Seminarian Mark Becker was on track to become a naval aviator until an injury forced him to change course. Seminarian Spotlight
CHARLOTTE — The sky has literally been the limit for seminarian Mark Becker who, ever since he can remember, had his sights set on becoming a Marine officer and “flying cool jets.”
He was well on his way when in 2020 – two weeks before receiving his wings – a major brain injury sidelined him, setting off a chain of events that would lead him down a path he had never considered – the priesthood.
While off duty, he suffered a subdural hematoma and was taken to a San Antonio hospital where he stayed for five days. His older brother, newly ordained Father Brian Becker, rushed to Texas from North Carolina to give him Anointing of the Sick in the Intensive Care Unit. His sister Deena also flew down as well as his parents, Tammy and Joseph, who was soon to be ordained a deacon at the time.
After his release from the hospital, the younger Becker brother spent two months in outpatient therapy and the next year and half trying to convince the Navy doctors he was fit to fly. As his friends all graduated and moved on in their lives, he felt stuck in his small South Texas town fighting for the chance to realize his lifelong dreams.
Becker describes this period in his life as his “time in the desert,” and said it was one where he did a lot of listening. As a result, God reordered his life and led him to new horizons.
He recently talked with the Catholic News Herald about his journey.
CNH: When did you first feel a calling to the priesthood?
Becker: From late 2018 to early 2020, when I was recovering from the brain injury, I didn’t know where God was leading me. I was still aggressively pursuing my longtime goal of becoming a naval aviator, but at the same time I was creating several different backup plans for my professional life. It was a turbulent time, and definitely the most difficult time of my life so far, yet through this suffering God reordered my interior life and drew me closer to Him. My dreams were slipping out of my grasp, and I was losing control of my plan for my life. Despite it being a terrible time, there was a constant underlying sense of certainty that I was in God’s hands and that His plan would be far better than my plan.
The call to the priesthood happened very naturally. My mom asked me while having coffee one day, “Well, have you ever considered the priesthood?” I immediately gave her a million-and-a-half reasons for why it’s not me God is calling, but that kind of lodged in the back of my head and the thought never really went away. It kept poking at me over the next few months, so I finally started to pray about this, and the more I did, the more it picked up speed. I had started dating a faithful Catholic woman. It was the first relationship I had when we were both very Catholic, and so I’m wrestling with all these things.
I finally I went into my church in Texas one day in the middle of the week. Nobody was there, and I went up to the sanctuary and out loud just said to God, “I think this is what you want. Please stop me if this is not what you want.” I asked what He wanted, waited around for a week … and silence.
Around this time, I had been telling a good buddy of mine, another Catholic in my squadron, my story. I was in the throes of it, and I was just bouncing ideas off him. He stopped me mid conversation and said, “I think you know what the answer is here.” That was the final nudge.
Siblings Deena Faust, Father Brian Becker and Mark Becker grew up in a faithful Catholic home where their parents, Joseph and Tammy, taught them how to pray and listen to God. (Photos provided by Mark Becker)CNH: How has your brother’s priestly vocation inspired you?
Becker: I had the benefit of watching from the sidelines as my brother went through the process. There were so many parallels that popped up between my journey in the Marine Corps and his journey through seminary and the priesthood – the sense of tradition, required high moral standards, the subordinating of ourselves to achieve a common goal, and a sense of brotherhood rarely found elsewhere. Obviously, it was huge having him on speed dial when I first started discerning. At the time, I didn’t want to talk to anybody publicly about it. It was nice to have someone who I personally know who went through the process himself and who also coaches other people discerning a priestly vocation.
CNH: With your father as a deacon and your brother a priest, why do you think so many in your immediate family felt these callings?
Becker: I don’t truly know. Overall, when my brother entered seminary in 2010 or 2011, the whole family became much, much deeper in our faith. I’ve heard stories of other seminarian families experiencing the same thing. It seems to be how God works, but there’s almost a gravitational pull deeper into the faith.
CNH: What about the Marine Corps has helped you in your studies for the priesthood?
Becker: Discipline, time management and self-accountability are all skills they’re trying to build into the guys at St. Joseph, and I got a lot of that from the Marine Corps. Building these skills opens you up. God’s going to work on you and your interior life.
CNH: What have you most enjoyed about studying at St. Joseph College Seminary?
Becker: The people here are incredible. Everyone’s fully invested in what they’re doing, and it’s a great familial environment. It’s not just like punching the clock, going to work and going home. These are my brothers. It’s awesome to have these years to grow in deep brotherly relationships, and I look forward to seeing what that will turn into 10, 15, 20 years down the road.
CNH: What is your advice for other young men discerning the priesthood?
Becker: It can be the most frustrating advice when you’re in the throes of trying to discern: Sprint toward God and try to become holy, and God will show you where to go from there. It’s incredibly frustrating not to know yet what school to apply to, where to move and all of that. All those things come after the first and most important thing.
In my own journey, it was falling in love with Jesus in the Eucharist and falling in love with the devotion to His mother.
Mark Becker
From: Charlotte
Age: 33
Home parish: St. Matthew Church, Charlotte
Parents: Deacon Joseph and Tammy Becker
Siblings: Father Brian Becker and Deena Faust
Background: Baptized at St. Matthew Parish in the gym before the church was built, grew up in Charlotte, attended All Saints before it was St. Matthew Catholic School, continued on to Holy Trinity Middle School and then a Catholic high school in Dunn Loring, Va., graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he was involved in the Catholic Student Union, was a flight instructor for a year, went to Officer Candidate School in Quantico for a 10-week boot camp, was commissioned as a second lieutenant with a flight contract, spent six more months of training at Quantico, went to flight school in Pensacola, Fla., and received orders to Kingsville, Texas, for further training to become a naval aviator.
Status: Began studies and formation at St. Joseph College Seminary in 2022, expected to transfer to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology in fall of 2024
Favorite Bible verse: “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit; You have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth.” (Ps 31:5)
“This verse has been one of my favorites during my time in seminary. It is the verse that Jesus cried out from the Cross just before He breathed His last. It is one of the prayers that is said during compline (night prayer) and is a striking and beautiful way to surrender yourself and unite yourself to Jesus on the Cross just before going to sleep.”
Favorite saints: St. Paul of the Cross and St. James. “St. Paul of the Cross has been popping up again and again in my discernment, both before and during seminary.
My brother and Sister Mary Raphael of the Daughters of the Virgin Mother had both been asking St. Paul of the Cross and St. James the Greater to intercede on my behalf for quite some time prior to me entering seminary. I was not aware of it at the time, but both of those saints had a role in helping me to see, and to conform myself to, God’s will.
Interests (outside of faith): All things mechanical, especially cars and airplanes.
Want to watch Mark Becker tell his story?
Check out St. Matthew Parish’s “In the Pews” segment: