Spotlight on ministry: Father Greg Gerhart

Father Greg Gerhart is the Vocation director for the Diocese of Austin. His role is to help young men and women hear and respond to God’s call and to help everyone recognize and fulfill their role in promoting a culture of vocations.
“I enjoy speaking to young men and women who love the Lord and want to discuss the biggest question they’ll ever ask: How does God want me to follow him?” he said.
Father Gerhart was ordained in 2016, and served as associate pastor of St. Mary Catholic Center in College Station before being appointed the vocation director last July.
In his first few months in the position, Father Gerhart has realized the size of the diocese presents a big challenge.
“With so many parishes, campus ministries, youth ministries and Catholic schools to visit, it is hard to reach everyone. But that is why it is so important to have a culture of vocations –- one that includes every Catholic faithful praying for vocations and encouraging young men and women to consider the priesthood and religious life,” he said.
Father Gerhart encourages everyone to pray daily for vocations to the priesthood and religious life and to consider inviting young men and women to consider a vocation.
“Even something as simple as, ‘You would make a great priest,’ or ‘You would make a great sister,’ can be a seed that is planted in their hearts that grows into a full-blown vocation later in life,” he said. “God is the one at work – calling young men and women to the priesthood and to the religious life – and he wants to do that work with our help.”
Visit godiscalling.me or call the Vocations Office at (512) 949-2430 for more information about vocations in the Diocese of Austin. (Photo by Shelley Metcalf)