Father David Nowicki began his journey with a strong foundation in the Catholic faith provided by his parents, James and Ann. In the small farming community of Athens, they made sure their son went to Mass every week at St. Anthony of Padua Church and attended Catholic school in the parish.
“The call to the priesthood wasn’t talked about specifically,” Father Nowicki shared. “At the same time, I am grateful to my parents for that formation in the sacraments very early on in my life.”
As a child, he was fascinated by things that could move. His childhood passion for automobiles, trains and planes started at the age of 3 when he first visited Duluth, Minn. He saw steam engines at the downtown depot, watched thousand-foot cargo ships sail in and out of Duluth Harbor and observed the spider web of roads and bridges that crisscrossed the city center. This vivid memory eventually led him to study civil engineering in college.
Discovering God’s plan
After arriving at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, a different movement affected him. “There started to be the sense that the Lord might have something different in mind for me,” says Father Nowicki.
While working at a youth camp during his college years, Father Nowicki met a seminarian who showed him what it was like to answer God’s call. “He had a joy that wasn’t in my life. And I wanted it,” he recalled.
The chaplain and his peers at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville also inspired Father Nowicki to listen more closely to the Lord. “I started to recognize that life isn’t a self-made adventure but that it is an adventure written by the Lord that we choose to enter into,” said Father Nowicki.
Then, during adoration at a SEEK conference in 2015, Father Nowicki experienced God’s voice in a manner that could not be ignored. “I was being asked to follow Christ,” Father Nowicki remembered. “This experience shifted the paradigm from me focusing on myself to focusing only on the Lord—who He created me to be and what He was calling me to.”
By his junior year of college, he knew his next step. “The fear started to diminish,” Father Nowicki says. “By the time I was graduating college in 2017, I felt ready to take the jump and enter seminary.”
Seminary life in Chicago and Rome
He moved to Mundelein, a seminary located outside Chicago. “I loved Mundelein. I formed many wonderful friendships there,” Father Nowicki expressed. “The people there are wonderful. I felt very grateful to Bishop Callahan for providing me with that opportunity.”
At Mundelein, Father Nowicki had to open his mind to soak in the humanities. “My first foray into philosophy at Mundelein was incredible,” Father Nowicki said. “That introduction helped me understand what people are encountering today and how they see the world. Philosophy is the desire to answer the deepest questions of the human heart. Everyone is a philosopher because we are all grappling with those deep questions.”
After his first two years at Mundelein, he completed the diocesan-required Regency year—similar to the now-required propaedeutic year for all seminarians—which provided the opportunity to build strong, life-long connections with his peers.
Next, Father Nowicki left Wisconsin to study at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Italy, which proved to be a transformative experience.
“Life just seems to flow there at a pace and such a frenetic nature that I had never experienced before,” says Father Nowicki. “It’s the heartbeat of the Church. To be in the midst of that is really an extreme grace.
Returning to Wisconsin
It was exciting for Father Nowicki to finally return to Wisconsin after so many years away and begin his ministry. The busy days as a parish priest fill his heart with gratitude.
For those discerning where God is calling them, Father Nowicki recommends letting God guide the process.“Be open to the Lord’s plans for your life because He knows you better than you know yourself,” he said. “It’s precisely in the ordinary everydayness that the Lord truly enters. The bigger question that needs to be asked is ‘Where is my call to holiness, to sanctity?’ Even in our daily lives, we can be saints. It doesn’t have to look extraordinary.”
Story by Mary Kay McPartlin
Published in the September/October 2024 issue of Catholic Life Magazine