Religion

Story by PATRICK BUTLER
Religion Editor

Who wants to walk 300 miles in summer’s sweltering heat so they can become priests? Patrick Richey and Ed Stocks do. That’s the task the pair — one a football coach, the other a math instructor — have in mind come July 7 as they walk from Subiaco, Ark., to Tyler.

The idea is to have sponsors for each mile of their interstate prayer walk, called a “Walk For Vocation.” A “vocation” in religious parlance is “a divine call to God’s service in the Christian life,” said Richey. One goal of the walk is that Richey and Stocks may enter full-time ministry debt-free. The enterprise is a noble purpose, certainly, but has raised some eyebrows.

“Some people are asking, ‘Walk 300 miles in the summer? Are you guys crazy or what?” said Richey. Those are some of the thoughts Richey — who is 6-foot-4 and weighs about 300 pounds — has had to deal with since he decided on the “Walk For Vocation” event about eight months ago.

But the vocational prayer walk is not a hap-hazard, thrown-together-walk-on-a-whim. Richey said he’s been thinking about it for a couple of years and now is the time. Still, there are those who doubt even a walk where prayer to God is the focus can be done in the sweltering summer sun.

“I’ve been told ‘you can’t do this, you know,’” said a smiling Richey as he took a break in the middle of “training” — a fast walk for a few miles in the Tyler heat — a couple of weeks ago. “I just thought, ‘Really? I can’t? Well, let’s see.’” It was 95 degrees and humid the day the Tyler Paper showed up to track the trekkers as they were preparing for what’s coming in July.

Richey, 30, doesn’t seem pridefully indignant when challenges come concerning the vocational prayer walk. He just isn’t accustomed to losing. Once a lineman for his high school football team and winning the state championship, he now coaches football at Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Middle School. He is also a youth minister at St. Mary Magdeline Church in Flint. He seems to take life one step at a time, yet with quiet confidence and an irrepressible energy.

“I’m called to preach the Gospel,” said the good-natured Richey. “I want to be a priest. It isn’t more complicated than that.”

This patient and gentle (except to his football team) giant developed perseverance while criss-crossing the country as a long-haul semi-truck driving. The job was to help pay his college debts, which were quite high.

“Somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000,” he said. Richey’s degree in theology from St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., wasn’t exactly the lucrative type, he added with another smile. “But it’s great if you want to go to seminary.”

And that’s what “Walk for Vocations” is all about; Amortizing college debts for Richey and Stocks so the door can be opened for deeper involvement in ministry. The walk is a spiritual quest.

“You have to be debt free to attend seminary, and that’s what I want to do.” Richey said. “Again, it’s that simple. I’m ready to go, I want to go. I can’t go further until the debt is paid.”

It was during his trucking days — where he would play worship music and pray while driving — that he began to think of a walk. Practical as well as daring, Richey evaluated the physical cost a trek across two states would demand. In November, he decided to do the walk.

“I knew I couldn’t do this alone,” he said. “I needed a partner.”

Enter Ed Stocks, 27, a math teacher at Robert E. Lee High School. Ed appears the physical opposite of Richey — his slender, metabolically burning body chemistry makes him look like the track and field competitor he was in high school. Stocks also wants to amortize college debts and “move on” to a full-time ministry. Richey asked Ed to come walk in the Southern heat. To his surprise, Stocks agreed.

“I’ve wanted to join a Benedictine brotherhood, a religious order at Subiaco Abbey, Arkansas, for some time now,” he explained. “This looked like a way to do it, or at least get started towards it.”

His debt of $35,000 after graduating from Notre Dame with a degree in economics is keeping him back, he said.

“Two thirds of the college debt must be paid before I can proceed,” he said. “Patrick and I hope this Walk for Vocation will address that debt and help us move on to our callings.”

And the spiritual “tug” on Stock’s heart to a “deeper level of service” has been consistent, he said. And after a successful bout with cancer of the trachea in April, he is more determined than ever.

“I want to combine a life of prayer, service and teaching with the order,” he said. “That’s what I want to do.”

It’s been somewhat challenging to explain to people, even church people, that the walk is not some sort of light-hearted Laurel and Hardy comedy; a carefree and careless romp down Arkansas Highway 59. The two men are serious about God, ministry and living a life close to the Almighty.

“Some of the churches along the way we’ve asked to stay the night have wondered if this is legitimate,” said Richey. “We assure everybody concerned, it certainly is.”

Stocks said, “We’re walking to seek God’s guidance for what he wants of us. We’ll be praying the entire time we’re walking, undistracted by daily life and cares. This is a spiritual exercise, not just a physical one.”

And his motivation?

“To share the love of Christ in a community of believers and to learn how to love as Christ did, is closest to my heart,” he said. “I’m willing to take on a walk like this if it helps get closer to that goal.”

And to get closer to the goal, Stocks and Richey have been working out daily for four months, walking around Tyler after work and increasing their mileage slowly. They are up to six miles per day and ready for more, they said.

It may seem a slam-dunk that two Christian men, ready and willing to adhere to the rigors of a priestly life would be accepted, even eagerly thrust into a religious system clearly hungry for leadership. In 2003, 150 American priests signed a letter to the U.S. Council of Bishops requesting optional celibacy in order to attract more applicants to the priesthood. The number of U.S. priests, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, and published in U.S. News and World Report in 2008 reveals there are nearly 10,000 fewer priests than 33 years ago. The most recent survey from 2007 counts 27,971 priests, down from 36,005 in 1975.

Richey and Stocks are aware of the statistics and quietly wonder if what they’re facing is part of the problem.

“It costs a tremendous amount of money for a private school education,” Richey said. “It’s unbelievable, really.”

Stocks said, “The education has been a blessing, certainly, but it’s also been an obstacle in our way for many years.”

And they realize they are not alone in the predicament. The two have started a Walk For Vocations Scholarship Fund to help others also facing a mountain of college fees.

“This is an issue larger than just ourselves,” said Stocks. “We want to help others get out of college debt. Anybody in that position can apply for scholarship grants to go on in ministry.”

Richey hands out a white notebook he put together with information about the walk. There are six pages of colorful graphics all neatly sealed in page protectors, carefully explaining the purpose, procedure and opportunity for sponsorship of the event. There is even a well developed Web site at www.walk4vocation.com where potential sponsors or the curious can find more information and make a contribution in a variety of creative fashions. A Web designer friend donated the slick site to the two walkers.

“First and foremost, we humbly ask people to pray for us,” said Stocks. “Without prayer, this pilgrimage would never succeed.”

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me,” the first page says (Mark 8:34).

The Web site includes detailed daily maps, routes, days numbered one through 13 and list where Stocks and Richey will be at any given time during the prayer walk. During the walk’s last day, the two hope the community will join them in the final miles.

“Our prayer is that people will join us in the last day of the walk,” said Stocks. “We’ll be walking some laps around the track at T.K. Gorman. We’ll be coming through Tyler State Park and working our way through the heart of the city. We’ll be at T.K. Gorman at approximately 4 p.m.

Exact and updated times will be available on the Web as the walk progresses.

“The reason we want people to join us at T.K. Gorman is that the Walk For Vocation is not an act for ourselves,” said Stocks. “We want to begin our life of service now before we are ordained or take vows. We like people to know that our vocation isn’t personal, it’s a public statement and as such it demands that we fill our obligation to the community. Our success is their success.”

Even though Richey says he believes the walk will take care of much of their college debt, he said there is a larger spiritual benefit. He’s felt it in his training for the walk.

“I feel better now than I have for 10 years, not just physically but spiritually because I spend the time and have a chance to be alone and talk to my God. It’s just amazing, the feeling you have of closeness to God. I’m looking forward to the entire walk.”

Stocks said, “Every person whether married, single or committed to public ministry has a specific call from God, a specific vocation. We will never find happiness until we find that vocation.”

Go to Web at www.walkforvocation.com or call 903-330-2032 or 903-253-4060 for information.

TRAINING DAYS: Patrick Richey (left) and Ed Stocks walk through the Tyler heat as they train for the upcoming “Walk For Vocation” from Arkansas to Texas. The pair of Tyler teachers have been walking in preparation for their spiritual “pilgrimage” for 12 weeks, increasing their mileage slowly. They plan to walk 20 to 30 miles a day during their July trek.
(Staff Photo By Mark Roberts)