Charlie Jarosik

St. Paul Seminary

Hello! My name is Charlie W. Jarosik, and I belong to St. Patrick’s in Elkhorn. I was born in Kearney, Nebraska, but my family has moved a few times around the mid-west. Since we came to Omaha we have never left! My parents are Kevin and Deborah Jarosik, and I am the second oldest of two brothers and three younger sisters.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when I felt that the Lord was calling me to discern priesthood, but rather a culmination of events that have led me somewhere quite beautiful. Throughout my youth I had always been intrigued by the man in the colorful robes that I saw every Sunday, and more and more I yearned to learn more. I eventually become an altar server and then a Eucharistic Minister at Mount Michael Benedictine where I attended for my high school education and graduated in 2014. The Benedictine monks did have a lot of influence on my spiritual life, but even then I felt I was not sure if the Lord was calling me to be a priest.

I attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and studied Management Information Systems at the Peter Kiewit Institute for my freshman year of college. I also was an intern at Alvine and Engineering during my first year at UNO. It soon became apparent that working with technology didn’t ever seem to be enough. I kept feeling as if there was so much more, I could do to help people, and these words kept being re-echoed in my head “Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” Mt 4:19. I also received the opportunity to attend the SEEK Conference in Nashville, TN, in 2015 and I received so much advice, prayers, encouragement but most importantly, love. It was when I peered into the heart of those who had very little that I saw that what they and the world truly needed was Christ’s mercy, love, and presence in the Holy Eucharist that what was not limited and bounded by circumstance. I realized that what people truly need is the infinite love and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ and I wanted to share that with the world.

I am expecting that seminary will be filled with fraternity, counsel, intimacy in the sacraments, catechetical study, detachment, attachment to our Lord in prayer, scripture study, theological study, and apostolic work. This community is where I believe the Lord desires for me to grow in human formation and spiritual formation. Here I will continue to discern with the Church and listen to our Lord’s voice in the still silence as helps me to grow in maturity. I believe this will help me grow a solid foundation to prepare for the Lord’s will.

I am excited to begin living, praying, eating, and spending time in communion with my brothers, playing sports and exercising, spending time with our Lord in prayer, working with local communities, healing, and growing in my love for Jesus even more.

For those discerning a call to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, I would encourage you to remember the words of our Lord and that Saint Pope John Paul II always reiterated during his papacy “Do not be afraid, for I am with you.” Isaiah 41:10. Let the Lord’s will speak in the silence of prayer and be assured of His desire for you to be a man fully alive in Him. Discern only in His still calm love and He will reveal the next step to come and discern His priesthood with us further. The Lord will always only call out of love even in our great weaknesses. Even as I leave I continue to discern the Lord’s will and to trust in Him and that His will is for my joy as well as yours. “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.” Jeremiah 29:11