Deacon Stash Dailey and his Journey to the Priesthood

adoration · family · religious · peers · Catholic school · Mass · Marian devotion

"I will be one.”

Deacon Stash Dailey remembers his first call to the priesthood … in the 2nd grade.

While attending Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle one Sat. evening with his great aunt and sister, Stash remembers his great aunt instructing that “the priest leads us in prayer to God. Pray for him because we don’t have many priests.”

Little Stash said, “I will be one.”

Deacon Stash Dailey will be ordained a priest May 24th, 2008 and will serve in the Diocese of Columbus after he completes seminary at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland where he has been studying theology for the last for four years. Stash attended the Pontifical College Josephinum for college seminary.

Family, friends, teachers, and prayer influenced Stash’s faith formation that led him to the priesthood.

His great aunt, grandparents and his Mom were instrumental in Stash’s spiritual life as a child. His grandparents and great aunt were Polish immigrants and loyal, devoted Catholics living their faith every day in the way they treated others and in their approach to life. The entire family had a very special devotion to Pope John Paul II. He would come on TV, even if it was just for thirty seconds, and the whole house would stop to see him.

“John Paul II was such a hero for my family and for me. The fruit of our faith is love for another person. We are to love every life. I saw his love for me expressed through

Sister Josephine who was a major influence in my life.”
Sister Josephine King was at St. Thomas the Apostle. In habit and veil, Stash (3rd grade) and his sister (1st grade) received private catechism instruction from her every Saturday.

“It is impossible to put into words how much love came from Sr. Josephine to us. We were so at ease with her and we could ask her anything about the church. She told us ‘do whatever He wants you to do and you will be happy.’ ”

Stash heard God’s call to him about the priesthood at his First Holy Communion.

“I received my First Holy Communion and thought that someday I will be on the other side of the altar as a priest.”

Stash shared his desire with his parents. Stash’s father was not Catholic and Stash’s mom wasn’t so sure that such a young man could be so certain of a call to be a priest. Stash’s grandparents and great aunt hoped and prayed that he would be a priest from the very beginning.

Stash attended public elementary school and then started Catholic middle school in the 6th grade at St. Anthony’s in Columbus.

“My greatest joy was to be in Catholic middle school. It was hard for me to be in public school because we didn’t pray; we couldn’t talk about our faith or celebrate Feast Days. No one got excited about it. I couldn’t believe it; when I started at St. Anthony’s we went to Mass every Friday. Every Wed. we practiced music for Mass. We prayed the Rosary, there were statues of Our Lady and the saints and we could pray openly.”

And Stash had a 6th grade teacher who was particularly supportive of his interest in a religious vocation.

“One day we went around the class and she asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Of course there were a lot of firemen and policemen, and I think two of us said ‘priest’. She gushed all over us. We had 100% encouragement in our vocation for the next three years.”

And so it began. It was public knowledge among Stash’s classmates from that point on that he wanted to be a priest. Friends, both boys and girls, began coming to him, some came with jokes in hand while others asked questions.

“The kids called me ‘priest boy’, but they accepted me and it helped cement what I was called to do. Kids knew they could come to me to talk. There was a distinction – he is with us, he is among us, he is one of us, but he is not quite like us. That can be a challenge in middle school where the last thing you want to do is be different.”

Also in middle school, Stash’s parents separated, but Stash’s parents have always supported him and his vocation to the priesthood and are actively involved in his life.

Stash attended St. Francis DeSales High School. He convinced his grandparents that it was not necessary to attend a Catholic all-boys high school and that if he was meant to be a priest he would be able to pursue that vocation in a high school with both young men and women.

Stash reflects that again, while at DeSales, “I was one of them, but not like them.” This allowed him to really begin a ministry of helping his peers by listening and supporting them and offering his friendship. He was “safe” and so often his female classmates came to him because he was a friend and someone they could trust.

“Young women in my classes never hesitated to talk to me about their problems and school. They just wanted to talk to someone who was nice, honest, and could be a friend amidst the MTV culture,” said Stash.

Also in high school, Stash began to consider the next steps of his vocation. Ever since he had begun reading the lives of saints, St. Dominic appealed to him and became his patron saint. The life of St. Dominic impressed him so much that he thought about entering the Dominican Order.

During his freshman year, Stash visited a religious community of priests in Connecticut for a weekend. The theme was “leave all you have and come follow me.” This is exactly what Stash wanted to do at that moment, but part of him felt another longing. While at the retreat, he wandered into the library and happened to glance over the Columbus Dispatch and the Catholic Times – this was Nov. 1996 – and saw stories about the vocations crisis among parish priests. Lay people were interviewed and they expressed their concerns about the lack of priests for their children and grandchildren.

It was then that Stash talked to a priest who counseled him to return home, go back to high school, and “live the way Jesus wants you to live. Go home and God will direct you where you need to go.”

Upon returning to DeSales, Stash’s art teacher noticed him moping around after his visit to the seminary. “You came back, but you left something there. Why aren’t you living in the here and now?”

Stash responded with joy and immersed himself in serving with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He also began adoring the Blessed Sacrament at Holy Cross in downtown Columbus and attending 5:15 Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral. The retreat movement Youth 2000 also became an important outlet for Stash as it combined all of his favorites; youth, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Marian devotion and catechesis.

“Adoration is such a great outlet for strength and the silence is so important. After all God speaks in the language of silence and in Adoration He speaks face to face.”

Stash also began to realize the “world was bigger that what I saw before me.” He took a trip to Spain with his high school Spanish class. He discovered that he enjoyed European techno dancing. In Europe he observed that many of the youth had healthy outlets for their zeal, unlike many U.S. kids who turn to drugs and alcohol, and dancing was one of those healthy outlets.

He discovered that some of his high school friends shared his interest in music and dancing and that again, he was with them, among them, but not one of them. He took this opportunity to introduce his dance friends to the joy of prayer and a relationship with God.

“Friends – mostly girls – trusted me and their parents trusted me. We went dancing on the weekend on the condition that they join me for Adoration afterward on First Fridays at Holy Cross.” It became common to go to the clubs in the evening and then stop by the Church on the way home.

After high school, his friends knew this is where Stash’s path broke off … but Stash has kept in touch with many of his high school friends even while in seminary at the Josephinum and then afterward at Mount St. Mary’s.

“One thing realized in the course of my life is that a calling – any calling – is not a solitary moment. It becomes a communal effort for us to do what God is calling us to do. We have to help each other become holy.”

When Pope John Paul II was a college professor he would often
associate with his students outside of the classroom. One of his former students said, in remembering Pope John Paul, “He was with us, among us, yet never like us, rather he made us want to be like him.” Stash sees Pope John Paul as a model for the priesthood.

In referring to the passion and mission of a parish priest, Stash comments that “I look forward to someday being able to say I am your priest. I am from you and God will have me among you to serve you.”

Did Stash experience doubts along the way? “Yes.”

“When my grandparents passed away, I especially had to make sure the call was mine and not theirs.”

“I told God that I followed you here and I am struggling, but I will be obedient. I talked to my spiritual director at those times and realized that doubts are an opportunity for faith to grow deeper and the spiritual director helps keep you on track.”

When reflecting on his ordination to the diaconate, Stash says that “I felt different, yet the same. It is an honor, but I am looking forward to the time where I lay down my life for another as a priest.”

As Stash prepares for ordination to the priesthood he reflects on how overwhelming it is to think that very soon he will be celebrating Mass and hearing confessions.

“In a few months, Jesus will be voicing his thoughts through my mouth to the penitent.”

“And the Mass … the Mass is the one act that keeps the world turning.”

He looks to the Blessed Mother to watch over him and guide him through his ordination and his life as a priest. “She saved my life once; I owe her what my life will become.” A devotion to Mary is profoundly a devotion to Christ, “in honoring her, I am honoring her son.”

“Mary shows us what we need to do and how to do it. She will be my consolation at my ordination. I will offer my priestly ordination and first Mass to Our Lady.”