For some priests, the call to the priesthood came during childhood or young adulthood. But for Deacon Eric M. McDade, YA, God waited for the right moment.
He was born March 28, 1976, to Tom and Becky McDade in Baltimore. “I grew up the kid of two elementary school teachers,” he said. So, when he began attending the school where his dad taught, “I came to the conclusion quickly that I wasn’t going to get away with much,” he joked. With a strong Catholic presence on both sides of the family, he said his family’s faith life growing up was strong.
He attended college at William and Mary in Williamsburg, earning a bachelor’s in economics. That’s when he first encountered the Youth Apostles, an organization of priests and laymen devoted to discipling young people. That association would go on to influence his vocation. “There was a strong William and Mary Youth Apostles group there, and I am very obviously much, much better off for having gotten involved in that group,” he said. “I formed excellent friendships with the different people in that group, and they’re friendships that I have to this day.”
Toward the end of college, he thought about the priestly vocation. “I looked at the priesthood a little bit in my 20s, took some steps and explored, and didn’t feel at peace with that,” he said.
So, for the next 15-plus years, he invested himself and his career in Catholic culture. He worked for the Youth Apostles as a business manager, administrator and development director. He also worked in the Arlington diocese as a youth minister at St. Mark Church in Vienna.
Then, he went on a retreat, where he picked up the question of discernment again. “(I) just sort of put it out there and said, ‘Lord, I looked at this before. I don’t really feel like I ran away from this, but if you want me to look at this again, that’s fine.’ ”
This time, he didn’t have to wait long for an answer. “In that moment, there was a sense of, ‘Oh, I get the sense, that’s what you want,’ ” he said. Then, he realized, “I’m a little bit older, so it’s going to take a little bit of time to turn around the aircraft carrier. But we’ll start moving.”
He naturally looked into Youth Apostles, whose core values of truth, freedom and care resonated with him, as well as engaging youths through a “spirit of truth and a spirit of love.”
When he began at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., it was “the height of COVID” in September 2020. “I think being in seminary during COVID is one of the top 1% situations you can have in COVID. I need to study and pray, and I need to be distant,” he said. “And they’re giving us the means to do it.”
The pandemic didn’t stop him from making community with fellow seminarians. “I’ve enjoyed the fraternity at the seminary. I think among my (Arlington) classmates, it’s been fun just growing as a group,” he said. “We’re pretty fun.”
Reflecting on his journey to the priesthood, Deacon McDade encouraged those discerning the priestly vocation to find a spiritual director or mentor. “A lot of (discernment) is prayer, but a lot of it is processing things with other people who know us well,” he said.
And at the end of the day, discerning a vocation should never be rushed, he said. “A lot of the game is just slow, steady progress. It reminds me of running a marathon. You don’t need to accomplish it all at once, but you do need to just put slow, steady effort into it.”
