Fr. Jeremy Maness
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Parochial Vicarjmanessholyfamilychurch.netI was born and raised in Dallas as the oldest of six siblings. I was raised Catholic, and I grew up going to Catholic school, which is where I first came to love the faith. However, after 4th grade, my family moved, and I switched to public school and a new parish. At first, this was very hard for me. My family was still somewhat lukewarm in our faith, and I did not like my new environment. However, God had a plan, and, after a time of spiritual searching, I recommitted myself to Church.The following year, I received the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, and I found new meaning in my life and in my faith. I spent my high school years volunteering, teaching, and growing in the practice of my faith.
It was around this time that I began to discern a vocation to the priesthood. Initially, I pushed the idea away, wanting to pursue engineering. However, the call never truly went away, and I finally gave it some attention in my senior year of high school, when I began applying to colleges. At that time, I started experiencing an unusual amount of anxiety. I talked to friends, I asked mentors for advice, and I went on a retreat, trying to understand the cause of that anxiety. Those things helped, but they didn’t solve my problem. However, one of those friends was also discerning a call to seminary at the time. He had planned a weekend trip to visit the seminary, and he convinced me to go with him.
As soon as we arrived, I felt a mysterious peace replace the anxiety I had felt for months. Throughout the weekend I experienced classes, community, and prayer with the seminarians, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that it had all been made for me. I knew that God was trying to show me something, and I decided that I couldn’t move on with my life until I understood why I had such a sense of peace at the seminary. The only way to figure it out was to put college applications on hold and go to seminary, which I did right after high school. First, I went to Holy Trinity Seminary at the University of Dallas, from which I graduated in 2021. From there, I went to Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, from which I graduated last December. In between those years of study, seminary formation has taken me everywhere from Rome to Honduras to Nebraska. It’s been an adventure, a challenge, and a joy, and I am truly thankful for every minute of it!