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Jacob Bovee
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Pre-Theology IIja9boveegmail.comSEMINARY
St. Francis de Sales Seminary
3257 S. Lake Drive
St. Francis, WI 53235-3702
BIRTHDAY
September 16
PARISH
St. Mary of the Immaculate
Conception Parish, Greenville
Are there any books that you love so much that you
have read them twice (or more)?
There are many, but the “Lord of the Rings,” “The Chronicles of Narnia,” and
“The Phantom Tollbooth” are the only ones I’ve read
more than five times each.
When you find yourself with a “free night,” what
is something you are likely to do?
I’d probably hop online to play some video games with friends or else sit
down with a good book for some quiet time.
What do you remember from your First Communion?
I honestly don’t really remember it. What I do know is that
I received it from Fr. Mark Vander Steeg, who I looked up
to while growing up. His example of how he treated the
Eucharist is part of what helped me eventually acknowledge
that there was more to Communion than meets the eye.
Where is one of your favorite places to pray, and
what makes it special to you?
When I was in college, I grew to really love praying in the woods while walking.
I was attending UW-Green Bay, and there’s an extensive
arboretum surrounding the campus that I used to take
daily walks in with my girlfriend at the time. We moved
on, of course, as I began to heed the call to priesthood,
but I kept up my habit of walking in the arboretum while
talking to someone I loved, only now it was God I was
talking to. There’s also a Catholic chapel in those woods,
which I think may have helped hallow the place.
What role has the Eucharist played in your discernment
of the priesthood?
The Eucharist isn’t just the reason I’m
pursuing a priestly vocation, it’s the reason I’m still Catholic.
Why else would I be here if not because I must respond to
the love God showed me first by dying for me? His sacrifice
inspires love and loyalty in a way that is unmatchable, his
beauty and praiseworthiness is so profoundly proven by
the sacrifice of the Eucharist that I can’t help but desire to
be like him, since he’s so beautiful. Then there’s adoration,
where we can sit with him and just be there, in person, to
witness that sacrifice. It’s always in adoration that I hear God’s
promptings most clearly, so it’s no surprise that it’s always
been the time that my desire to be a priest has grown. I
want to be like Christ, and I want to bring people to Christ,
so that they can drown in his infinite beauty with me. What
better way to do that than to be, like him, a priest, and to
literally bring him to people in the form of the Eucharist?
If there was one thing you could communicate to the
faithful about the importance and role of the Eucharist
in our Catholic faith, what would it be?
The Eucharist is the reason we are here. If Jesus Christ did not fulfill
the promises he made to his people, both in person
and through the prophets, Christianity would just have
been a mystery cult that would now be dead and mostly
forgotten. But it isn’t, because he did. The Eucharist is the
fulfillment of the central promise he made to save us, and
without it we would not be the same.
The Eucharist is the glue that holds us together as a
Church. It’s why we come to Mass — it’s the perfect
synthesis of what Jesus wishes to teach us, and it’s what
he wants us to emulate. It’s also literally God. Why else
would we travel to God’s house if not to go see God?
Let the Eucharist be what holds you in community with
the Church, because if that is not the center of your
faith then your faith is placed in the wrong god, and
you will inevitably be disappointed. If the Eucharist is
the center, however, then your faith will weather all the
things people claim drive them away from the Church —
whether hypocrisy, scandal, or any other sin that lurks in
a community of imperfect people — since you will know
that the center is still pure and good.
Which saint should people invoke for your vocation
and why?
Please pray for the intercession of St. Joan of
Arc. She has been a great inspiration to me as I seek to
improve my discipline in prayer, like one of the soldiers
under her banner.
