FRENCHVILLE – David Raymond attained a near lifelong goal June 7 when he was ordained into the Roman Catholic priesthood – one of three in Maine this summer – by Bishop Joseph Gerry in the historic church at St. Luce Parish.

Raymond, 49, a soft-spoken man who was involved in SAD 33 education for 22 years, felt a calling to the priesthood as a young child growing up along the banks of the St. John River.

He sensed the religious calling for years, but didn’t investigate it deeper until he entered the early years of his fourth decade.

“I sensed a tugging, a calling, for years,” he said recently on the porch of his St. Agatha home. “I was always very involved in religion, even as a teacher of religious education through the years.

“It wasn’t until my early 40’s that I decided to investigate this feeling deeper, much deeper,” he said in his quiet tone of speech. “I spoke with many people, including the Rev. Claude Gendreau [now pastor of St. Louis Parish in Fort Kent], who helped in defining my early discernment. I really reflected on life.”

In a two-year process, he contacted the Diocese of Portland and delved further into the ministry until he was accepted as a seminarian at the age of 44. He was looking at five years of seminary education before ordination.

Prior to that time, Raymond had acquired a bachelor’s degree at the University of Maine at Fort Kent and a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine.

He taught elementary school and became assistant principal and director of curriculum at Wisdom High School in St. Agatha.

Raymond wore many hats during his educational career in his native Frenchville and his adopted home in St. Agatha. He also served in the Peace Corps in Chad, Central Africa.

In 1993, he wrote the nearly 200-year religious history of St. Luce Parish, one of the oldest in the St. John Valley, for its 150th anniversary.

Now, Raymond has acquired a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

“I loved teaching and learning, and I am a teacher at heart,” he said. “The ministry is another teaching role, and a great learning experience.”

Raymond was the second oldest seminarian while he studied philosophy, theology and conducted his priestly formation. The decision was a seemingly heavy experience for a man of 44 years.

At the seminary, where the average age was 33, he met many men who had been in other careers before attending. The oldest at the seminary, 56, was a grandfather with three children of his own.

“It was something I had to do,” Raymond said, reflecting on those times. “I had to find out and settle this pulling at me once and for all.

“Had I not, I would have been 70 years old, still wondering and thinking about it,” he said. “It was quite a journey in a place where some stayed and others left.”

The experience of the last few weeks since he has begun celebrating Mass was nothing like he expected, the new priest said. He calls leading friends and neighbors in prayer a “profound and humbling experience.

“Becoming a priest was one of the most difficult things I’ve done in my life,” Raymond said. “It is a good feeling, one made easier by the supportive prayers of people during the last five years. It’s what the St. John Valley and family is all about.”

During the time he was constantly evaluated academically and personally by the seminary and the diocese to determine if the priesthood was in fact where he should be, Raymond returned home to visit and work in several Maine parishes.

He still considers himself the David Raymond who taught school all those years, but he also has acquired a priestly identity which he says will take some time for him to be comfortable in. Still, he is happy with his decision.

As part of his training, he had assignments at a Jesuit College in Nebraska and worked in parishes in Sanford, Springvale and Lewiston. Raymond also worked in adult ministry in nursing homes and overnight shelters in St. Joseph Parish in Washington, D.C., for two years.

In Maine, he has been assigned the parochial vicar of the parishes of Holy Rosary in Caribou, St. Denis in Fort Fairfield and St. Louis Parish in Limestone, starting July 1. He will work with the Rev. Jean Paul Labrie, also a Frenchville native and a high school friend.

“It was a nice surprise,” Raymond said. “It allows me to be close to my parents,” Maurice and Marie Louise Raymond of Frenchville.

“I am also in my beloved Aroostook County,” he said. “I missed being here and in Maine during the five years I was gone.”

Raymond looks at his new endeavor as a “new chapter” in his life.

“The more I minister, the more I want to,” he said. “The more of it I get, the more I enjoy it.

“I want to be on the path with people in their journey,” Raymond said. “I want to be there during the messy times, the bad times, as well as the good times in their lives.

“I want to use the talents and gifts given to me by God,” he said. “It’s not a grand scheme. My immediate goal is to be present among the people, to help them uncomplicate their daily lives.”

Raymond knows the Roman Catholic Church in Maine is going through very trying times, a very difficult period.

“It’s time to foster compassion in people,” he said. “It is a time to give forgiveness where there is hurt, and it’s a time to heal wounds.”