Boehling enjoyed the travel his job entailed, playing trumpet in a funk and disco band, dating.

But something was missing.

A lifelong Catholic who grew up in Roanoke County's Our Lady of Nazareth parish, Boehling found himself spending three lunch hours a week in meditation at a Benedictine abbey. After a few years of that, he began consulting the priests at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Richmond, home of the bishop of the Diocese of Richmond.

"I started talking to them about what life was like as a priest," Boehling recalled recently. "The more I heard, something inside quietly began speaking, saying, 'This could be the life for you.'"

It wasn't a matter of God telling him what to do in a booming bass, Boehling said, but was "subtle, quiet." Nevertheless, the calling got Boehling's attention.

Five years after beginning study as a seminarian at Catholic University of America in Washington, he returned to his home parish. Surrounded by the family and friends who'd watched him grow up there, he was ordained a deacon in the Roman Catholic Church-just a step away from becoming a full-fledged priest.

An unexpected path
In the seats at Our Lady of Nazareth for the ordination were childhood friends now grown and with children of their own; neighbors who'd seen him go off to Cave Spring Elementary, Cave Spring Junior High, Cave Spring High School; family who'd nurtured him physically and spiritually.

Mike Boehling '91 Boehling officiates at his first communion service.

Boehling was a pretty typical kid-that is, not obviously headed for the priesthood, he says.

At Hampden-Sydney, he belonged to a fraternity, dated, played in a band. But he'd never left his Catholic roots. He attended fairly informal Sunday Masses held around a table in a campus lounge and even served on the parish council there for a while.

"It was perfect for a college kid," Boehling believes now. And it was critically important to him as a "time to claim the faith as my own," not simply something handed down to him.

He was asking the hard questions, "Is this for me? Does the faith seem true to me?" he said.

"And I was able to answer, 'Yes.'"

Road of self-discovery
When he graduated in 1991, Boehling said, he was lucky to find a job in the midst of the Gulf War and a period of economic uncertainty.

But even as he was achieving success in business and starting to look for Miss Right and the prospect of starting a family, Boehling began to explore his spiritual side more deeply.

That's when he began his lunchtime meditations at the abbey and his conversations with the priests.

One of the most influential was Monsignor Charles Kelley, to whom Boehling confided his dreams of family.

"He said, 'Mike, the same qualities that would make you a good father, a good husband, will make you a good priest, if that's what God wants you to do. Trust God,'" said Kelley, who has since died.

Boehling talked to his family, who encouraged him. "If you think God is calling you to be a priest, go and be a good priest," his father said. And Boehling talked to the Rev. Michael Renniger, then rector of the cathedral in Richmond and now full-time vicar for vocations for the Diocese of Richmond.

They confronted the hard issues: celibacy, obedience, a life dedicated to prayer and lived in a fishbowl.

By 2000, Boehling was 30 years old and felt ready to begin the real journey of discernment about his calling, what is called "formation." Under the sponsorship of the Diocese of Richmond, he and four other candidates entered seminary.

He spent a year studying philosophy, another studying theology, a third year in a pastoral internship-at Our Lady of Nazareth-and last year, theology again. Two of his classmates dropped out of the program.

But Boehling had arrived at the service May 29 in his home parish for ordination as a deacon. He'll spend one more year in seminary before his scheduled ordination as a priest in Richmond in 2006.

He's found his way Boehling, 35, knows that some people will never understand how someone can choose a life of celibacy, particularly in a profession that has been wracked by scandal in recent years. He admits that "it didn't make sense to me, either," at fi rst. "But then I came here and lived with the pastor in the parish, and then it clicked."

During his year with Monsignor Joe Lehman, pastor at Our Lady of Nazareth, "I saw Father Joe able to embrace so many people lovingly without holding anything back," Boehling said. "The love of his life is Christ and Christ's church."

"I tell couples that my choice for celibacy is no different from their promise of fi delity," Boehling said. What may be the harder promise for himself-and most priests-is the one of obedience to their superiors. "That's the only one we have to make twice-at our ordination as deacon and as a priest."

Still, he's already seen that "following Christ, while not always an easy thing to do, when it really happens is very joyful. "When you're really doing the will of God, that's pure joy."

Article by Cody Lowe
Photographs by Don Petersen
© 2005 The Roanoke Times