Responding to God's Call: Third-grader considers career as a priest

Courtesy photo/Our Lady of Lourdes School

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As an assignment for career day, Our Lady of Lourdes third-grade student Baruc Hernandez wrote and illustrated this essay about being a priest.

SALT LAKE CITY — Baruc Hernandez has a dream of the bishop giving him his own cassock, marking his vocation as a diocesan priest.

For a little while he kept his dream to himself, but then the third-grade student at Our Lady of Lourdes School told his parents, who said it was a good dream. He also wrote an essay about being a priest for a career day. Then, when Bishop Oscar A. Solis celebrated Mass at the school in February, Hernandez told him about his desire.

In response, the bishop told Hernandez it was good he was considering becoming a priest “because he said in the Church we need more nuns and more priests,” said Hernandez, who remembers the date he received his First Communion: May 28, 2017, at Sacred Heart Parish in Salt Lake City.

He was a bit nervous during the ceremony, he said, but “when I first ate and drank the Body and the Blood, I felt good.”

His teachers were not surprised when they learned that Hernandez may have a priestly vocation.

“It just seemed to fit his personality,” said Tonni Trujillo, who teaches art and technology at Our Lady of Lourdes School. “If someone gets hurt, he’s usually one of the first ones there, wanting to know if they’re OK.”

“Baruc is definitely very kind,” agreed Tina Bergquist, the principal. “He is the child that is always looking out for other kids.”

In 2015, Hernandez and his family went to Pennsylvania to see Pope Francis during the Holy Father’s visit to the United States. They attended a program for the World Meeting of Families, and “we got taught a lot about God, and we made our own rosaries,” he said.

If he doesn’t become a priest he would want to be an artist, he said; he enjoys drawing and coloring crosses, and art depicting God and Mary. When Bishop Solis visited, Hernandez drew a picture of a cross, Our Lady of Guadalupe and himself next to them, wearing a cassock. He likes the story about Our Lady of Guadalupe appearing to St. Juan Diego, and she also reflects his Mexican heritage, he said.

If another boy thought he might have a vocation as a priest but was afraid to say so because he would be teased, Hernandez said, “I would tell him, ‘Don’t be afraid because God is with you, and it’s good to be a priest.” For himself, he hopes “that dream that I always wanted would never go away.”