to our clergy shortage is that to flourish under these circumstances, we priests will have to become much more fully men of prayer and lay ministry will have to continue to develop-both of which will ultimately be good for the long term mission of the Church.
What gives me most hope for the future is the way our Church is becoming more diverse and inclusive. When I celebrate Mass here at Sacred Heart or concelebrate at the Cathedral, I love to look into the faces of those coming forward to Communion because in them I can see God bringing into existence right before my eyes what we pray for in the Second Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation, where we ask God to gather people of every race, language and way of life to share in the one eternal banquet with Jesus Christ the Lord. Not only is Martin Luther King’s “Dream” of a more inclusive America slowly coming true, the even more inclusive Kingdom of God established by Jesus really is growing among us right before our very eyes and I count as my greatest blessing the privilege of presiding at this eternal banquet in the person of Christ as a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.