Many thoughts occupy the mind of a typical 16-year-old boy — sports, friends, dating, getting a driver’s license, school work, planning for college and career choices.

All these plus one more crossed Rev. Mr. Michael McClane’s mind: That was the time he first thought of becoming a priest. It is a goal that will be fulfilled when he is ordained May 20 by Bishop John M. Smith during Mass at 10 a.m. in the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption.

What impressed him about the priesthood and got him thinking about a vocation, Rev. Mr. McClane said, was simply witnessing the actions of a priest and seeing all “the good a priest could do and how he could help people.”

Growing up in Park Ridge, in the Archdiocese of Newark, Rev. Mr. McClane said that while his family belonged to Our Lady of Mercy Parish, Park Ridge, he attended public schools — West Ridge Elementary School and Park Ridge High School — and did not have “very much” in terms of formal religious education throughout his childhood and adolescence.

Most of what he learned about the Catholic faith was through the parish religious education program and from his family, whom he credits for fostering his vocation to the priesthood.

“I learned a lot about the faith from my father,” he said. “He stressed that in today’s culture it is important to look to the Church for guidance and to Christ for hope and meaning. He introduced me to that way of thinking.”

After high school, Rev. Mr. McClane’s thoughts of the priesthood had waned and he went on to pursue studies in history at Princeton University, the place that gave him his first introduction to the Trenton Diocese and, where oddly enough, his priestly vocation really flourished.

“I started thinking about it more deeply,” he said, especially after seeing how fellow students went about “searching for answers in life.”

“It became very clear to me that Christ and his Church are the greatest thing we can bring to people. It helps to give them meaning and fulfillment.”

Throughout his four years at Princeton, Rev. Mr. McClane was involved in many Catholic-geared activities including the Opus Dei Center, the Aquinas Institute, and the university’s Catholic campus ministry program. He headed the Jacques Maritain Society, which hosted speakers who addressed issues from a Catholic perspective.

Rev. Mr. McClane found his association with Opus Dei to be very helpful in deepening his understanding of the Catholic faith despite the fact that Princeton was a very secular campus and provided an environment that was not always conducive to fostering vocations to the priesthood.

Through the Aquinas Institute, Rev. Mr. McClane developed his appreciation for the Sacraments by attending Mass regularly and through serving as a cantor, Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, facilitating Scripture study programs and assisting with the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults process.

“The Sacraments came to life for me,” he said. “They became exciting and interesting to me. I saw them in a different way.”

Among his priestly role models are Msgr. James Turro, who served in Our Lady of Mercy Parish and is a longtime family friend; Father C. John McCloskey and Father Bill Shaughnessy, both Opus Dei priests he met while at Princeton University, and Father Thomas Mullelly, chaplain at Aquinas Institute.

Rev. Mr. McClane observed the reverence with which Father Mullelly celebrated Mass and the example he set in serving as a priest through his interaction with students.

“Father Mullelly was always so very welcoming and understanding and was very influential in getting people to return to the Church” if they had fallen away, said Rev. Mr. McClane.

Following his graduation from Princeton, Rev. Mr. McClane studied philosophy for one year at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook, Pa., before beginning his four-year curriculum at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology, which in Rome is equivalent to a master’s degree in the United States, he said.

The “best thing” about having studied in Rome, said Rev. Mr. McClane “was seeing the Church from a universal perspective” and meeting other seminarians from other countries and cultures.

The Catholic Church is universal, but attending school in Rome provided an opportunity to see “how people live it in different ways,” he said.

In Rome, Rev. Mr. McClane said he had many profound experiences, especially during his first year when he briefly met Pope John Paul II in a private audience and received a blessed Rosary. Of course, being present for the papal events of 2005 — the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Pope Benedict XVI — were momentous occasions.

“The streets of Rome were certainly crowded during that time,” he said. “It felt like the eyes of the world were on Rome. It was a great gift to be around for that.”

Occasionally, said Rev. Mr. McClane, he had the opportunity in Rome to share fellowship with two priests of the diocese, Father Pablo Gadenz, who is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Scripture at the Pontifical North American College, and Msgr. Joseph Punderson, who works with the Rota, the Church’s highest court.

In summer assignments, Rev. Mr. McClane has served in St. Catharine, Spring Lake, which he now considers his home parish; Sacred Heart Parish, Trenton, and St. Thomas More Parish, Manalapan.

“It was interesting to see the different styles of each of the pastors and the way he carried out his ministry,” he said.

He regarded Msgr. Thomas Leubking, pastor of St. Catharine Parish, as being a “good teacher who guided me step by step in liturgy” who also allowed him the opportunity to work in the parish office and help with handling parish business matters.

Describing Father Mick Lambeth, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish and director of the diocesan Office of Vocations, as “dynamic,” Rev. Mr. McClane said he was taken with Father Lambeth’s preaching style and how he “never had written text in front of him, but always had meaningful things to say in his homilies.”

“Father Mick has a way of combining his two roles as pastor and as vocation director and really sees how they are intertwined,” he said.

Rev. Mr. McClane extended his appreciation to Father Lambeth for always allowing seminarians to be involved in the life of the parish and helping parishioners to see how vocations stem from the parish.

As for Father John Bambrick, pastor of St. Thomas More Parish, Rev. Mr. McClane said he found him to be a priest who had a tremendous “love” for his parishioners.

“He always showed a lot of love and compassion,” he said.

In all three parish assignments, Rev. Mr. McClane was continuously involved in various liturgical ministries — including serving as a cantor, and even getting to play the trumpet, a musical skill he began developing in the fourth grade, leading Communion services and working in a community soup kitchen while serving at St. Thomas More Parish.

Because of the study structure at North American College, Rev. Mr. McClane said that although he is an ordained deacon and has faculties to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism, officiate at weddings and wake services, he had never had the opportunity to do so in Rome. His new parish assignment in the diocese and celebrating the Sacraments on a regular basis is certainly something he ardently looks forward to as a priest.

Looking back on his years of study for the priesthood, Rev. Mr. McClane said his love for the Church has deepened and he has come to learn how “God works in us and in others.”

“My understanding of God has developed,” Rev. Mr. McClane said. “I used to see him as more of a judge, but I’ve learned more about his love and mercy. I’ve learned about what it means to have a personal relationship with God and that he is a loving father.”

As ordination day approaches, Rev. Mr. McClane said he looks forward “to receiving many gifts of the Holy Spirit and carrying out the ministry of a priest” and is excited about serving “as a bridge between God and his people.”