Growing up on the family farm in Beecher, Ill., young Jerome Kish had the same kinds of goals and dreams as most of his friends. Marry. Launch a career. Raise a big family.

With a strong desire to teach, he graduated from the University of Illinois-Chicago and then went on to earn a doctorate in electrical engineering. It was not until near the end of his educational career that he heard God calling him to be a priest.

Coming from a good Catholic family of seven — five boys and two girls — Father Kish, fifth in the stream of siblings, was well formed in the faith. But, in his years at the University of Illinois, he decided he wanted to go deeper with God. He began attending Mass at the school's Cardinal Newman Center and reading, meditating and praying more. He dived into the epic memoirs of St. John Bosco, working his way through the first nine volumes. Father Kish was greatly inspired by this saint's dedication to youth. Before long, he found himself volunteering to teach the catechism at his parish and tutor fifth- and sixth-graders in math, a program sponsored by Opus Dei.

“Ironically enough, I'm the only one of our family not to have attended a Catholic school,” says Father Kish. “In fact, even though my brother had attended seminary high school, I had made a definite decision not to be a priest. But while I was at the university, questions just came bubbling up inside of me.”

At the same time, Father Kish became acquainted with Father Peter Armenio, a priest with the prelature of Opus Dei. Father Armenio became his spiritual director, guiding Father Kish in refining his prayer life and enriching his faith. Eventually the two became good friends. When Father Kish began experiencing uneasiness about his future vocation, Father Armenio helped him to sort things out.

By steeping himself in prayer and the writings of the Catholic spiritual masters, Father Kish worked things through. He discovered that teaching was what he loved most. But he didn't want to teach just anything — he wanted to teach the Catholic faith. That's when he realized that doing so would bring him even greater joy than teaching science. Before he made his final decision, Father Armenio advised him to wait a year.

“It was during graduate school and in his general pursuit of holiness that he realized God may be calling him to the priest-hood,” recalls Father Armenio. “It was a crisis for him — to choose a vocation as a priest or a vocation as a holy layman. He was about to receive his doctorate and he wanted to be pretty sure God was calling him to the priesthood before he renounced that.”

It's been five years since Father Kish's ordination and all of them have been spent at St. Joseph's Church, a 2,000-family parish in Downers Grove, Ill.

The parishioners there have been delighted with his pastoral guidance. According to one, Bob LeMay, not only is Father Kish an admirable priest, but he's also a member of the family. LeMay's wife, Bonnie, and Father Kish are cousins. Father Kish was an altar server at their wedding. Today he impresses the LeMays with his continued service at the altar and his consistent reverence in all his priestly duties, especially during holy Mass.

“It's obvious that he's in awe of what he's doing,” says LeMay.

Another parishioner, Anne Marie Schuster, comments: “He has such a love and reverence for the holy Eucharist that it's attractive and compelling. When he distributes Communion, you feel his awe and it just makes you that much more passionate about the Eucharist.”

The LeMays also commend Father Kish's homilies because he's not afraid to tackle controversial topics that they feel many other priests are unwilling to approach. They admire and appreciate his fidelity to the magisterium. He has a way of reaching out to people, they say, by sharing his personal experiences and tying together what's going on in society today with the timeless message of the Gospel.

Schuster attributes this to Father Kish's ability to appeal to both young and old. “He has an overall presentation of humility and sensitivity,” she says. “He relates to others on a very personal level and reaches you where you're at.”

His Parents' Son

That's obvious in the many ministries in which Father Kish is involved. In addition to administering the sacraments, he visits the sick and elderly, prepares couples for marriage, conducts “Theology on Tap” sessions and other adult spiritual formation programs, plays sports with the youth at St. Joseph's Grade School and entertains at the parish's annual Family Fun Fair.

Although being a priest is always a joy for Father Kish, it isn't always easy. He is pained by the lack of harmony he sees in the Church. He says he tries to foster more deeply the unity in the Church that's already there. He turns to the words of Pope John Paul II for exhortation and draws on his family background for encouragement.

“I owe it to the influence of my parents,” says Father Kish. “I witnessed their generosity and married love. They lived their baptismal priesthood, which taught me how to live my sacramental priesthood.”

Father Kish draws a great deal of consolation from prayer, beginning with the holy Eucharist, which he lets “overflow into the rest of the day” with extra prayer and contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament.

He is also very attached to the Virgin Mary. Recalling a time when the traveling statue of Our Lady of Fatima visited his childhood home, Father Kish says: “One night, I led the prayers in front of the statue. Suddenly, everything welled up in my heart and all I could think of was that I wanted to put everything into her hands. Suddenly, there was a moment of peace within me. It's not a mystical experience, but it deeply affected me.”

Moving On

This month, Father Kish is leaving St. Joseph's for Sts. Peter and Paul parish in Naperville, Ill. He isn't verbose in talking about the move, but it's clear from his demeanor that, exciting as the new opportunity is, he'll be genuinely saddened to leave his present parish family behind.

If his past priestly works are any indication, the people of Sts. Peter and Paul will soon have a deepened appreciation for Christ in the sacraments. And that education he worked so hard to complete a few years back? That will come into play, too: He wants to create a science camp for middle- and high-school students.

“We have a desperate need for Christian scientists,” he says. “We have all this wonderful technology out there and it's being so badly misused. I want to foster a sense of wonderment and respect for God.”

In other words, it'll soon be back to business as usual for Father Jerome Kish.

Marge Fenelon writes from Cudahy, Wisconsin.