Eric and Grace Morrison have never pressured their seven children to pursue the priesthood or religious life. Their son Danny, who is a transitional deacon in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., jokingly describes his vocation story as “boring.” 

There was “no big turnaround moment of conversion, but just this slow call of the Lord throughout my early life,” he told the Register. 

There is one uncommon feature in his vocation story to the priesthood, however. With his upcoming ordination, “Deacon Danny,” as he is known, will become the third priest in his immediate family, which also includes a religious sister with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, Tennessee. 

“It’s a beautiful camaraderie just among our family members,” the 26-year-old deacon said of his siblings who have pursued the priesthood and religious life. “This beautiful push of drawing excellence from each other, drawing each other to the cross, and to the heights of holiness — and what a gift it is to have within the family structure.”

Deacon Danny is scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood June 21, joining his brothers, Fathers James and Nicholas Morrison, as priests for the Archdiocese of Washington. Their sister, Sister Mary Sophia, is set to make her first vows with the Nashville Dominicans in August.

“One of our favorite lines as a family, and as siblings, is all or nothing,” said Father Nicholas, who was ordained a priest in 2021, in an interview with the Register. “We’re continuing to try to be radically generous with the Lord, to give all to the Lord and to work for the Lord and for the salvation of others.”

An Invitation Rather Than an Obligation

Eric Morrison, with three ordained sons and a daughter in religious life, is frequently asked by other parents how they can encourage their own children to pursue the priesthood or religious vocation. 

“It’s complete humility,” he told the Register. “There is no formula.” 

“In my particular case, I think it was just a matter of trying to always keep an open door,” he said. 

Eric and Grace Morrison did a “really wonderful job of gently promoting or encouraging vocations without in any way pushing, or even subconsciously hinting, that it would be better if their kids were priests or nuns,” said Father Mark Ivany, director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Washington, who has known the family since their children were young.

Dominican Sister Mary Sophia shared how her parents’ guidance for their children was centered on God’s will for their lives. 

“They encouraged us to give all things to Christ, first and foremost,” she told the Register. “Once we give all to Christ, he’ll show us what our vocation is in life.”

Parishioners of St. John Neumann in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Eric and Grace made the decision to homeschool their children, allowing for more regular access to the sacraments in their routine, although they didn’t put pressure on them to take part. 

Grace told the Register: “We understood, just in teaching them the faith, that their happiness here on earth and happiness in heaven was to seek God’s will for their life.”

“We did go to daily Mass as often as possible, but they had the freedom to go to daily Mass,” Grace said. “They were never forced, but they just naturally wanted to.”

For Father James, the eldest Morrison son and the first to be ordained, “the way in which the faith was practiced was really beautiful,” he told the Register, but it was never treated as an “obligation.”

“Obviously, we practiced it without interruption or superficiality, but it was seen as our life,” he said. “It wasn't an add-on or a Sunday commitment. It was our life.”

“I think one of the main things that the Morrisons did, and that really anyone could do, is simply to propose” the priesthood or religious life “as a legitimate, joyful, fulfilling vocation in life,” Father Ivany said. 

Building a Catholic Community

A feature of the Morrisons’ weekly routine included welcoming priests into their home for dinner, an experience which their sons highlight as part of their vocation story. 

One memory that stands out for Father Nicholas is when, as a small boy, a second priest joined the family for the weekly dinner.

“I just remember seeing the two priests interacting with each other, their friendship, their humor with each other,” he recalled. 

“It was that first moment, when they were both over for dinner and laughing and having a fun time with us. That was the first spark in my own heart of realizing: Wow, priests are cool and fun.”

It was “an intentional decision” by their parents to invite priests over for dinner, said Father James. “We saw the priesthood as a really important and critical gift for the Church and for the world.”

The Morrison children saw their parents treat priests “like normal people,” while also treating the office of the priesthood with “a healthy amount of reverence,” Father Ivany said. “I think that just went a long way, and all the kids knew that that was a viable option for a very happy, life-giving vocation.”

Another aspect of their upbringing was the importance of community and friendships with a shared commitment to the faith. 

“My parents were really serious about choosing an amazing Catholic culture to grow up in,” said Father James. It was “a really fun network of Catholic families,” around whom “Catholicism was contagious.”

“The most powerful influences in my life as friends were disciples” who “wanted to be just as Catholic as I wanted to be,” he said. “I wasn’t the ‘black sheep’ that left for seminary. I was in the daily Mass chapel or adoration chapel right there next to them.”

Marriage as a Model 

In encouraging their children to be open to God’s will, Eric and Grace modeled the vocation to marriage in their own family. Their daughter Anna is married with children of her own, and their other son is studying at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Finally, their youngest daughter, 12, was adopted from Ukraine and has special needs. 

“All the children in that family had a front-row seat of a joyful Catholic marriage and to see that vocation lived out so well,” said Father Ivany.

Father Nicholas noted the “radical generosity” that his parents directed towards their children. In turn, they “encouraged us to be radically generous with others, to be radically generous with the Lord, and then to be radically generous with those around us as well,” he said. 

For Deacon Danny, it was his parents’ “beautiful sacrificial love” for him and his siblings. “We each grew in our docility to the Lord,” in sacrifice and lifting up the cross, “by seeing them do it, by seeing their example.”

Marian Devotion

 After they were married, Eric and Grace made a consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and subsequent sacramental moments for the family have revolved around this Marian feast day: Fathers James and Nicholas’ ordination to the priesthood, Danny’s ordination to the diaconate, and their sister Anna’s marriage all landed on the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In addition, this is the feast day assigned to Sister Mary Sophia by her mother superior.

Seeing his two older brothers discern the priesthood, and visiting them in seminary, Deacon Danny cited “their growth in joy, their growth in holiness, their growth in just pursuing this vocation” as factors in his own discernment. 

“What a gift it’s been to experience and continue to grow in that joy that I first witnessed in person in our early years as a family,” he said.

“To have a brother as a priest who knows your experience from the inside is a huge gift,” said Father James. 

“Just as you would seek counsel from a sibling,” he added, “how much more powerful that can be as a priest, now relating to a brother who isn’t just there as a listening ear, but somebody who knows this vocation just as intimately as you do.”

“It’s all by the grace of the Lord that anyone responds to a vocation and anyone is able to live the beauty of our faith,” said Sister Mary Sophia. 

“My particular family has responded in this way, but all are called to respond in a similar way, and to be open to whatever the Lord calls them to.”