Fr. Blake Britton was born and raised in the Diocese of Orlando. He is the son of Timothy and Lydia Britton and the oldest of four children. He grew up in St. Cloud, Florida where he attended St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School until the eighth grade. During that time, he was a parishioner at St. Catherine of Sienna Catholic Church. It was here, in this small mission church designated to serve Puerto Rican immigrants that Fr. Blake first heard his call to the priesthood. “I grew up surrounded by holy people” he remembers. “The men and women of St. Catherine’s inspired me with their piety. After high school, Fr. Blake applied for the seminary at the age of 18 where he earned both a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy as well as a Master’s Degree in Divinity. He summarizes his vocation as a “School of ‘Choseness’”. “All of my years of seminary have been an education in what it means to be chosen, to be one who the Father has called to be the priestly heart of His Son for the world. The first model of this education has been the Blessed Virgin Mary, that woman who most perfectly allowed herself to be chosen; to be the one who bore our salvation in her womb. She is a guiding light of maternal love and protection in my life. Following her example, I have sought to live every second of my life ‘according to His Word’, the singular Word of God who is Jesus Christ. I have often tripped and stumbled along the way, but I have never given up because I know that God is merciful and that He has called me to be His priest so as to share this mercy with the world. I trust in His grace and I am convinced of His love for the Church to whom I hope to surrender my life in selfless service and sacrifice. In the end, I do not deserve to be a priest…I stand before the mystery of my vocation in awe…How can God be so good? But this is my prayer, ‘Please Jesus, grant me to give my life for Your people…may my every breath be for the salvation of souls…I love them so much, the Holy and Beautiful People of God. All for Christ, till the end!”