Jacob Schneider
Home Parish: Corpus Christi Parish, Evansville
Seminary: St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology
Ordination Year: 2028
Editor’s Note: This year, Diocesan seminarians focused their annual seminarian articles on the theme: “Encouraging Discernment.” Our seminarians wrote about a non-ordained person from our Diocese who encouraged them to discern priesthood.
By Jacob Schneider
The spring of my junior year in high school is a time that I have come to consider the most pivotal where I began more intentionally discerning seminary and priesthood, and one voice of encouragement from that time is my youth group leader, Sharon Shumate. She was the youth group leader for Unite throughout most of my time in high school, and it was a community that I valued deeply as a place to grow in the faith alongside friends and peers.
That spring, Sharon told us that they were planning on bringing a group to St. Meinrad’s One Bread One Cup program, and I signed up to go along. That summer was the first time I had ever been to Meinrad, and the program gave me the time and place to think about what I was being personally called to. As I reflected on experiences with her and my peers, I also found myself pondering if I could be called here at Meinrad, in one way or another.
Sharon’s invitation and encouragement to openness in the program gave me a push to more confidently discern the call of seminary and priesthood.