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Throughout his teenage years, he planned to become a computer programmer, a graphic artist, a chemist, a meteorologist, and even a professional pyrotechnician.

With a slight chuckle, he remembers, “Entering the priesthood or religious life was never one of the career options presented.”

But serving the Kingdom of God was the vocation to which he was called, and finally chose to answer.

The Reverend Father Michael A. Wolfe was ordained on May 30, 2009.

This weekend, he will be celebrating his eighth Easter Sunday as a Roman Catholic priest in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese.

The seeds of his religious calling began many years ago at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Lock Haven.

Fr. Mike, says, “I first started to feel called to the priesthood when I began serving the Mass in fourth grade as an altar server. This service was very spiritually rewarding and I grew in my faith because of it. Technically, I have never stopped serving since then.”

He says there was something profound and mysterious about serving at the altar, even at that young of an age.

“There was something that I knew in my heart, but could not fully explain at the time,” Fr. Mike remembers. “I found out much later, of course, that the Mass we participate in every Sunday — and every day — is where Heaven meets earth and where countless angels are present to adore our Lord Jesus. This divine exchange, of course, is invisible to human beings.”

Fr. Mike continues, saying every word with heart-felt reverence. “I also found out later, that at every Mass, we are mystically transported back to the Last Supper and to Calvary to the one sacrifice of Christ who gave us His Body and His Blood in the physical appearance of bread and wine, a tradition that we continue as Catholics to this day. The Mass is not a re-sacrificing of Christ, but an ongoing memorial of the events we celebrate this week that happened about 2,000 years ago.”

When Fr. Mike reached ninth grade, he joined the Youth Group at his home parish of St. Agnes (now part of Holy Spirit Parish) in Lock Haven. He says the friendships he made in Youth Group helped him to break out of his shell and get more involved in the Lock Haven community.

“Whenever I was cooking French fries and busing tables for the Aggies 50’s Drive-In, helping to sell mugs at the St. Agnes Fair, walking for the 24-hour Relay for Life, helping with an Easter Egg Hunt, working in the kitchen, or helping with some other service project, I felt like I was encountering Christ in the people,” Fr. Mike explains.

Fr. Mike adds, “True freedom is not about doing whatever you feel like doing … it is about doing what is right, just, and good. God calls all of us to a vocation of some kind, and all vocations … married, single, or religious life … are important and vital to building up the Kingdom of God here on earth.”

As ordination gifts, he received several sets of vestments, used when celebrating Mass, from both his biological family and his parish family at St. Agnes. Fr. Mike is now putting those vestments to good use at Queen of Archangels Catholic Church and Chapel at Clarence and Snow Shoe, respectively. He has been the parish administrator there since July 2016.

Prior to that appointment, he served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Benedict Parish, in Johnstown, and at Our Lady of Victory Parish, in State College.

He also taught for six years in the Catholic high school setting at Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown.

Fr. Mike observes, “God calls many to the service of the priesthood and religious life; however, sadly, many do not answer God’s call due to peer pressure, or because it is just not popular to be a priest, or, to be honest, they are waiting and hoping to be married someday and are not willing to embrace the sacrifice of celibacy.”

Fr. Mike earned his Master of Divinity Degree in 2009, as well as his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy 2004 at the Pontifical College Josephinum Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.

He also attended Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, Pa., (2000-2002) before entering into seminary to study for the priesthood.

His nine years of studies are typical of the training needed to become a Catholic priest. There’s a lot to cover.

In addition to the normal weekend services, there are funerals, baptisms, weddings, and daily Masses to celebrate; spiritual counseling sessions; hearing confessions; various committee and council meetings to attend; Bible Study and C.C.D. Youth classes; Benediction, Eucharistic Adoration, and Stations of the Cross services; and Youth Group meetings to lead.

And, like most priests, Fr. Mike wears many other hats, as well.

In addition to his above duties as pastor at the Church and Chapel of Queen of Archangels, he is the High School Chaplain for St. Joseph Catholic Academy in Boalsburg. His duties there include celebrating Mass every week for the students, faculty, and staff; planning liturgies; helping with retreats; visiting classrooms; giving spiritual direction; and attending to the sacramental needs of the people.

Fr. Mike is also currently the hospital chaplain, on call for any emergencies at Mount Nittany Medical Center outside of State College. Often his sleep will be interrupted by an early morning call from the hospital, requesting that he administer the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to a patient. Since that entails at least a one-hour-round-trip drive from his current assignment in Clarence, it sometimes makes for tricky scheduling — and speedy driving — in order to be back on the Mountaintop in time for 8 a.m. daily mass.

Fr. Mike says, “Some of the great joys of the priesthood include being present for people at the most crucial moments of their lives … celebrating in extreme happiness and comforting in extreme sorrow. It allows you to really become a part of the lives of the people whom you serve.”

Although he doesn’t actually wear one, another one of those hats Fr. Mike could wear would be a toque — the tall white pleated hat of a chef.

He credits his interest in cooking to his grandmother, the late Edith C. Martin of Lock Haven.

She instilled in him the importance of family traditions as a way to keep family members alive, even after they have passed away.

Fr. Mike has turned the skills of making cookies, apple pies, and ravioli, which he learned in his grandmother’s kitchen, into just another way to advance the Kingdom of God.

Last fall, he headed up a three-day apple pie baking extravaganza in the industrial kitchen at the Snow Shoe skating rink. With help from the Youth Group and parish volunteers, the result was 395 apple pies.

These were sold, after Mass, to raise money for bus transportation to Washington, D.C., for students and parishioners to participate in the Annual March for Life this past January.

“I am very supportive of the Pro-Life movement, recognizing every human life as a sacred gift from God,” Fr. Mike says.

For Valentine’s Day, Fr. Mike led the crew to bake 608 dozen cookies — yes, dozen.

Chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, sugar, double chocolate, snickerdoodles, chocolate peanut butter, white chocolate cranberry, peanut butter, and, of course, his grandmother’s pizzelles.

Cookie sales netted $1,900. The moneys was donated to The Gabriel Project, a Pro-Life Catholic ministry dedicated to helping moms and babies in Central Pennsylvania. The funds from the cookie sales helped save and sustain the lives of four children in the Centre County area.

Fr. Mike says he doesn’t mind sacrificing so many hours to serve those in need, quoting Saint John Paul II, “love involves making a total gift of one’s self for others.”

During the six weeks of Lent, in his spare minutes, he can be found with smudges of flour on his black shirt, helping members of the Rosary Society make hundreds of pierogies. These are the filled dumplings so loved by the people of Eastern European origin on the Mountaintop, and nearly everyone else. Proceeds from the sales of the pierogies are used to purchase needed church supplies.

Fr. Mike is a devotee of Gregorian chant. As the sweet smell of incense fills the dimly-lit church, his rich tenor voice intones the Latin verses of O Salatura Hostia and Tantum Ergo at Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction services.

He knows all the words by heart. This is impressive, coming from a young priest who wasn’t even born when Gregorian chant and Latin were still used extensively in the Catholic Church, prior to Vatican II days.

Fr. Mike grew up in the little town of Castanea, just outside of Lock Haven.

To illustrate points in the Gospel during his sermons, he often uses entertaining stories from his family life growing up.

Road trips, with his cousins to Knoebels Amusement Park, symbolize the Lenten Journey to Easter. Giving in to the temptation to ride his bike down the very steep Quiggle Avenue in Castanea, even after being sternly warned by his father not to, is compared to the temptation in the Garden of Eden. And a disastrous teenage Fourth of July game of Capture the Flag — played with smoke bombs instead of flags — during a picnic at his grandmother’s house, exemplifies that our lives don’t always go the way we plan them.

Easter is the most important Holy Day in the Catholic Church year.

Fr. Mike will be busily giving of himself this week, officiating at a full slate of Holy Week Services, capped off by the Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday evening and then two Easter Morning Masses.

Fr. Mike says, “The more we give of ourselves — and not seek things only for ourselves — the more love we experience and the closer we become to God and to Heaven.”

By Easter Sunday afternoon, Fr. Mike hopes to be back in Lock Haven to share a late dinner with his mom and dad, Connie and Bruce Wolfe.

He’ll be sitting around the table with those role models who nurtured his faith, and who supported him in his vocation.

That is, unless he gets a phone call from someone in need at the hospital in State College.

Then, his Easter dinner will have to wait until after he completes the more important mission of serving the Kingdom of God. It’s a sacrifice he’s more than willing to make.