As a college student in Indiana, Father Jonathan Meyer was attending a Protestant prayer meeting when he heard a call to become a Catholic priest.

He had been brought up Catholic, but had little understanding of the faith. He told his shocked evangelical-Protestant friends that he would enter the seminary to convert Catholics to “real Christianity.”

After a year at seminary, however, he fell in love with the sacraments, the Blessed Mother and the teachings of the Church — all of which were new to him.

He completed his theology studies at the North American College in Rome, where, he says, he was part of the “‘John Paul II Generation’ of priests who are involved in the New Evangelization proclaimed by our late Holy Father.”

He knows what it’s like to be an uneducated, unengaged Catholic, so he has dedicated his priesthood to bringing people of all ages back into the fold — or deeper into the heart of the Church.

“As Ephesians 6 says, there is a battle out there,” says Father Meyer, referring to St. Paul’s exhortation to “put on the armor of God.”

“We all must evangelize, spread the faith and do God’s will in our lives with the armor and the grace he gives us,” says the young priest.

Ordained in 2003, Father Meyer spent three years as an assistant at Our Lady of the Greenwood Church in Greenwood, Ind., and recently was reassigned to St. Luke’s Church in Indianapolis. He is also head of the Office for Youth and Young Adults for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

Following the model of Pope John Paul II, he challenges young people with the fullness of the faith, urging them to be countercultural apostles amid the temptations of a secular society.

Through his influence, eight young men are currently studying for the priesthood.

“He’s a model of the priesthood,” says Chris Casey, a 19-year-old student in the archdiocese’s house of priestly formation on the campus of Marian College in Indianapolis. “His personal prayer life is inspiring. Any time I go to the adoration chapel, I can count on seeing him there. We are all inspired by his love for the Eucharist, his love for the Blessed Virgin and his love for the Church. He’s a well-balanced, down-to-earth, cool guy who gets young people excited about the faith.”

At Our Lady of the Greenwood, Father Meyer instituted “First Thursdays,” a program of prayer, Mass, food and fun designed to inspire young men to consider the priesthood.

He chose Thursday because that is the day Jesus instituted the priesthood and the Eucharist among his apostles.

He also leads vocation retreats, hiking and camping trips, and sports activities.

His conversion story challenges young people to think about their own direction in life. At the University of Southern Indiana, he was an outstanding cross-country and track runner, and “lived a whole normal college life,” including a serious relationship with his girlfriend, he says. Then “a knee injury changed my life.”

Forced to face his physical limitations and spiritual weakness, he started asking questions about the meaning of life. He joined a campus non-denominational prayer group, where he heard the call to become a priest.

“I fought it for a month, but the call kept coming, so I said okay,” he recalls. “I would become a priest to convert all the Catholics.”

In seminary, he learned to pray the Rosary and realized for the first time that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.

“That just blew me away, to know that Jesus, God the Son, is present in every tabernacle,” he says. “That was my second conversion, the conversion to the fullness of the faith.”

Man of the People

“He’s very big on [John Paul II’s] theology of the body,” says Kathy Syberg, whose youngest son will enter the house of priestly formation at Marian College in the fall. Long-time parishioners of Our Lady of the Greenwood Church, she and her husband have seven children, ages 26 to 16.

“He’s had a big effect on my family,” she says. “Before he came, I would have said that I was a good Catholic. But he really challenges you to dig deeper. He’s not afraid to push people, and some people don’t always appreciate it.”

Syberg said that she is glad Father Meyer does not back away from the Church’s teaching on contraception. “It’s one of the big tests God places before us,” she says. “Go forth and trust that God will take care of you.”

Terri Drake, another parishioner, says, “His love of liturgy, his orthodoxy and challenging homilies have modeled for us the highest standards of priesthood.”

Msgr. Mark Svarczkopf, pastor of Our Lady of the Greenwood, was a faculty member at North American College while Father Meyer was a student there. For the past three years, they have served together at the same parish.

“He’s a priest through and through, and a man of prayer,” says Msgr. Svarczkopf. “He is good with all the people in the parish — not just the young people, but the married couples, the older people and the sick in the hospital.”

“He is always ready,” adds the monsignor, “to serve God’s people.”

Stephen Vincent writes from

Wallingford, Connecticut.