1. Can you tell us a little about your background to get started?

My name is Father Henry Cuellar, Jr. I am a priest of the Diocese of Austin and currently the pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Manor, Texas. I am an alumnus of St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, ordained on June 23rd, 2018. So I turned five years old as a priest on the 23rd of this year.

2. Can you share briefly about your discernment experience?

The majority of my discernment was post-college. I had been working as a social worker for four years and helping families in homeless situations, and it was then that I felt that there was something more that needed to be done, because I was taking care of their temporal needs, but I couldn't go into their spiritual needs as a state employee. 

I had thought about the priesthood a few times throughout my teenage years, when I was like 14, 16, 18 years old, but at the time, it just didn't click. I went to college and got my BSW, and it was during that time that I was able to hear God's call. I think it was because I was seeing the needs of the people, and I wanted to be able to lead them and shepherd them to the true good.

3. How did your time at St. Mary’s prepare you for the priesthood?

You know, I think what St. Mary's allowed me to do was to have a very practical application of all things, which is tremendously helpful, because if we're stuck in the classroom all the time and everything becomes about academics, we will lose our true calling, right? It's not only about being a theologian. It's about being a shepherd; it's about being a father. 

St. Mary’s really implanted in my heart the true need of being a pastoral presence.

4. Out of all the academic courses you took during your time in seminary, which St. Mary’s Seminary class are you most grateful for?

My favorite class would actually be multiple classes: the scriptural classes I took with Dr. Manzo. Her classes, the way she would explain things, were just amazing. She would open Scripture and help us understand the context, the spiritual implications. But then she would also give us the practical things. I still talk to her every once in a while, and I just tell her, you know, Dr. Manzo, you have no idea, but you really prepared me for preaching.  

Now as a priest, sometimes I’m preaching and I’m repeating these things I learned back in Scripture class, and people come up to me after Mass and say, “Fr. Henry, I had never thought of that.” 

And I just say in response, “Well, I didn’t think about that either until someone taught me in seminary!”
 

5. What lesson did you learn during your first assignment?

I think the one lesson I learned during my first assignment was this: don’t be afraid to make mistakes. A little chaos is going to happen. Real life is messy!

6. Now as pastor, describe the process of building and then finally consecrating the new church building.

So first of all, this is my first rodeo as a pastor! It felt like I was trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant; there was just so much to learn, and we had a lot of money to raise. But I found that, for myself and my parishioners, it was helpful to look at challenges as future blessings. 

I always want to be an encouraging father, and my parishioners were so generous in giving. We had breakfast sales and our first ever gala, which was a huge success. I kept saying, we’re one family, and we’re working together for the same thing. 
We raised the money and broke ground, and I would go weekly to check on the property and communicate back to the parish. It was stressful, I will not lie! But I reminded myself, we are a family, and I’m the head of this household, and I want to be sure our house is built. 

This is what a father does. 

Finally, on January 21st, 2023, we had our consecration of our church. When it got to the point where I, as the pastor, go with my Bishop and consecrate the four walls, I did two, and he did two, and I had tears in my eyes. It was emotional because I’m thinking to myself, who am I? Who am I to have such a beautiful gift to be able to do this?

7. What advice do you have for seminarians and brother priests?

My advice to them would be: try not to close yourself off to real experience. You have to learn how to shepherd people, and the only way to do that is to allow yourself to enter into their experience; not take on their experience, but be empathetic and enter into the experience. So I think we have to really pray with that cliché saying, what would Jesus do? Because the reality is, that’s what we’re called to do, right? To be Jesus.

8. What do you see happening today that gives you the most hope for the future of the Church?

In the seminarians and young priests, I see this deep, deep desire to live in truth. We all want to stop preaching platitudes; we want to bring the truth of Christ to His people. I also see seminarians who are truly men of God and men of prayer.  If we want to bring the Truth, we have to be in prayer. 

When I look at my brother priests and the younger seminarians coming in, I can see that, and it gives me hope.