Hart found his call after giving God a chance

After graduation, Little Rock resident returned home to discern his vocation

By Phyllis Hemann
Associate Editor

As a boy, Andrew Hart admired the work of the priests in his parish church and school, Christ the King in Little Rock, and thought he might want to follow in their footsteps.

"They had always seemed to be to me someone of importance," he said. "It always echoed with me from a very young age that they were doing something important. I always looked up to them as a man of God and holiness."

Over time, he said, that thought was pushed further back in his mind as he made plans for the future.

His parents, Robert and Evelyn Hart, made sure Hart, his brother and sister were living their faith and helping others. He was always involved in parish activities as an altar server and in Catholic youth ministry. He was also active in Boy Scouts, making it to the rank of Eagle Scout.

While at Catholic High School in Little Rock, he thought about the priesthood more with the influence of other priests in his life, including principal Msgr. George Tribou who died in Hart's senior year.

Hart, 29, left Arkansas to attend St. Louis University and planned to be a professor or lawyer. As a senior in college, the thought of being a priest returned.

After graduation, he came back to Arkansas to decide what path God was calling him to follow

"I knew that I needed to take some time off after college to re-think things, but I also needed a job. I got a job at the diocese actually," he said.

Andrew Hart Birthdate: Feb. 9, 1983 Hometown: Little Rock Family: Robert and Evelyn Hart, one brother, Stephen, who is also a seminarian, and one sister, Rosemary First parish assignment: Associate pastor, Immaculate Conception, Fort Smith

He began working at the diocese in 2005, first with the youth office and then helping with Year of the Eucharist steering committee. His work at the diocese taught him the importance of the ministries offered at the diocesan level and how they impact the faith in Arkansas.

"I came to appreciate the way in which the variety of different ministries from the diocesan level were able to reach out to the people in Arkansas and the way in which the bishop was able to guide those ministries in different ways. Each ministry contributed a different aspect of the Church. I came to appreciate our diocese and the way we approach things and the way we seek to live out the Gospel here in Arkansas from a personal, more local level," he said.

He never had a chance to avoid discerning a priestly vocation in his 15 months of working at the diocese, he said, because his office was two doors down from the vocation director's office.

"I always make a joke that I never had a chance; I was always destined to pursue a priestly vocation," he said. "I came to work here actually with a very clear sense that God might be calling me to the priesthood. I needed some time and space to pray through that and consider it more deeply."

After working with his spiritual director and vocations director Msgr. Scott Friend, he did decide that "God was asking me to at least give this a shot."

In fall 2006, he entered the seminary -- first attending St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana for two years before heading to the North American College in Rome to continue his studies.

"It was when I was in Rome that I came to a fuller and firmer sense of God's vocation for me as a priest," he said. "While I needed continued formation to respond to that in the right way, it was in Rome in the middle of the Church and close to the pope ... that I found that. I got this sense that God was sending me in a way as well to his people, to go back to my homeland and be his servant in whatever way he asked me in Arkansas."

With his ordination set for 10 a.m. Saturday, July 21 at the Cathedral of St. Andrew, Hart is looking forward to serving God's people and learning how to be a better priest.

"I'm very grateful for where the Lord's led me. I'm very excited to come back and serve now as a priest of the diocese."

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