Deacon Michael Panka, 35, said that he owes much of his vocation to the intercession of Mary.
“My primary models and inspiration have been Our Lady and all the saints,” he said. “I owe much to Our Lady’s intercession and it is in large part due to my parents’ influence that I have a strong attachment and devotion to Mary, Our Mother.”
Deacon Panka, who grew up in New Prague, attended St. Nicholas in Elko New Market, where his love for the Mass was cultivated. His parents, Paul and Candice, helped Deacon Panka grow in his faith, along with his six siblings, through frequenting the sacraments there.
“My parents took very seriously their responsibility to educate me and my siblings in the faith and made sure that we attended Mass on Sundays (as well as at other times), went to confession regularly, and prayed daily. One of the most formative parts of my upbringing was our daily family rosary,” he said.
Deacon Panka’s path to priesthood was not as direct as some of his classmates. After graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in Latin and classical languages and a master’s in Catholic Studies, he pursued a career as a teacher. He felt the Lord inviting him to the priesthood, Deacon Panka said, but he was reluctant to follow the call.
“I had this ongoing debate with the Lord that he seemingly very clearly wanted me to pursue the priesthood, and I was trying to give him all the excuses I could think of for a very long time,” Deacon Panka said. “The Lord is patient and kind and merciful and he just kept inviting me to consider this possibility.”
He said that his vocation was clarified through “many years of prayer, discernment and talking with others.”
He hopes that his priesthood will help reestablish a Christian worldview, which has been replaced by a “subjective understanding of the universe,” he said.
“How shall I help meet this need? First, by deepening my own relationship with God through frequent prayer and meditation on sacred Scripture; second, by educating myself especially in the history of Christian doctrine and Christian (and pre-Christian) thought; third, through preaching and teaching; and fourth, by building meaningful relationships with the people I serve, so that, through the friendly exchange of ideas, we may together deepen our knowledge and understanding of the truth as it appears in every aspect of our daily lives,” he said.
