Tyler

Patrick Richey and Ed Stocks, the pair of interstate trekkers “walking for vocation” will arrive in Tyler at 10 a.m. Sunday to complete the final leg of their 300-mile journey from Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas.

A “vocation” in religious parlance is “a divine call to God’s service in the Christian life,” said Richey before the march through the summer heat began on July 7.

The two hope to raise enough money to pay off debilitating college debts so they can enter some form of service in the Catholic Church. Richey, 30, a football coach at T.K Gorman Middle School, would like to be a priest, but can’t enter seminary until $60,000 in school loans is paid. His degree from St. Vincent’s College is in theology.

Stocks, an algebra teacher at Robert E. Lee High School, would like to join the monastery at Subiaco Abbey, where the trek originated. He owes $35,000 after graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in economics.

“It’s gone well,” Richey said Friday by phone to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. “I have some blisters on my feet, but all-in-all it’s been fine.”

The pair will polish off their final 12 miles at the track at T.K. Gorman High School, 1405 ESE Loop 323, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. The public is invited to join the final few miles of the “Walk for Vocation.” That’s because to become a priest or monk is a public act, Richey explained.

“Ed and I would not belong to ourselves as we enter full-time ministry,” he said. “We’d belong to the community. We’d like the community to join us in a public acknowledgement where we recognize that we need you as much as you may need us.”