Trevor Riendl, a member of St. Anthony of Padua, Kenosha, began his first year at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Winona, Minnesota, this fall. (Submitted photo)

As a high school student at St. Joseph Academy in Kenosha, Trevor Riendl saw the fruit of his efforts to lead others to Christ.

As a member of the retreat team: “I got to spend a lot of time sharing my faith with other kids that I grew up with. A lot of people from my high school told me that I really impacted their life.”

As captain of the cross-country team: “I had a lot of good relationships with those guys. I know a lot of those guys really struggled with faith, and I was kind of their only shining light for it because I was the only one they could really talk to.”

But even as Riendl was showing priestly gifts of both preaching and counsel, his own plans did not include discerning the priesthood.

Then God intervened with powerful life events and conversations that led him this fall to his first year at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Winona, Minnesota, which many Saint Francis de Sales seminarians attend as undergraduates.

“If you give your life up fully to God and really seek his will, he will give you it all back and more,” Riendl said. “I would stress that it’s not always going to be joyful and perfect. But in the long run, you’ll never regret it.”

Even his early school journey included gentle whispers that seemed to indicate the priesthood was in God’s pathway for him, but he had other ideas.

“My fourth grade teacher decided that she was going to guess all of her students’ future careers. She just so happened to think that I was going to be a priest. I didn’t think anything of it at the time,” he said. “I was like, ‘I don’t think so, but you can say that.’”

In high school, vocation directors visited his school and the chaplain would discuss the priesthood.

“Every time, it felt like I was being called to that, but I was thinking that it was probably just in my head and it’s probably not real,” he said.

“My mom used to tell me all the time that she thought I was going to be a priest, but it started to bother me because I was still against it. It was still something I was so afraid of, and something I didn’t think I would be willing to do.”

He spent his freshman year at Carthage College, Kenosha, at a time when he found himself falling away from the Catholic faith because of that struggle.

But in January, during a one-month break between semesters, an hour in adoration was transformational.

“I just spent the whole time contemplating what I was going to do,” he said of that 1-2 a.m. shift.

He came to this: “‘I’ve got to make a change, and I’ve got to turn something around,’ so I just completely gave my life back to Christ. The next couple weeks after that were just completely filled with joy. It was incredible. It made me realize what I had lost and gained back again.”

A few weeks later, during Lent, he said the idea of the priesthood and seminary built a greater excitement in him.

Then came a question from his dad during a car ride.

“He said, ‘What would you do if you had no fear?’ And at that moment, I knew I would join the seminary,” Riendl said.

But one final sign clinched it for him.

He told God, “If you want me to do this, then give me a sign today,” he said.

“I came out of my room, and I started talking to my mom. She said, ‘I just always thought you were going to be a priest.’ I responded, ‘There’s no way you just said that right now!’ That was the pivotal moment.”

No matter what his future brings, Riendl says that this step — one he says he would have never been able to do himself — is God’s strength being given to him on a pathway that scares him.

But his fear is not stopping him, because he has given up his plans — and his life — for the life God has for him.

“God’s path is really the path of joy,” he says, “and this is where I’m going to find peace in my life.”

Trevor Riendl
Parish: St. Anthony of Padua, Kenosha
Family: Frank, father; Jamie, mother; Kate, sister
Scripture quote: For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. — Matthew 16:25