Rev. Leszek Janik
Age entered the Seminary: 20
Age ordained: 30
Date Ordained: 5/30/92
How did you first experience or hear "The Call" to the Priesthood?
My first experience with the call to priesthood did not happen in one day or over one night. It was a long process with different stages.
I had been the alter server and sacristan as well in my home parish church for quite a long time. Therefore, I had spent a lot of time in the church, listening (not necessarily with greatest attention) to long and various homilies which also referred to the priesthood. Meanwhile, my two older brothers had already received the Holy Orders, so their presence in the same home and family was a significant one, and it had an immense influence on my future decision. Thus, my first experience with "The Call" was more of watching, listening and looking at the priests, rather than considering myself as a possible future priest. At that time, there was no desire as such to become a priest.
What were your thoughts and feelings when you first thought about becoming a priest? What are your thoughts now after becoming a priest?
Even though I decided to cross the threshold to the Seminary, I still had doubts about that life time commitment. During that time, I had been questioning if it was really a vocation for me. I had been searching in my mind for the proper answers and solutions to resolve these doubts.
St. Augustine had been searching for God outside of himself, until one day he exclaimed: "You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for You." Similarly, I had been searching in my mind for the answers to what was my vocation. Then one day I learned that I am not a naked intellect. I learned that in order to know "The Call" I cannot move around it, but instead I must enter into it and love it. Since then my watching, looking and searching has become my loving of the priesthood.