As part of our series of posts to start the new college year, one of the new Oscott seminarians, Oliver Santin, shares his inspiring story thus far to entering seminary.

My name is Oliver Santin and I was seven when I first thought about being a priest, as I grew up I tired to put the thought aside but it remained. After finishing my university studies, I went on pilgrimage to Assisi and Rome and during this pilgrimage I grew in my understanding and appreciation of the gift the Lord has given us in the Eucharist. In this gift, the Lord has given us everything, He who is All-powerful, All-knowing, and All-loving cannot give us any more because in this gift, He has given us All. He has given us His very self and this gift demands a response. How was I to respond to God’s gift? I had to give myself entirely to Him, this is the only response, and that sounded, to me, like the priesthood.
We are all called to give ourselves entirely to the Lord (no matter our state in life) but in my heart it seemed that my gift of self would be as His priest. So, one year after finishing University, I entered the seminary and life has been more of an adventure then I would have imagined. “Truly, I say to you; there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life” (Lk 18:29-30).