So much for the “war” between science and faith!

Jaime Maldonado-Aviles was studying the neurological causes of addiction and depression as a post-doctoral fellow at Yale, when it hit him: was this really what God wanted him to be doing?

It wasn’t that neuroscience wasn’t valuable, of course. Maldonado-Aviles had dedicated his adult life to its study and research. But he started to feel God had other plans for him.

[I had] this constant intuition — I almost want to say nagging — that maybe I was called to serve in a different way,” Maldonado-Aviles told the Washington Post. “It was always frequent.”

“At different times the question would come back: If I see myself 90 years old, close to death, would I say to myself, ‘I should have entered seminary’?”

So in 2014, he left behind a promising career as a scientist at the top of his field and entered seminary at Catholic University of America.

The seminary process is 6 years, and Maldonado-Aviles is now in his 3rd year.

And, of course, there’s no guarantee he’ll make it to the end and actually become a priest. “Maldonado-Aviles is careful to say that he does not know yet that he will certainly become a priest,” a Washington Post profile explains. “The time he spends in seminary is all part of his process of discernment.”

You can read more about Maldonado-Aviles’ amazing story in an article by the Washington Post.

Pray for seminarians!

[See also: A Night of Fire: The Mystical Vision that Converted Scientist Blaise Pascal]

[See also: 10 Nobel Prize Winners on the Compatibility of Science and Faith]

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