Seminarian: awaiting change from holy orders

By DAWN PROSSER
Director of Communications
 
Wall Lake native Garrett Hugeback said the excitement is “incredible” as he and his Kenrick-Glennon Seminary classmates prepare for ordination to the transitional diaconate. Hugeback and fellow diocesan seminarian Jimmy Fitzsimmons will be ordained at the Cathedral of the Epiphany in Sioux City June 6. (See related article.)
 
About half of the classmates have already been ordained in their home dioceses, Hugeback explained. He has traveled to Salina, Kansas; Evansville, Indiana and St. Louis to attend their ordinations as he prepares for his own.
 
“That’s been a huge part of my own excitement,” the seminarian said of the recent ordinations. “Seeing it happening in other guys’ lives and seeing the way they’re coming alive with the sacraments and holy orders (is exciting). I’ve been increasingly thinking I want that.”
 
Throughout his formation, Hugeback noted there have been many important rites and milestones, leading up to receiving holy orders next month.
 Serving at Bishop Keehner's episcopal ordination May 1, 2025.“Every year is a big step and the transition from college seminary to major seminary is another place where there’s a lot of transition, a lot of change – life-altering stuff,” he said. “Little steps especially candidacy, acolyte and lector, those are big moments and you get to do a little bit more like with acolyte, you can purify vessels. That’s a practical change.”
 
The seminarian’s ordination to the transitional diaconate will offer a more profound change in the men than he experienced receiving the different rites.
 
‘A whole new ball game’
“This is the one where the rubber starts to hit the road and you are entering into ministry in a completely new way,” Hugeback pointed out. “The diaconate is a whole new ball game where I get to preach the Gospel. When you are discerning the priesthood, it’s like the Lord made me to preach the Gospel and suddenly it’s coming to light. It’s a reality now – something we couldn’t do before in an official capacity.”
 
As the men prepare for ordination and receiving the sacrament of holy orders, they are reflecting upon the “reality of the sacraments” such as when receiving the Eucharist.
 
“We try in faith to be aware like I received the Eucharist today and …. God has entered my life in a new way,” the Kenrick seminarian explained. “He is going to shine through my life in a new way.”
 
As he has witnessed a change in his classmates upon receiving holy orders, Hugeback anticipates how God will work in him after the laying on of hands by Bishop John E. Keehner June 6.

Hugeback, second from right, and classmate Fitzsimmons, second from left, and their families celebrate the seminarians receiving the rite of lector. 

“Who knows what’s going to change in me? It’s so exciting to see how drastic it will be. It’s the same man but holy orders changes a lot about that man. It’s a subtle thing but still dramatic,” Hugeback reflected. “Who knows what the Lord is going to awaken in me and what he’s going to make come alive?”
 
Post-ordination anticipation
A newly-ordained deacon traditionally preaches in his home parish the day after his ordination Mass. Hugeback will proclaim the Gospel and preach June 7 at St. Joseph Church in Wall Lake, which is the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
 
“The most intimidating thing is that it’s such a huge topic – the Eucharist,” Hugeback said of preparing a homily for his first Mass. “So, I am (thinking about) who are the people that will be in front of me, who am I preaching to, what will I say to them about the Eucharist that they don’t already know or what they need to hear?”
 
Aside from preaching on Corpus Christi Sunday, the seminarian is looking forward to seeing family, friends in the pews and as he serves as a deacon on the altar for the Mass.
 
“I’m excited to have all my guests here, people from all over the place … relationships from the beginning - from childhood and seminary life,” he said. “It will be awesome to have them all come to me in one big place together. That’s exciting.”
 
He acknowledged that many of those guests have been praying for the seminarian and showing their support for a long time.
 
“They are waiting for their new deacon and then priest,” he said. “I looking forward to sharing that day with them, sharing the celebration of the sacraments and getting to live it out.”
 
Summer assignment
Immediately after the ordination weekend, Hugeback and Fitzsimmons will be participating in a pilgrimage to Rome with Okoboji high school age students, then will start brief summer assignments. The Wall Lake native said he is a bit intimidated as he will be assigned to the Sioux City Cathedral Parish which can have over 3,000 Mass attendees per weekend.
 
“It’s the most daunting assignment I’ve received just because it’s the biggest parish in our diocese and it’s a place I’m less familiar with,” he said. “I like the small country parish, so to be up there the first time preaching and in my first assignment in this big church, this is going to be a difficult assignment for me.”

 
“What a gift that I get to be there at the diocese’s heart, next to bishop, serving in a beautiful church,” the seminarian said.
 
Following a six week Spanish immersion program in Guatemala last summer, Hugeback will have practical experiences communicating in Spanish, including preaching at Mass. He said he has been brushing up on his Spanish skills.
 
“I’m not a fluent Spanish speaking but there’s something that delights me about getting to spend time with the Hispanic population,” he said.
 
Living in community with the parish priests at the Cathedral Parish is an experience Hugeback said he will enjoy as it’s similar to seminary life – men with different personalities living in one place and offering support to one another.
 
In addition to serving as a transitional deacon while in Sioux City this summer, the seminarian said he is looking forward to exercising all the faculties of a deacon at his assigned parish when he returns to Kenrick this fall.
 
“It’s such a drastic change compared to being an acolyte as the mast dramatic thing for us is that you’re allowed to purify vessels. Now you are going to be baptizing babies, marrying couples and burying people,” he said of his diaconal ministry after June 6.
 
Hugeback graduated from East Sac County High School in Lake View before attending Conception Seminary College in Conception, Missouri and later Kenrick-Glennon for major seminary studies. His priestly ordination is anticipated for June 2027.
 
He is the son of Tracy and the late Mike Hugeback of Wall Lake.

Listen to a recent podcast interview with Hugeback and Fitzsimmons HERE.

Cover photo courtesy of Kenrick Glennon Seminary. 
 
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