Serving God and country
NTC/Juan Guajardo
HE IS: Father Jason Allan, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Pilot Point. He also served as parochial vicar at Immaculate Conception Parish in Denton.
LOCAL LIFE: Raised in Keller, Fr. Allan increased his involvement at his home parish of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton when he needed service hours. Through altar serving, he came to know Monsignor James Hart, Father Dennis Smith, and Father Jim McGhee and admired their spirituality.
A DISCERNING MIND: After graduating from Keller High School, Fr. Allan put aside earlier plans to join the U.S. Navy and entered seminary.
After his third year of seminary, he began to question his call to the priesthood. Father Jonathan Wallis advised him, “It’s impossible to have certainty of our call to the priesthood. There’s always some element of a leap of faith. Rely on your trust in the Lord.”
ORDAINED AND COMMISSIONED: Two days after his ordination as a transitional deacon on March 19, 2020, Fr. Allan was commissioned into the Navy as a chaplain candidate.
He has completed basic training and the initial chaplaincy school, and Lieutenant Allan spent a month of each of the last three summers serving in the military.
After working as a parish pastor for several years, he and Bishop Michael Olson will evaluate the option of becoming an active-duty chaplain.
PRIESTHOOD: May 22, 2021, at Vietnamese Martyrs Church in Arlington.
NAVY BLUE: Fr. Allan’s father is a retired naval officer, which prompted his childhood desire to join the Navy. His summer naval assignments confirmed his desire to be a naval chaplain. Young sailors are “trying to figure out what to do with the rest of their lives. Given the nature of the military and the presence of the possibility of death, they are more likely to ask some of those big questions. Being a priest in the middle of that is a powerful encounter.”
BEST PARTS OF PRIESTHOOD: “Being able to celebrate Mass is always very profound, but I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate some of the sick calls.
“Someone approaching the end of their life, or having a serious health concern, is definitely reaching out for something. … That’s an opportunity to hopefully be that mediator for the encounter between them — them and God, them and the Church.”
STAYING FAITHFUL: The breviary — or the Liturgy of the Hours, the universal prayer of the Church — “since ordination has been especially fruitful for me. I’m praying a psalm of rejoicing or of lamentation or sadness … I can think of a parishioner who can relate to that psalm … and lift up that person in prayer.
“Solitude is a necessary part of the priesthood. Our primary source has to be the Lord, and that comes from our own private prayer and the sacraments as well.”
ANTICIPATION: Advent, especially Advent hymns, are a favorite. “To some extent, our whole life is like Advent as we’re waiting for the return of the Lord, and we’re waiting to meet Him in our death. That anticipation that we’re intentional about in Advent is present throughout the whole year.”
THE TAKEAWAY: “Ultimately our faith is about establishing a relationship with the Lord. When we are teaching the Catechism or exhorting something in the moral life, it's never for its own sake, but it's always for us to have that deeper relationship with Christ and His Church.”