Jean-Claude Cardinal Turcotte ordained Jason Piper a priest of the Archdiocese of Montreal at St. Patrick’s Basilica, Jan. 20.

Fr. Piper, 33, is the son of Kevin and Linda Piper of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Laval, where Jason grew up. He attended John F. Kennedy Elementary, Sacred Heart Middle School and Laval Catholic High School.

Not a very focused student, Jason launched his working career at age 18, and for the next six years tried various jobs, including working as a telemarketer, customer-service rep and security guard. Although he had received all the sacraments of initiation, Jason was not a churchgoer or interested in spirituality; earning a steady income topped his priorities.

Then at 19, he had a God experience. It was “an interior illumination,” and he knew without a doubt that God did indeed exist. It was completely unexpected, an exhilarating yet terrifying experience.

“I had ignored God up to then, acted as though he did not exist; I felt damned,” he recalls. Within days, he had a similar experience, this time of God’s overwhelming mercy.

Those events led Jason to want to know more about God and his mercy. He read Scripture, started practising his faith regularly, and reflected on the lives of the saints.

Eventually, some parishioners thought the young man, whom they now saw frequently in church, was called to be a priest — a suggestion that Jason immediately shrugged off. After all, he was just an ordinary guy, with a limited education, why would God call him to be a priest, he reasoned.

After six years, the suggestion and the thought persisted; meanwhile, Jason’s faith grew so that he could finally accept that God could indeed call him to serve his people as a priest.

Jason tested the call by seeking admission to the Grand Seminary of Montreal in 2005.

He spent the next six years in formation, including three years doing a part-time internship at St. Patrick’s Basilica and one year serving full time at St. Kevin Parish. He was ordained to the transitional diaconate May 27.

Over the years, many priests have inspired Jason by their witness and example, including Msgr. Alain Faubert, Fr. Peter Sabbath and the late Fr. John Colford, his childhood pastor.

Cardinal Turcotte has appointed Fr. Piper as parish assistant at  Saint Patrick’s for the coming year.

Eric Durocher