Robby Bartos, St. Anne Church, Berryville

Attends the House of Formation in Little Rock

What next? You know, that’s a question that I’ve been asking myself for a while now. I mean, I’m out of high school now, I got to do something with my life. That’s kind of why I’m at the House of Formation right now. I want to see what seminary is all about.

Forgive me, but it’s hard for me to give a good account of what all actually happened to the point of me making this decision. I only remember bits and pieces of it.

The first person I think that suggested to me that I should be a priest was a man called Alfredo. He told my dad that he thought I had a vocation after he saw me actively participating in CCD (parish religious education). At the time, I just shrugged it off.

The second person to suggest this was my religious education teacher, Mr. Tom. Once again, I just thought “Yeah, okay.”, and just went on my merry way.

Sometime later, we had a visiting priest at our Mass filling in for my pastor, Father Joseph Archibong. I did what I normally do, and served the Mass like usual. I remember after Mass, the priest asked me if I ever considered becoming a priest. I thought that it was kind of strange that a man whom I had only just met would suggest this to me, so I decided that I might look into it.

I cannot remember the priest’s name, or really his face for all that matter, but I'm grateful to him. As for my reasoning for wanting to become a priest, I believe that, right now, it is something that I think God wants me to do, and I try to do what he wants. So if the Lord calls, I will try to answer!

If you wish to contact Robby Bartos, please e-mail Georgina Pena in the Vocations Office or call her at (501) 664-0340. This article was published Sept. 20, 2023. Copyright Diocese of Little Rock. All rights reserved. This article may be copied or redistributed with acknowledgement and permission of the publisher.