By Fr. Frank T. Natale, MSC
June 29th of this year marked the 11th year of my ordination into the priesthood as a Missionary of the Sacred Heart. However, my active ministry as a priest in a parish did not begin until late August or early September in Palm Springs, California at two parishes, Our Lady of Solitude and Guadalupe. Today, 11 years later, at age 45, I am pastor of three parishes in Northern New York in the Diocese of Ogdensburg: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, St Mary’s, and St Paul’s.
Many ask, “Where did it all begin? “When did you get your call?” When did God speak to you?” For me, it wasn’t so much a call but more of a nudge or a pull—an invitation.
It all began in my senior year of high school, class of ‘98. A call of this magnitude doesn’t begin in a vacuum or happen all at once. I grew up in a close-knit, loving family in Canton, Ohio. My three siblings, our parents and I lived on the outskirts of town, on a small two-acre farm and a big summer vegetable garden. Our faith as Catholics was central to our family life, and the sacraments were equally important. Growing up in the faith and receiving all of the initiation sacraments helped my siblings and me assimilate into our parish community. I was involved in many ministries: altar server, catechist aid, parish council, cup minister, and anything the parish needed. All this helped to guide and mold me over the years to be able to perceive the gentle nudge, pull, and invitation in that senior year.
It all began for me with a deep sense to service. It was a strong desire that I wanted to serve in the Catholic Church; for me, it could have been anything. With this sense of service in the Church, I decided to confide in my mom. She was and is our family’s Catholic rock of faith. Following our conversation in a coffee shop, I remember the word spreading, “We need to pray for Frank. He wants to be a priest.” I never said I wanted to be a priest, but I wanted to serve in the Church no matter where it would lead me. I was very much open to wherever the call to serve would lead, but I also had a sense of being a part of a family, a community – a religious community. My parish priest was a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), which also began to appeal to me. After high school, everything was moving too fast, and the idea of becoming a priest was too much, so I let things subside. I enrolled in our local tech college and worked for my Uncle Bill for the next few years. The nudge, pull, and invitation to serve remained all this time. Over the next few years, I visited the main house of the MSCs in Aurora, IL and got to know the vocation director and the community more and more. In the fall of 2002, I was ready to test the waters and enter the MSC’s formation process in San Antonio, TX. This ended up not being the end but only the beginning of a new journey, of a call that began for me as a nudge, a push, an invitation…