Date of Birth December 3, 1960 Home Parish St. Mary’s, Willey, IA High School Kuemper Catholic High School, Carroll, IA College Major or Career Background Farmed for 10 years. Philosophy\Theology major at Franciscan University, Steubenville, OH Date of Ordination June 7, 1997 Current Parish Our Lady of the Assumption, Merrill; St. Joseph, Ellendale; St. Joseph, Neptune; St. Joseph, Struble Interests and Hobbies: I enjoy walking, outdoor activities - especially fishing - and spending time with family and friends. I also enjoy grilling and cooking. Influences: I was very blessed with good parents. They were my greatest influence. Not a distant second are other priests. My uncle Fr. Louis Greving was an influence. Pope John Paul also was a great influence. He often said, "Do not be afraid to accept the Lord’s invitation." Best thing about priesthood: The fact that God has called me, unworthy and in so many ways incompetent, to receive such a gift as ordination, and despite myself, uses me as his instrument of grace, especially through the sacraments, and even more specifically through the offering of holy Mass. Priesthood is a gift and a mystery.

Typical Day:

5:15 am:  Wake-up, morning offering, stretch and shower, read paper, light breakfast
6:15 am:  Travel to parish for Mass (if not where I live), pray rosary as I travel, set-up for Mass
7:00 am:  Pray Morning Prayer, Office of Readings, quiet prayer
8:00 am:  Mass and thanksgiving
8:30 am:  Return to parish, pick up mail at post office on way home
9:00 am:  Go through mail, complete any needed ‘accumulated’ correspondence
10:00 am:  Holy ‘half’ hour including daytime prayer
10:30 am:  Office work such as bulletin announcements, ‘sacramental’ paper work, return phone calls and e-mails,
                 liturgy preparations such as preparing petitions and homilies.
11:30 am:  Lunch and rest (if possible a siesta) and read
1:00 pm:  Meetings, classroom visitations at school, home-bound visitations, correspond with
                 bookkeeper\secretary; exercise (walk for half hour); marriage prep.
5:00 pm:  Vespers
5:30 pm:  News and supper
6:30 pm:  Marriage prep, meetings, social activities, relaxation, occasional television, correspondence, occasional
                 attendance at sports activity at school
9:30 pm:  Night prayer
9:45 pm:  Bed and read a bit
                 (It should be noted that as a diocesan priest, this schedule frequently gets turned on its head)

Vocation Story:

My name is Fr. Dan Greving. I am a priest for the Diocese of Sioux City. On June 7, 1997, I was ordained to the priesthood. In speaking of my ‘path to priesthood’, I must begin by going back to my roots – my family and the parish I grew up in.

Faith was something at the core of our family. My parents took that very seriously. Prayer in the home was part of that. I remember during Lent, after supper, we would kneel down in the living room, and we prayed the Rosary together. Priests and Religious Sisters were very much respected in our home and people I looked up to. I had an uncle that was a Priest and three aunts that were Sisters – all now deceased. It was always a joy when they came to visit our family or when we could visit them.

The name of the parish I grew up in was St. Mary’s located in a little town called Willey, IA. In many ways, it was there that I was formed in my Catholic faith... where I first received the sacraments... where I attended school... went to church with family... where I was first introduced to many fine priests and sisters.

I’m occasionally asked how is it that God called me to be a priest? For me it was a slow, gentle yet persistent calling from God - a desire that was placed on my heart for priesthood, stronger than any other noble desire, even marriage. Ultimately, it a mystery but it is also a tremendous gift.

In my younger days, I didn’t really think about priesthood a whole lot – at least not for myself. I do remember thinking of how it would be kind of neat one day if one of my 5 older brothers would go off to become a priest – but I never really thought much about it for myself.

Shortly before I graduated from High school, I really wasn’t into my faith that much. I had never stopped going to church, but you might say that I was just going through the motions without a whole lot of heart; worldly pleasures and endeavors seemed to dominate. At that same time, I was wondering what I would "do with my life?".

My father knew me and knew that I was going through some uncertainty... and he said to me one day some things for consideration: "IF you would like to be a partner in the family farm operation, I and mom will help you get established... or," he said, ‘if you think you might have a vocation to the priesthood, we would help you with our prayers, your schooling, the finances that that would entail..." etc and so forth.

I remember hearing that and it was ‘in one ear and out the other’. A priestly vocation was the farthest thing from my mind... as a matter of fact, I kind of made a joke out of it with my friends when I went to school the next day.

Even though my father's words fell on deaf ears at the time, another seed was planted. And how important those words became later in knowing of the support of my good parents.

I ended up farming for ten years after high school (which I enjoyed very much) and did quite well at it. Yet, during that time, the desire for priesthood grew and continued to grow in me... to a point where I knew that I at least had to give seminary a try, and as they say, the rest is history.

In those years after high school and before I entered the seminary I became more involved in the parish. I attended Mass and did things such as lectoring and cantoring and was on the parish council. I also spent some time doing missionary work to Appalachia. Each of those individual things became in some way part of my discernment process as to whether I had a vocation to priesthood.

Most importantly, I prayed asking the Lord, ‘what do you want me to do with life?’ His response came not in an audible voice, but rather in a quiet, gentle yet persistent voice in the form of a desire to be a priest.

I am happy and proud to be a priest. The life of a priest is not an easy life but it is a most fulfilling life. As Pope John Paul II said so often, "Do not be afraid to accept the Lord’s invitation." Those are words I would leave with anyone feeling the call of God to follow our Lord as a priest.