Jacob Hartman to be ordained a deacon June 7

Living a joyful life is contagious while staying close to Jesus is contagious. The Lord gives us that, and we shouldn’t be afraid to lean into it.”

Jacob Hartman, seminarian, candidate for Ordination to the Diaconate

“Why Jeff. City? Why Missouri?”

Some have asked Jacob Hartman why he’s studying to be a priest for his home diocese, when he likely could serve anywhere else in the country.

“It’s ultimately where the Lord came to me, and he did so through his ministers, through my family, through the people of God in this diocese … and my life is so much better for it,” said Mr. Hartman, who is set to be ordained a transitional deacon on June 7.

It is the last major step before ordination to the Holy Priesthood.

“I have more joy, peace and fulfillment because of what’s in the hearts of the people of this diocese,” Mr. Hartman stated. “It’s where the Lord made my heart to desire the gifts he wants to give me, to be consecrated to him for their sake, and to give that all back to them.”

He insists that this moment, while significant, is not about him or anything he could possibly do to merit the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

“When you get right down to it, I am simply a beloved son of the Father, and it doesn’t need to be any more than that or any less than that,” he said.

Growing up Catholic with three siblings on a farm just outside Holts Summit, Mr. Hartman worked hard, practiced the ffaith with his family, attended St. Peter School and Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City and admired the priests of his home parish, but he never gave Priesthood a thought.

“My interests were sports — playing baseball,” he said.

Reunions and big family celebrations were a natural part of his childhood.

“There was always an emphasis on family,” he recalled.

Mr. Hartman felt drawn to manual labor and working outdoors. He could easily see himself enjoying a career in construction or landscaping.

Monsignor Gregory L. Higley and Father Joseph Corel were the pastors of his growing-up in St. Andrew Parish in Holts Summit.

“I always had great respect for our priests and could see that in my family,” he said.

It seemed like a given that he’d grow up to be a husband and a father.

“I definitely had that desire,” Mr. Hartman stated. “The Lord just wanted me to exercise that in a different way.”

Fr. Corel arrived at St. Andrew when Mr. Hartman was in eighth grade.

“I grew up in a family who greatly respected Msgr. Higley, and I was proud to have him as our pastor,” said Mr. Hartman. “Fr. Corel was someone who saw me and challenged me.”

Fr. Corel invited him to sign up for retreats, attend events and “really live out my Catholic faith in a more intentional and self-driven way.”

This helped him claim the faith of his parents and their ancestors as his own.

“Priesthood still wasn’t something I was actively considering,” Mr. Hartman noted. “But the soil was being tilled and fertilized in those relationships.”

Silent running

Mr. Hartman first felt drawn to Priesthood during a weeklong diocesan ChristPower retreat the summer before his junior year.

“I felt the call, and I was really running from it!” he said. “I was running from even thinking about it.”

At Helias Catholic, he got to know Father Joshua Duncan and Father Christopher Aubuchon, who are closer to him in age.

“I saw the joy of their life, and the Lord ended up using that to take away a lot of my fears,” he said.

He joined the Frassati Fraternity, a group of young men who were very interested in helping each other grow in holiness.

The group was named for Blessed Pier Georgio Frassati, an amiable, athletic Italian layman of the early 20th-century, who is scheduled to be declared a saint this August.

Mr. Hartman took Pier Georgio Frassati as his own confirmation name.

“He was somebody I could relate to,” he said. He was an athlete who enjoyed sports and climbing mountains and riding horses and swimming. And he loved being around friends and bringing joy into other people’s lives. But he also had a really intentional and deep love of the Lord and love for the poor, that appealed to me in a deep way.”

Mr. Hartman began to realize that he could find genuine happiness, purpose and joy in being a priest.

“It wasn’t about being called to be a servant just so God can get some kind of work out of me,” he stated. “It was also about finding what’s going to give me the greatest joy, peace and fulfilment I can possibly attain in this life.

“So, it’s been fun seeing that and growing into the reality that the Lord doesn’t just want me to do something for him,” said Mr. Hartman. “He wants me to be his!”

It took Mr. Hartman about a year to stop running.

“I remember coming to the realization, probably in the spring of my junior year: ‘Lord, I can’t keep running from you. Because if I do, I’ll look back on my life and think of what could have been,’” he said.

In the process, Mr. Hartman discovered how much he enjoys listening to people, spending time with them and guiding them.

He gradually surrendered to the idea of forsaking a family of his own.

“There’s mourning that comes with that,” he stated, “because marriage and family are very good things! But just as intensely, the Lord was truly showing me who I am and how he’s calling me to genuinely fill those desires.”

In prayer, he felt drawn to say, “Lord, this is what you have made my heart for. This is how you have made me to love other people. In that way, my life only makes sense following you and living out the priestly vocation.”

Wasting no time

Mr. Hartman’s parents, Patrick and Kristina, recognized the change that was taking place in their son. They weren’t surprised when he told them he wanted to apply for the seminary.

But, they shared some of the same concerns he had been working through: Would it work out? Will he be happy?

“And much quicker than I did, they came around!” said Mr. Hartman. “They’ve been nothing but supportive.”

So, have his siblings — especially his younger sister, who told him before he was ready to hear it, “I could see you becoming a priest.”

He was relieved to realize that entering the seminary didn’t necessarily mean he was going to be ordained.

“Initially, what a good seminary wants to do is develop you into a good Christian man,” he said. “So, whether I was going to become a priest or not, I knew God was going to use that time to lead me closer to him.”

Mr. Hartman began his seminary studies and formation at Conception Seminary College in northwestern Missouri.

“I loved the atmosphere there and being set apart and in a place where I could really pray,” he said.

The following year, Archbishop Shawn McKnight sent him to continue his studies at Holy Trinity Seminary at the University of Dallas.

“I think my time there was when the Lord revealed my heart to me,” said Mr. Hartman. “It was a time for me to be myself and let the Lord show me, ‘Here are the gifts that I have given you.’”

God’s message became clearer: “This is what I want you to do, and here is why I want you to do it, and here is how it’s going to bring you peace, joy and fulfillment.”

“Saint stalkers”

Strong bonds of fellowship have been an important part of Mr. Hartman’s time in seminary.

The COVID-19 pandemic required the men at Holy Trinity to isolate for a time, but they would get outside to share meals, music and conversations at night around the firepit.

They played sports and were intentional about cultivating communal life.

“This isn’t a vocation you can do by yourself,” Mr. Hartman noted. “You need solid brothers to meet with regularly for recreation and fraternity and to talk with when you’re struggling and share when things are going well.”

After graduating from Holy Trinity, he continued on to Mundelein Seminary near Chicago.

There, he would move from undergraduate studies in philosophy to graduate studies in theology, and from the Discipleship Phase to the Configuration Phase of his priestly formation.

“Basically, a shift in emphasis from becoming a good, Catholic, masculine disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, to configuring yourself to the heart of Christ, the High Priest,” Mr. Hartman explained.

More of the program was self-directed, allowing each man to become the principal agent of his own priestly formation.

He speaks jovially about the role “saint stalkers” have played in helping him become the servant God created him to be.

“I think I just found in my life that I don’t go find saints, they find me,” he said, adding: “Saints will reveal themselves to you because they want to intercede for you.”

For Mr. Hartman, these included Blessed Frassati and St. Philip Neri, a beloved 16th-century Italian Catholic priest and evangelizer.

Both men are great examples of finding joy in following God’s will and living the Christian life.

“Living a joyful life is contagious while staying close to Jesus is contagious,” said Mr. Hartman. “The Lord gives us that, and we shouldn’t be afraid to lean into it.”

When it rains

He got to study for a summer semester in Rome through the University of Dallas.

During a week off, he traveled to Turin, where Blessed Frassati was born and is now buried “and really pray with him.”

He set about visiting as many of the churches in the city as he could, while looking for a priest who could hear his Confession in English.

Having finally accomplished that mission with guidance from the saints, he planned to head back to St. Philip Neri Church for late-afternoon Mass.

It had begun to rain and hail. Mr. Hartman set out on foot with a worn-out umbrella.

He took a wrong turn and eventually discovered he’d gone the wrong way.

He spotted a little chapel that wasn’t on his map, went inside and found out that Adoration was going on, followed by Mass.

“I set my umbrella down, looked to my left, and there on a side altar of this 800-year-old church, there’s a portrait of Frassati looking straight at me.”

He found a pamphlet that said Blessed Frassati, his confirmation saint, used to spend nights in Adoration in this chapel.

Be it resolved

Mr. Hartman served in a parish internship for a semester at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Columbia.

He anticipates completing his Master’s in Divinity degree this December at Mundelein.

After being ordained a deacon, he plans to spend six weeks in a Spanish-language and cultural immersion program in Antigua, Guatemala.

This will help him minister more effectively to members of the growing Hispanic population in this diocese.

“I have a hard time with languages, so I know it’s not something that’s going to come easily for me,” he said. “But it’s worth doing.

“And we have the luxury of faith in knowing that if this is what the Church desires of me, this is what the Lord desires of me,” he continued. “In that he’s going to be with me, and there are going to be so many fruits that come in so many ways as the Lord leads me and conforms my heart ever-more to his.”

Mr. Hartman will be ordained with 13 other men who have been preparing for four and a half years to become permanent deacons.

Archbishop McKnight, the ordaining prelate, will ask them all several questions, each beginning with, “Do you resolve … ?”

“That means, this is a dynamic promise, something to hold fast to, something you don’t just say once, but something you promise every day — ‘today, I am waking up to be a servant consecrated to our Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to live that out as fully as I can today,’ and throughout your life, this is going to continue to mean more and more,” said Mr. Hartman.

“Because ultimately, it’s a life consecrated to Jesus, for the sake of his people.”

Mr. Hartman asks for prayers for God to help him serve well as a deacon and eventually as a priest.

“This is a supernatural vocation,” he noted. “You need to rely on the Lord to give you the strength and the guidance to lead you where he desires you to go.”