Timothy Hayter’s parents had him pegged for ranching from the get-go. But something happened on the way to the rest of his life, and now Hayter finds himself just six months removed from his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest. And he couldn't be more eager for that ordination, a Mass celebration that he will share with fellow transitional deacon, Josh Gray. The two are set to receive their priestly orders on June 10, 2017, at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Angelo.
When Hayter returned to Fort Stockton from Lubbock, food science degree tucked under his arm, he became active at his parish, St. Agnes, as well as in community theatre and with the Fort Stockton Chamber of Commerce. Hayter loves his hometown, and wanted to make a difference.
For a while, he followed that career path. And he was good at it. But all the while, there was someone else, someone higher, who also had intentions for his future.
Hayter worked at a bank in Fort Stockton before taking on the position of business manager at the Longfellow Ranch, near Stockton.
Hayter was not brought up in a strict Catholic household. But that would change as he began to discern his calling.
His discernment grew through involvement at his churches (St. Agnes, now Our Lady of Guadalupe in Fort Stockton; Immaculate Heart of Mary in Big Spring, now Holy Trinity Church, and St. Elizabeth in Lubbock).
In the 10 years between high school graduation and his entrance into St. Mary’s Seminary, Hayter earned academic and livestock scholarships to Howard College in Big Spring, where he and his teammates claimed a national championship in sheep judging. He was also named Student Government President and Outstanding Student of the Year during his time at Howard.
After attaining his degree at Tech, and before his time at the Longfellow, he worked for Heritage Family Specialty Foods in Dallas-Fort Worth. One of the food company’s objectives was the production of “secret recipes” for use on a mass level of consumption by consumers.
When he returned to Fort Stockton and worked at the bank on evenings and weekends, Hayter served St. Agnes as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, a lector, choir member and youth group leader. Hayter’s discernment of the priesthood geared up in late summer 2009, and by January 2010 he fully embraced the possibility of service as a priest.
It was a series of events, at the core of which was an increased prayer life, that made the decision easier.
“Going all the way back to high school, my thinking and what had sustained me and what helped get me to that point was that I had come to trust in God,” Hayter said.
He became involved with the youth ministry at St. Agnes and attended a SEARCH. At the end of his SEARCH, Hayter began to consider the possibility of the priesthood, although he would not feel called until later, when he was 26. His call rose from his prayer life.
“I really asked God what the heck he wanted me to do, and I listened to two or three things and worked things out. At that point he took the weight off of my shoulders and I set things down for his will.”
Throughout the next several weeks, Hayter said, after he had made that decision to live his life for God through the priesthood, it became obvious to him through Scripture, prayer and talks with others around him that he had made the right decision.
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Two-hundred and sixty-miles northeast of Fort Stockton, eastbound travelers on Texas Hwy. 67 crest a beautiful hill and look down on a pleasant valley filled with Brownwood, Texas. The land is not unlike that of Fort Stockton but while Stockton is definitely more Wild West, Brownwood seems slightly more metropolitan. Small by big city standards, it is twice the population of Fort Stockton and has its own university.
When Hayter was managing the business end of the Longfellow Ranch, Brownwood’s Josh Gray was running burgers at Sonic, and about to graduate from his home high school studies.
Ten years younger than Hayter, Josh Gray grew up in a Catholic family in Brownwood, literally as far as the eastern border of the diocese is from the western border of Fort Stockton. The two men’s upbringings couldn’t be more different. But the one constant in their stories is evidence that God welcomes all people of all backgrounds to do his work.
Josh Gray and Tim Hayter are proof of that.
Deacon Gray says he began to feel a calling to enter the priesthood even before he started high school. In fact he traces his calling to when he received his first Holy Communion, as a second grader.
“(That calling) never left my heart or mind,” he said. Gray admits to what he called “reservations” when he was in his junior year, but attributed those feelings to distractions that would actually open him to a better of vision of just what God wanted from him.
He credits his awakening to the Lord and to his mother who counted on him to continue to pray about his future. To this day he clearly remembers one particular First Friday Eucharistic Adoration at his church during his senior year in high school. He would routinely bring reading material with him to help pass the time at Adoration, but one day, he forgot to bring something to read, and he asked his mother what he should do to fill up the hour.
“She told me to ask the Lord what I should do for that hour. Then ask him again,” he said. “And the answer I was hearing became the answer I was seeking: that I should become a priest. As it turned out, I just needed to trust the Lord. He was giving me all sorts of signs and signals.”
Gray’s father, David, died in 2013, the autumn Josh entered Mundelein Seminary in Chicago. His dad remains a major influence in his life, particularly when it comes to life lessons on how to live, and, he said, how to be a man. “He was strict,” Gray said, “but that’s what shaped my own discipline.”
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With just one semester remaining before he and Hayter are ordained and enter the priesthood, both approach the day with feelings unique to themselves.
While admitting a touch of nervousness, Gray’s feelings focus more on a deep desire to “dive all the way in” to the Sacraments and the Eucharist, and he says his upper level classes at Mundelein are providing for him a way to deepen his understandings of the mysteries and the beauty of what lies ahead. Gray says a strong feeling of gratitude is the other predominant emotion he is feeling; a thankfulness to all who have helped form him, from his parents, to Fr. Barry McLean, the late seminarian director for the diocese, as well as his priests at his home parish in Brownwood and Bishop Michael Sis.
Deacon Hayter says that from time to time, the reality of his coming priesthood sinks in more and more. He points to his diaconal ordination last June, a 30-day Ignatian retreat in the summer of 2015 and a retreat last January as milestones in his formation and powerful moments that have helped shape him. He will also go on retreat at the Carmelite Hermitage near Christoval in January. He considers his biggest joy to be serving God’s people.
“Things kind of sink in at different times,” he admitted. “Leading up to the diaconal ordination was an extremely powerful experience. At this point, I guess I have embraced it, but it will continue to hit me at different times. *
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Despite their differences, Tim Hayter’s and Josh Grays’s shared vocation will be what binds them together. Their points of origin in the diocese — small towns in the finest tradition of West Texas small towns — will continue to shape them as they serve others, and it will be what they do in God’s name that will provide the strongest basis for their continued friendship after seminary is completed and their priestly vows are celebrated.
“I knew when I met Tim ... ‘There’s a cowboy right there,’ ” Gray said. “I grew up on a small, 30-acre farm with goats and sheep and they were a handful. Tim was in charge of the business operation of thousands of acres. I really got to know him better when we both lived with a family in Costa Rica, where we went to study Spanish one summer. We ate meals together, studied together occasionally and went on adventures together. That’s when we got to know each other. I really admire him and look up to him and I think he is going to be a great priest. I’m just happy to be his friend.”
Added Hayter: “We’re two people who come from different backgrounds on different sides of the diocese. He grew up very Catholic all the way through. We come from whole different worlds. And our friendship is proof that God can call people from all different backgrounds.”