From this month's Maryknoll Magazine:
Oct 04, 2005 - At 23 years of age, Stephen Taluja could be on
the fast track to success in several careers. The summa cum laude college
graduate speaks three languages fluently, and is musically gifted and computer
savvy. Why, then, has this son of a middle-class Sikh family from India chosen
the path to Catholic missionary priesthood and life among the world’s poorest
people?
To answer that question, Taluja whips out a Bible. "I feel like the
prophet Jeremiah," he says, pointing to the biblical passage (Jeremiah 20:9)
where the prophet explains his call. "Jeremiah felt the Word of God burning
inside him, and he had to share it."
[snip]
"Music was my doorway to Catholicism," he says. As a member of his
grade school choir, whose director, Harold Carver, was a devout Catholic, Taluja
recalls being asked to sing at Midnight Mass in a local parish. "I was
fascinated by the ritual," he says. "It was a whole new world outside my
religion. I had a lot of questions for Mr. Carver, who was also my principal. He
played a significant role in helping me embrace the faith when I was in high
school."
[Sounds like someone I know -- and his fascination with Palestrina ... :)]
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