Editor’s Note: The Register invited the men who were ordained transitional deacons last year to write columns for the Register, to introduce themselves to the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln.
Deacon David Tines (pronounced TEA-niss) is from St. Joseph Parish in Lincoln. He was ordained a deacon in May 2024 and served at North American Martyrs in Lincoln last summer. He is now in Theology 4 at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md.
Ordinations will be May 23 (new deacons) and 24 (new priests) in the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln.
“To whom shall we go, Lord? You have the words of everlasting life.” John 6:68
I think Peter said it best. Jesus had just finished his Bread of Life discourse, proclaiming a difficult and confusing teaching to his disciples, and many of his disciples had left. He then turns to the 12 and asks, “Will you also go away?” And I love how Peter responds. He doesn’t seem to indicate that he understands the difficult teaching, and he certainly doesn’t know where following Christ will lead. But, if he’s honest, he knows he only has two options: follow Christ, or walk away. And he goes for it, he chooses Christ. This is one of the best things about Peter: he leaps without looking, he trusts before fully understanding.
I was born, the oldest of three, and raised in Lincoln. I was homeschooled for the first few years of my education, attended St. Joseph School from third through eighth grade, and Pius X High School. Throughout this time, I had a hit-and-miss relationship with the faith. My family always went to Mass and prayed before meals, but I struggled with prayer and didn’t have a sense that God was active in my life.
Yet despite this, by God’s grace, I kept trying. Why? I think that a little like Peter, I recognized the all-or-nothing-ness of the faith. By some particular grace, I had a sense that either God exists or nothing ultimately matters, that if there isn’t a benevolent creator that made the world with a purpose that lasts beyond death, then we really are just a bunch of atoms bouncing off one another, spinning around in a cold dead universe. So, I kept coming back, drawn by an instinct that there must be some eternal meaning. I participated in a Godteens group throughout high school and went to a holy hour with a few friends at Blessed Sacrament Parish. I just kept showing up, though prayer was still frustrating, confusing, and seemingly silent.
After graduating from Pius, I went to the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, majoring in computer engineering with a minor in business. There at UNL, on my own for the first time, I found myself with a choice to make: take the faith as my own or stop practicing; go to Mass or don’t. But the same grace that kept me coming back in high school remained. I knew that walking away from the Church would be walking away from the very possibility of purpose and meaning. So, while I didn’t understand, I kept going. I went to Mass and got involved in a FOCUS bible study.
It was during this time that I took my leap toward putting God at the center of my life. One day, I found myself with a lack of peace that I couldn’t shake: I had a sense that God was guiding me to make a significant change in my life, but I didn’t understand why. Honestly, I was angry. I realized that if I made this big decision based on following God and not on my own reasoning, that would mean honestly admitting something to myself: it would mean admitting that God is actually real, and God is actually God. I would be admitting that I’m not the master of my own destiny, a relationship with God is the only thing that ultimately matters, and the ideal of academic and financial success I had been pursuing, compared to God, was straw.
By God’s grace, I made that change, and by His grace he helped me make more changes, one by one. When I had a conversation with a high school friend a year later, I realized that God must have made me for some purpose, and when I thought about what that purpose might be, I had a sense that I was supposed to be a priest.
Though I initially had absolutely no desire to go to seminary, the same choice was set before me: follow God or run from God. So, I went to seminary and each year, one year at a time, I stayed. Gradually, through formation and prayer, God reduced my resistance and uncovered my deep desire for the priesthood. And through it all, whenever the temptation to give up would rear its ugly head, the same question returned to me: “To whom shall we go, Lord? You have the words of everlasting life.”
Which brings me to today. I am preparing to be ordained a priest of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, the way, the truth, and the life. I have received so much love and support over the years, being received into the homes of my professors and families from parish assignments for dinners, cooking with them, and just sharing time together. I have received an excellent education at St. Gregory the Great and Mount St. Mary seminaries, inspiring a love of study and giving me a bounty of knowledge to draw on in the coming years of teaching. I have received innumerable prayers from across the diocese, especially my home parish, St. Joseph. But most of all, God has been so kind to me, drawing me to himself, one day at a time, and I am excited to begin service to him, through service to you, his people.
