Saint
Francis Xavier CATHOLIC CHURCH
introducing
B
y now, many parishioners have likely noticed a new smiling, energetic face around the St. Francis Xavier campus. We are pleased to welcome Jacob Farni as our Children’s Minister! Jacob brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the position, as well as the most important quality in a faith formation minister — a great passion for helping others grow in their faith through meaningful personal encounters with the Lord. Jacob grew up on a farm in western Oklahoma. His family attended St. Matthew Catholic Church in Elk City, and Jacob went to a small school in Canute. Still today, he likes to call his grade school a “public Catholic school” because the majority of his teachers were Catholic. While going to Mass and receiving the sacraments was always an important part of his life, Jacob had never really considered applying to a Catholic university until he learned that he would be able to play college basketball if he went to St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee. Jacob may have gone to St. Gregory’s for the basketball, but he graduated four years later having gained so much more. “It was God putting me in the right place at the right time,” Jacob says of his college experience. “The monks there were amazing, and I had really faithful friends. By my sophomore year, I had this kind of reconversion. I just realized what I believe and how amazing it was. My heart moved from being almost obsessed with basketball to a passion and zeal for the Church, and I knew that ministry was something I had a talent for.” This realization led Jacob to the position
Jacob Farni is the new Children’s Minister at St. Francis Xavier.
of Director of Religious Education at his home parish of St. Matthew. He loved forming children in the faith so much that after three years, he began to wonder if God was calling him to one day be able to offer them the sacraments by following a path to the priesthood. Jacob explored that possible vocation at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. After a year of seminarian studies and a lot of prayer, Jacob discerned that lay ministry in the Church was his true calling. Not long after making that decision, he realized just how perfect God’s plans for him really were. “It was God’s providence that led me to St. continued on page 5
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Led by
Our New Children’s Minister,
