Father Sean Loomis
Episode 212
20 FEB 2023
He is three months shy of the ten-year anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. He is Parochial Administrator at Annunciation BVM Parish in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Back in his days as a student-athlete he attended Kutztown University on an athletic scholarship and, as a pole vaulter, won the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship. In high school he had been an All-State pole vaulting champion when he graduated in 2003.
Notable guest quotes:
“I was baptized Episcopalian, but I wasn’t actually raised in any kind of faith tradition. So, I have no memory of entering into a church or learning about Christianity or really even about God in general.”
“Most importantly, what set me apart from other people, was this talent I had in track and field, but in particular with pole vaulting.”
“If pole vault is not God, if sports are not the end game, and if there is more about our story and our narrative, especially in the mind of God, then naturally we should expect that none of this is going to fill the void.”
“If my entire identity, if my whole life, is wrapped up in this, then that means two things. Number one, I’m not going to be happy and I’m going to go through a massive identity crisis sometime in the near future. But number two, I’m putting my own sense of self worth in the minds of other people because all of this is about comparing myself to others and that’s just never going to satisfy.”
“I looked up to God in the sky and I said, ‘If you are there, I really need help. I need to know if you are real, if you gave me a purpose, and if you gave me a purpose, what that purpose is’.”
“I transferred universities where I could really full-time step into my identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ. So, I did that at Franciscan University.”
“I am to find my identity only in the person of Jesus Christ and nowhere else.”
“The God of my faith is truly all powerful and He’s the source for me to understand anything in any moment and to return to at all times.”
“I know that God’s plan is not only about me. He’s got a plan that includes everybody and wraps everybody into it.”