Diocese of Covington - Messenger at 402 E. 21st Street, Covington, KY 41015 US - Surrendering to God's will
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Surrendering to God's will |
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| Kevin Kahmann |
“I will be eternally grateful to my mother and father for instilling in me the importance of the Catholic faith. Unfortunately, I had fallen away from practicing the faith after high school. After more than a decade away from the faith, when I returned I had a solid religious foundation to return to because of my parents’ faithful witness to their faith when I was young,” wrote Mr. Kahmann in an e-mail interview March 4.
“Looking back, it was their love for the faith that made a deep impression on me in childhood. I remember religious practices that my parents insisted on — for example, prayer before meals — that at the time seemed unimportant, but now I realize how critical they were in instilling the faith in me.”
At 10 a.m. on April 4 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, through the laying on of hands by Bishop Roger Foys and the power of the Holy Spirit, Mr. Kahmann and Ian McDole will be ordained to the diaconate. This is a transitional step on their journey to the priesthood. All in the Diocese of Covington are invited to join in the celebration. (The Messenger will feature Mr. McDole in an upcoming edition.)
Mr. Kahmann’s decision to enter the seminary was a difficult one. He had a satisfying 15-year career as a revenue agent for the Internal Revenue Service, he was living comfortably in a house that he owned and he had the hope of one day marrying and starting a family. But his return to the faith was powerful and passionate and left him searching for God’s will in his life. He said that during the two years prior to his entering the seminary he was “immersed in practicing the faith — attending daily Mass, almost daily Eucharistic adoration, and frequent confession.” It was Father Gregory Bach, then parochial vicar at St. Henry Church, Elsmere (Mr. Kahmann’s home parish), who first suggested that Mr. Kahmann might be called to the priesthood. (Father Bach is now diocesan vocation recruiter.)
“To this day I still remember me laughing and saying, ‘There’s no way I’m called to be a priest.’ But once that thought of being called entered my prayer life, it started to take hold. I prayed about it constantly. My thought process went from — ‘there’s no way I’m called to be a priest’ to ‘well … maybe …’ to ‘I can’t say for sure that I’m called but I need to find out one way or the other.’ That’s when I decided to enter seminary,” Mr. Kahmann said. “I wanted to find out what God was calling me to do — and the seminary is the place to do that. I didn’t want to have any regrets later in life. When I am 80-years-old I didn’t want to look back and wonder if I should have given seminary a chance.”
In 2004 Mr. Kahmann entered the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, completed two years of pre-theology studies there, then transferred to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in 2006. He said that in addition to prayer and study what also have shown him God’s call to the priesthood are the vocation stories of his fellow seminarians.
“To realize that other men with backgrounds and interests similar to mine were also discerning a call to the priesthood is a big influence on me. The support and encouragement that I received in seminary from other seminarians is invaluable in discerning my call,” he said.
Considering his life’s journey — particularly his spiritual life that by all accounts seemed to have reached a dead end — it’s not surprising that Mr. Kahmann draws inspiration from Scripture, Luke 22:42, “not my will but yours be done.”
“My life was heading in a completely different direction than that of service in the Church. But when I became serious about figuring out God’s will for my life — it seemed he had different things in store for me. Ultimately, I was faced with a choice — to do my will and pursue the life I had started, or to say ‘yes’ to God’s will and trust in his providence for my life.
“To do the will of the Lord demanded giving up my selfish wants, my desire to be in complete control of my life, the attitude of ‘me-first.’ Once I made the decision to do God’s will and not my own there follows a tremendous peace and joy that can’t be found anywhere else,” Mr. Kahmann said.
“As I approach my ordination to the diaconate I feel humbled to accept such a great responsibility. I know that I am doing God’s will for my life and I look forward with much anticipation to serving the people of our diocese as a deacon. My diaconate ordination is the culmination of five years’ worth of prayer and study and parish work that have prepared me for this moment.”
Mr. Kahmann is 46-years-old. He is a lifelong member of St. Henry Church, Elsmere, and a graduate of Lloyd High School and Northern Kentucky University.