Menu
September 11 attacks helped return McCook graduate to priesthood path
Fear blocked Neal Hock's path to the priesthood for several years, however, the fear of mortality that descended on him following the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, gave him the strength to return to the path he now sees as God's plan all along.
Hock, a 1996 graduate of McCook High School and 2000 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest Friday June 10 at St. Mary's Cathedral in Grand Island and will present his first Mass, traditionally the Mass of Thanksgiving, at noon on Saturday, June 11, at his home parish, St. Patrick Catholic Church in McCook.
He writes in an email interview:
"As a senior in high school, I had my first thoughts about being a priest. At that time though, I was too afraid of what that might mean. I did not feel I had the talent to be a priest. I decided to go to the university instead and made a lot of good friends there.
"I had several job offers coming out of college, but I selected the one that seemed most interesting. Being an accountant for a grain company who specialized in premium grain seemed to me to hold quite a bit of intrigue. Every day was different and accounting for a commodity, the value of which varies based both on the futures market and on barge freight trading, kept me interested and always presented me with a new challenge.
"On Sept. 11, 2001, we all know what happened. No one I knew personally was killed in the attack, but ... I began to think about my own mortality. I realized how quickly, and without notice, death can descend upon us. The only way to keep from going crazy from fear of the reality that we all die was to turn to prayer. I began to pray more, seeking to encounter God, to regain hope. In asking the questions, seeking answers from God, I eventually had a personal encounter with the mystery of the incarnation, that God became man to save us from sin and death.
"Through the sacraments of the Church I continued to receive healing and strength. It was in my preparation for the sacrament of confession one fine Saturday afternoon that I heard the call of Jesus to follow him, to go to seminary and to be formed as a priest. I was both exhilarated and nervous at the same time. I was so excited that the Lord would call me to such an office, even with my many weaknesses, because of my weaknesses. My nervousness was due to my realization of the enormous responsibility that this office has.
"Through six years of prayer, reflection and formation, I can see more and more clearly how God has been working throughout my life. I am now approaching ordination to the priesthood full of confidence in he who strengthens me, Jesus Christ."
The only son of the late Bernard Hock and Carol Hock of Culbertson, Neal has five younger sisters. His father, Bernard, was killed in an accident in Colorado shortly after Neal returned home before going on to seminary.
He writes about his family and in particular, his father's pride, "When I first moved home, I was able to spend a couple months with my dad before he died in an accident out in Colorado. One day, he and I were working on the cattle lot fence. An Ag Valley Coop man, who was a friend of dad's, stopped by after dropping of a load of fertilizer for the farm. He and dad were talking for a while when dad called me over. Dad had to re-introduce me to him because I had been gone from the farm for so long. When the man asked what I did for a living, dad looked at me with a twinkle in his eye that I can only imagine as the same one he had on the day of my birth, then said, "he is going to be a Catholic priest." Dad's joy for me, which he showed that day, has been a common theme for my immediate and extended family as well. They have over and over said what an honor it is for them."
He began his seminary education at Conception Seminary College in Conception, Missouri in August of 2005. Following two years of philosophical education and priestly formation, he received a certificate of pre-theology in May of 2007. The focus of study was academic (with a focus on philosophy), spiritual (including learning the prayer life of a priest and meeting with a spiritual director every two weeks), and character (focusing on integrity, growing in virtue and learning about themselves and the particular gifts and talents God has given). In June of that year, he left the United States to continue his seminary life in Rome, Italy. In June 2010, he received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University and is now in his first year of a two year program to earn a Sacred Theological Licentiate from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, specializing in dogmatic theology. On Oct. 7, 2010, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, he was ordained as a deacon.
At the Pontifical North American College, character and spiritual formation continue, with more personal accountability expected of the seminarian. The academic focus shifts more to theology with introductions to biblical exegesis, Christology, liturgy, Church fathers, canon law and more. Pastoral study is added and Neal is learning and exercising his pastoral gifts among organizations that minister to a variety of people, the young, the infirm, the elderly, etc.
Sponsored by the diocese of Grand Island, Neal will eventually be assigned to a parish within the diocese's boundaries, north of the Platte River at Grand Island to the Nebraska/South Dakota border, and west from Grand Island to the Nebraska/Wyoming state line. He will return to Rome in October to complete his license degree and will move back to Nebraska to his first parish in June 2012.
There, he said he, "will first and foremost administer the sacraments and help the people of God to grow in holiness in many different ways, but always preceded by the grace of God. My concern will always be for those people entrusted to me by the bishop. I look forward to being there with them in all phases of human life, from the birth of their children to the death of their parents and siblings, for first communion and to anoint them when they are sick, to laugh with them at family reunions and celebrations and to cry with them as they struggle through the hard times life will hand them. In a word, I pray that I may be like Christ among them."