Bigger investment, ultimate return
Look what can happen when you really try to discern where to put your life’s savings.
He was a blackjack dealer in a casino, a bouncer in a Dawson City bar in the Yukon and a successful broker in charge of mutual-fund operations at Laurentian Bank Securities in Montreal. Then last week, Michael Leclerc took the first major step on his way to the Roman Catholic priesthood when he was accepted as a minister of acolyte at a service in the chapel of Montreal’s Grand Seminary.
What a great story.
Leclerc admits his route to the ministry was a circuitous one. “I would go to church on Sunday, but my religion had little effect on what I did the rest of the week,” he said.
 “But my job as a financial analyst consumed me – I found it taking over who I was. The whole idea of shifting numbers from one column to another and worrying about decimal points started to seem empty.”
To deal with the stress, Leclerc often found himself dropping into St. Patrick’s Basilica on Rene Levesque Blvd. W. “My mind started focusing on the notion that maybe I should do something more with my life,” he said. “Slowly I came to the conclusion I shouldn’t be working with finances, that I should invest in something else – maybe along the lines of becoming a priest.”
See, I don’t think there’s a vocations crisis. There’s just a priest shortage, because a lot of men aren’t listening during the quiet times. Or even finding any quiet time in the first place.
