8-year-old deepens holy commitment after Indy event

Damian Rogers, 8, smiles in front of a saint-inspired backdrop at the Indiana Convention Center during the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17. (Courtesy Jill Rogers)

CONWAY — While in the adoration chapel at St. Joseph Church in Conway three years ago, Damian Rogers knelt in the pew and prayed aloud, saying, “Jesus, I love you; I adore you; I’m going to be a priest; and I want to go to heaven. Jesus, I’m going to pray the rosary every day, and I want to make sacrifices.” 

It’s similar to what seminarians and priests share when recalling their discernment stories, with one striking difference — Damian Rogers was 5 years old at the time. 

“I’ve said to many people you do catechesis in your home, but so many of these insights that he has seem to come from somewhere else,” said his mom, Jill Rogers. “He would just pray before the Blessed Sacrament, he would go and kneel on a step right in front of Jesus, and I would hear him say things like, ‘Jesus, I want to be your priest. And I want you to guide me.’ 

“From a very early age, he seemed to understand the priesthood of Jesus Christ and that he would be a priest of Jesus and he would give his entire life over to Jesus and service to the Church.” 

Now 8 years old, Damian, the middle of three children for Jimmy and Jill Rogers, parishioners of St. Joseph Church, remains committed to discerning God’s call. While still a typical boy — excitedly mentioning his favorite hobbies are to “play Legos and pray” — the Rogers family is taking his calling seriously. 

Helping him discern as he grows helps drive the family’s spiritual decisions, from attending ordinations to the recent National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, showing how families can be open to a child’s call to religious life. 

“To have a child that seemingly has a vocation to the religious life in your home is overwhelming at times; it’s very humbling as well. But you want to help to nurture it. And so you’re constantly in prayer as how to do that,” Jill said. 

Domestic Church

Jimmy and Jill Rogers have attended St. Joseph Church since the early 2000s, before they were married 15 years ago. From the beginning, creating the domestic church — building up the kingdom of God within the home — has been a priority for their family. The couple, along with their three children, Damian, Jackson, 10, and Mary, 5, pray the rosary daily, attend weekend Mass, usually daily Mass and pray an adoration hour. 

“I feel more of a calling to the priesthood. And I feel like Jesus wants me to spend more time with him praying. I feel calm,” Damian said of his time in adoration. “I talk to him about how I want to be a priest and how I want to be his servant.”

The family is also devoted to liturgical living, including celebrating feast days, saint devotions and incorporating a pilgrimage aspect into vacations. The children are homeschooled and are part of the Arkansas Catholic Homeschoolers co-op that meets at St. Jude Church in Jacksonville. 

While their children have grown up with Catholicism woven into their daily lives, Damian has always been different, from how he makes the sign of the cross in Latin to being drawn to adoration. 

“He’s an 8-year-old boy. So he can be pretty wild and crazy, stuff like that. But at other times, he can be very solemn and loving toward somebody. Or very solemn about something about Church, whether it’s Mass or if he hasn’t seen a priest in a while, he wants to go talk to or see that priest,” Jimmy said. 

And his son doesn’t just talk about God and being in service. He is committed to sacrifices, like offering to serve in time-out in place of one of his siblings. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Rogers family was watching Mass by Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, when Damian first mentioned his desire for the priesthood. 

“He said, ‘Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a priest.’ He said it with such conviction but also like a jubilation. You know you have those moments as a parent that really grab you and I saw it was very obviously from above,” Jill said. 

The family emailed Bishop Robert Barron to share their story. Bishop Barron emailed back, saying, in part, “I know he’s only a little man, but the call to the priesthood is mysterious. ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,’ the Lord said to Jeremiah. When I was Damian’s age, I wanted to be a priest. I went through a number of changes and ups and downs, but that early conviction never fully left me – and it eventually led me to the seminary.” 

For Damian, watching the Mass and God’s call was just the movement of the Holy Spirit in his heart. 

“It was just a feeling,” he said. 

Growing and discerning 

Since realizing their son may have a religious calling, the couple makes sure to expose Damian and their other children to Catholic experiences related to religious life, including Holy Week Masses and the Diocese of Little Rock’s annual Chrism Mass, where the chrism oil for ordinations are blessed. The family attends priestly ordinations, and Jill said Damian always emanates a joy “that you just couldn’t fake.” 

Damian explained his favorite part of ordinations is when “the bishop consecrates the priest’s hands with the chrism oil.” 

Damian said he’s enjoyed meeting several priests, including one of his favorites, Father Taryn Whittington, administrator at St. Boniface Church in Bigelow (New Dixie) and St. Oscar Romero Catholic Community in Greenbrier. 

“I like his homilies. I like how he does the Gospel and how he does the consecration,” Damian said. 

Even though discernment as an adult is critical to following a vocation, Father Whittington said many priests he’s known have shared about feeling the call at a young age toward religious life. 

“For a kid that age, it was remarkable how focused he is on the Blessed Sacrament and on the Eucharist,” Father Whittington said of Damian. 

In celebration of the Eucharistic Revival, Jill and the children attended a part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage along the St. Juan Diego Route, stopping in Hanceville, Ala., at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament June 20. The whole family attended the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis July 17-18, joining 60,000 other Catholics to celebrate Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist.

Even before both events, Damian could see the spiritual connections between the revival and what would be unfolding across the country. 

“We were driving to daily Mass, and we were talking about the pilgrimage and the four routes and how they would converge at the congress. And he said, ‘Yes, well, it’s like how we all come together at church into one body of Christ.’ He was able to tie that all together,” his mother said. 

At the Eucharistic Congress, Damian kept busy waving and saying hello to all the priests who passed by. 

“I want to become a priest when I grow up, so I just want to meet all the priests that I can,” he said. 

Damian Rogers, 8, prays and smiles at the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. (Courtesy Jill Rogers)

Aprille Hanson Spivey

Aprille Hanson Spivey has contributed to Arkansas Catholic as a freelancer and associate editor since 2010. She leads the Beacon of Hope grief ministry at St. Joseph Church in Conway.

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