Tobias Letak

College IV
St. John Vianney Seminary College

Hello, my name is Tobias M. A. Letak, and I am a member of St. Stephen the Martyr parish in Omaha. I was born and raised in Omaha, and my parents are Benjamin and Seraphia Letak. I have one older sister and two younger brothers.

I had a sort of conversion experience during the summer after I completed the eighth grade at St. Stephen the Martyr school. I attended the Steubenville Mid-America youth conference -- put on by the Franciscan University of Steubenville -- and for the first time, I experienced God's love for me in a profound, indescribable way. This experience fostered my earliest thoughts about becoming a priest.

Over the course of the next four years of my life, in which I studied at Skutt Catholic High School, the sense of a call to the priesthood came and went -- at times I felt sure I would be a priest, at others I was confident that I would become a married man. At the time of my graduation, I did not feel any particular pull toward entering the seminary, so I made plans for a college career at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

At UNL, I studied computer science (an interest I had developed in high school), and I was also considering adding a major in mathematics. I was content with the University -- which has a great Catholic community in its Newman Center, by the way -- and planned to spend a full four years of study there.

Up until the summer of 2009 (the summer after my freshman year in college), I was certain that I would be returning to Lincoln for the continuation of my undergraduate studies. During that summer, I had begun to more actively discern the vocation to the priesthood and was in contact with Fr. Paul Hoesing, the vocations director. At one point in a conversation in the middle of July, Fr. Hoesing mentioned that it would be possible for me to enter the seminary in the fall of 2009. When he spoke of that, the seminary once again became an option for me that I was excited to consider. (Before that, I was convinced that it was too late to apply for that coming academic year.) After prayer and deliberation, I felt that God was calling me to enter into the seminary at that point in my life, and I started filling out the paperwork. Then, God did the rest, and now I am studying at St. John Vianney seminary at St. Thomas University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

My experience at the seminary has been a great blessing for me! I have met many wonderful men who have challenged me by their holiness of life to grow in my own relationship with God. Being in such a supportive community focused on the common goal of growing in love in Christ for the sake of future parishioners is such a wonderful gift -- one that has given me a valuable experience I could never have foreseen.

If you, reader, have felt that perhaps God is calling you to the priesthood, do not be afraid of listening and entering the seminary! There is no better place to discern that religious call. Pray about it, and follow God wherever He calls you! God bless you!