Like many kids growing up in Joliet, Burke Masters dreamed of playing major league baseball. He went to a Catholic high school and after graduation played college baseball at Mississippi State University and hit a home run that sent his team to the College World Series.

A career in baseball looked like a possibility but after a stint in the minors “as I look back on it God had a different plan” Masters says. God had a calling on his life for the priesthood.

Masters, 52, has been an ordained priest since 2002, serves as the vocation director for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois — his hometown. God kept baseball in his life by making  him team chaplain of the Chicago Cubs.