Aloha!
My name is Anthony Keith Poore Jr (AJ) and I have been blessed to serve the ohana of Our Lady of Perpetual Help for my summer 2021 assignment. I’m a native Texan raised in San Antonio, earned my Bachelor of Science in Poultry Science at Texas A&M University in 2015, and worked in Houston before moving to Oahu in 2018. In the spring of my senior year of college, I felt the call to the priesthood, but decided to run rather than pursue God’s call. I traveled the world in 2017 backpacking across Central America, Europe, and SE Asia. But God has a great sense of humor; if you want to make Him laugh, tell Him your plans. When I moved to Hawaii, I got plugged into Sts. Peter and Paul before moving to Kailua and meeting my roommate. He and I frequented St. Anthony of Padua and Blessed Sacrament creating a network of Catholic young adults hungry for the Lord. As I continued to dive deeper into my faith, I was reassured that God’s will for my life was to attend seminary.
As of this summer, I have one year of pre-theology under my belt and look forward to pre-theology II in the fall at St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park, CA. I enjoy working out, reading, and just hanging out at the beach. My favorite way to pray is the Liturgy of the Hours (10/10 would recommend). If there’s one thing I can recommend to anyone discerning a vocation: sit in silence, even if it’s just five minutes a day. When I was discerning in college, I’d wake up at 5 AM, pray “Lord, I’m listening,” and meditate for a few minutes before crawling back into bed. It’s difficult to hear God’s still small voice with all the noise of our daily lives screaming in our face from sun up to sun down.
I look forward to working with the OLPH community in the coming months and getting acquainted with as many folks as I can before heading back to school in August!
God Bless!