This story first appeared in The Glenmary Challenge, Autumn 1988

It does not seem fair that the bishop is more nervous than the candidates," said Bishop J. Kendrick Williams, of the recently established Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky. He was about to ordain his first priests. Standing before Bishop Williams, soon to be home missionary priests, were two Glenmarians, Michael Kerin and Donald Tranel. They, too, were nervous as family and friends and fellow Glenmarians looked on.

Father Don Tranel reflected on the experience. "I felt humbled. The bishop talked about dreams and visions. I wondered what that would mean in my life. I suppose my dream is to be faithful to my oath as a Glenmary priest."

Then Father Don recalled something he had said as a novice in 1984: "The will of God does not lead us where the grace of God will not care for us."

On May 21, the will of God had led Don Tranel and Mike Kerin to the priesthood and a future of ministering to the spiritually and materially poor of the United States. For each, it had been a long journey to the day of ordination.

Father Mike Kerin

Father Mike Kerin is a thirty-yearold native of Scarsdale, New York, who at the early age of seven or eight sensed he might have a religious vocation. After all, he has an uncle who is a Charlotte diocesan priest and two aunts who are Dominican nuns.

However, when Mike went to college he temporarily put aside all thoughts of a religious vocation. He earned a bachelors degree from Jacksonville (Florida) University. While there he also acquired a pilot's license.

In 1981, two years after graduation, Mike entered Glenmary "because G1enmary offered what (he) was looking for - working with the poor in a rural setting, in areas of our country where ther,' is a real need for priests."

The olden son of James and Lois Kerin, Father Mike has begun his priestly apostolate as associate pastor at Holy Redeemer Church in Spencer, West Virginia, and its two missions: Saint Elizabeth's in Elizabeth and Prince of Peace in Grantsville.

Father Don Tranel grew up on his parents' farm in Menominee, Illinois, the youngest of Albert and Mary Tranel's seven grown children. He admits a religious vocation always seemed tucked somewhere in the back of his mind, as his brother, Jim, is a Rockford diocesan priest, and his sister, Maryann, is a Dominican nun.

Father Don Tranel

However, Don worked for several years after being graduated from Loras (Iowa) College in 1975. He also spent eighteen months with the government's VISTA program in rural Indiana.

"I just was not happy," Don admits of those days. He contacted Father Bob Sherry, a friend and spiritual advisor from the Diocese of Rockford. He eventually steered Don to St. Meinrad (Indiana) Seminary where he met Glenmary seminarian Brian LaBurt, who told him about Glenmary.

"It seemed like a hand-in-glove fit for me," Don explained. "Brian's description matched what I was interested in doing. I had lived all my life on a farm, and here was a religious group that worked with the poor in rural areas. It was perfect!"

During his novitiate Don realized he had made the right decision. For part of this year of mission training he was sent to Bryson City, North Carolina, where he engaged in outreach work. Don began calling on an impoverished woman who was an inactive Catholic. Eventually he helped guide her back to the Church. Following one of his visits to see the woman, Don wrote in his journal, "Today I felt like a missioner!"

Assigned to Holy Redeemer Church in McRae, Georgia, he is beginning a new life of service to God's people in a three-county parish where there are less than 100 Catholics among the 33,555 residents.

Father Don Tranel is a missioner now!