Fr. Mike Mahoney: When God's Plans Come Full Circle

by Diocese of Des Moines Catholic Schools | May 30, 2025

Fr. Mike Mahoney thought he'd be a teacher, but after one year of teaching and studying for a master's degree in education, he realized that wasn't God's plan for him. So he entered the seminary, took his priestly vows, and awaited his first assignment.

Then God put another surprise in his path: he was going back to school.

Assigned to St. Theresa, he’d be pastor for both a parish and a school. The irony wasn't lost on him. After spending a year in front of middle schoolers—wrestling with lesson plans, managing classroom chaos, questioning whether he had what it took—he'd walked away from education entirely.

His teaching experience, as he'd later admit, was "not necessarily the best." The seminary had felt like a redirection toward something he was called to do. But now, fresh from ordination on June 21, 2024, his assignment sent him right back into the world he'd left behind.

"When some of my close friends found out that I was coming to a school setting, they're like, 'Is that going to give you, like, PTSD?'" Fr. Mike recalls with a laugh.

But surprisingly, he felt no nervousness about the assignment—instead, he was excited to interact with students "in a different way than it happened before."

The Return

When Fr. Mike walked into St. Theresa's for the first time as their new priest, he found himself genuinely eager to interact with students again.

The familiar sounds of a school—bells ringing, lockers clanging—didn't trigger memories of dread. Instead, they sparked recognition of possibility.

"I think that it's helped me have an insight into the struggles of teachers in particular, and also just what students are like," he said. "I know what it’s like to be in their shoes.”

His year of teaching middle schoolers had given him a lens into the challenges of that age range, but more than that, it taught him forming young minds was messy, complicated, and deeply sacred work.

The teachers noticed immediately.

"I felt that he hit the ground running. He was just ready to go," said Michelle Cortlandt, a teacher associate at St. Theresa Catholic School. "He was so open, so positive, and I really feel like he's got a teacher's heart."

Sacred Classroom

Almost every Tuesday, Fr. Mike goes to the school chapel and celebrates Mass for sixth through eighth graders, the same age group that had once left him questioning his calling.

But now, in this space where classroom meets sanctuary, everything clicked. These weren't just students to manage—they were souls to shepherd. When he speaks about faith during these chapel Masses, he sees understanding dawn in their eyes in ways that reminded him of his best teaching moments, but deeper.

"Just coming into that kind of more intimate setting with them that you can really be able to speak to them," he explains.

The chapel became his classroom, the Eucharist his curriculum, and suddenly his educational background wasn't a detour from his priestly calling—it was preparation for it.

Field Trip of Faith

In February, Fr. Mike accompanied second and eighth graders to see a relic of Blessed Carlo Acutis at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Urbandale. Fr. Mike had planned it as a simple educational experience, but what unfolded became a moment of personal clarity.

In the church, students explored Eucharistic miracles through the website created by Carlo Acutis. The second graders peppered eighth graders with questions about saints and miracles. The older students, rather than dismissing the little ones, leaned in with surprising maturity, explaining concepts and sharing their own thoughts.

Fr. Mike stood back, watching this organic moment of peer ministry unfold. Here was everything he'd hoped to achieve in his brief teaching career—students learning from each other, growing not just intellectually but spiritually. But more than that, he recognized his own role: not the frazzled first-year teacher trying to control chaos, but the shepherd who had created space for grace to work.

"To see that in a tangible way outside of a normal classroom setting shows us what the work that we do here is really—it's not only forming their minds, but it's forming their hearts too," he said.

In that moment, watching eighth graders become teachers and second graders become disciples, Fr. Mike understood why God led him through that difficult year of teaching before calling him to priesthood. He hadn't failed at education—he'd been preparing for a different kind of classroom altogether.

Full Circle

As an alumni of Catholic schools himself, Fr. Mike says the greatest value of Catholic education is the opportunity to integrate faith into every aspect of formation.

"The value of a Catholic school is that you're really forming the whole person," Fr. Mike said. "We have that added element of forming them in the faith, which should help them be even better out in the world as they go and encounter different people and try to be God's hands and feet in a servant way."

The teachers see the difference his unique background makes.

"His messages—even my little first graders can understand and grasp pieces of it," notes Ann Strom, a first-grade teacher at St. Theresa. "I love that he's able to connect with the littles and the bigs."

His approach extends beyond formal teaching moments. Fr. Mike makes it a point to have lunch with different grade levels almost every week, rotating among age groups to maintain that pastoral presence. He's partnered with parishioners to visit classrooms and teach about adoration, showing students faith in action outside of Mass.

But he’s also shown students that priests are ordinary human beings, just like them—a lesson brought on by the revelation that Fr. Mike plays fantasy football.

“When the kids found that out, they’re like, 'A priest can be in fantasy football?'” said Lana Duff, a second-grade teacher at the school. Her son graduated high school with Fr. Mike and competes in the same fantasy football league.

“They’re rounded human beings and not just this one dimension,” Duff said, “and I think that makes it more relatable for the kids too, that these are people who have chosen to dedicate their life to teaching others about God and serving God in that way.”

Next school year, Fr. Mike and Fr. Raphael are exploring ways to expand the chapel Masses to other grade levels—extending that sacred classroom to even more students.

God's Surprising Plans

Reflecting on his inaugural year, Fr. Mike describes it as "incredible"—not despite returning to education, but because of it. The time has passed "super fast," which he considers "a good sign of how things have been going around here." Even more telling: all teachers are returning next year, something that's "unheard of in the school setting," highlighting the strong, faith-rooted culture at St. Theresa's.

His teaching gift extends beyond the school walls.

“Even in his homilies on the weekend … he’s kind of teaching us about our faith,” said teacher Michelle Cortlandt. “He’s been such a blessing to our parish.”

His friends' concerns about PTSD now seem almost quaint. Far from traumatic, this unexpected placement has unfolded as a blessing.

The scared first-year teacher who once walked away from education couldn't have imagined becoming the priest who now revels in it. God's plans often look like detours until you reach the destination and realize they were the most direct route all along.