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Zack Mazurek to be ordained to the diaconate
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May 30, 2024Watch the livestream and recorded ordination video here.
By Hattie Hanold
The U.P. Catholic
The importance of family cannot be overstated by diocesan seminarian, Zack Mazurek, ahead of his diaconate ordination this May. Reflecting on his journey up to this point as he prepares for his ordination to the diaconate, Mazurek said, “looking back, I think it’s such a blessing that the Lord was able to work so powerfully in my life through our family, helping me to fall in love with Him and with the Church.”
Mazurek and his family are long time parishioners of St. Sebastian Parish in Bessemer, and his mother has been the director of Faith Formation, “basically since my First Communion classes,” Mazurek shared. “She and my dad met as NET missionaries when they were in their early college days,” Mazurek continued, explaining that they traveled around the country putting on retreats for high school students. Their passion for ministry and parish involvement then translated into their own “family mission.”
His parents’ active involvement in faith formation at their parish gave Mazurek a unique “fly on the wall” perspective from a young age of what the development of faith looked like in the students that his parents ministered to. “I remember looking up to the older kids and feeling like, ‘I can’t wait until it’s my turn to be a part of that!’”
“It’s really a testament to the power that parents have in being responsible for passing down the faith to their children,” Mazurek emphasized. “It’s about living out the life of faith and prayer in the small daily things. I think that’s what really helped me get to this point, to see that modeled growing up in a faith-filled family.”
Mazurek was a regular altar server when he was in high school and active at the parish. At that point in his life, Mazurek said that his faith still felt as if it was defined by his family involvement rather than something personally embraced and chosen. It was during a Youth Encounter retreat at the former Marygrove Retreat Center in Garden, where Mazurek attests he encountered Christ in a personal, transformative way.
“It was seeing other young high schoolers and young adults from around the diocese who had that ‘something more,’” he said. “They had encountered Christ in His love and mercy and just had this living faith, this living prayer life.”
It was the joy of his peers, hearing their witness and testimony to the Holy Spirit’s movement in their lives, that propelled Mazurek forward in his own relationship with Christ. “It inspired me to really read the scriptures, spend more time encountering Christ in my daily life, like visiting Him in the Blessed Sacrament, and knowing that He wants to encounter me and my heart.”
During this time of coming alive in his faith, Mazurek shared that he did feel open to the idea of the priesthood, “but I kind of pushed it off,” he admits. He attended University of Wisconsin-Superior, studying business and finance administration, and expressed, “I felt like, ‘this is what I want with my life, I can be a financial advisor, I can get married, have a family, move back to the U.P.,’ and that was really the vision I had at that time in my life.”
That vision changed dramatically in 2018 after Mazurek was asked by Father Ben Hasse, vocations director for the Diocese of Marquette, to altar serve at the priestly ordination at St. Peter Cathedral. “I had actually never been to an ordination Mass before,” Mazurek said. “And I ended up being the guy to hold up the book for the bishop as he’s praying and celebrating the ordination!”
Mazurek explained that as Bishop Doerfler laid hands upon the deacon to ordain him to the priesthood, “I very clearly heard God’s voice speak to me at that specific moment as I was witnessing what was happening – this love for the priesthood, love for the Eucharist – and Him just saying ‘I want this to be you someday, I want this for you.’”
From that moment, Mazurek knew the priesthood was his calling. “There could be nothing greater, nothing better for me to do if the Lord of the universe, who knows me better than I know myself, is inviting me to this,” he said.
Mazurek then took the next steps to apply to be a seminarian for the diocese. After his application was accepted by Bishop Doerfler, he began studying at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Mich., in the fall of 2019. His formation has included courses in philosophy and theology, among others, and will include another year of study and preparation in the time between his ordination to the diaconate and his ordination, God willing, to the priesthood.
The last year of formation is “really that time to cultivate the original call that God gave you and listen to His voice more deeply in prayer,” Mazurek explained. His study will further include Church history, spirituality, moral theology, scripture, and understanding and practicing the sacraments.
“It’s a big commitment and decision,” he continued. “You’re giving your whole life to [the Church] and you want to make sure, to the best of your ability, that you can confidently step forward and say, ‘alright, Lord, I know you’ve called me to this, you’ve brought me here and prepared me, but I’m still relying on Your grace, and You are the one who’s going to make my life and ministry fruitful.’”
During this time of Eucharistic Revival in the Church, Mazurek also shared the importance of the Eucharist in the development of his vocation and his relationship with Christ.
“It’s the best!” he expressed. “The Eucharist is the love of the Father for us and His Son. To me, that means that every time I’m able to receive or gaze upon the Blessed Sacrament, it’s a reminder of God’s love and His continual promise, ‘I will be with you always,’ that He is with me always, that when we receive Him at Mass, we are then sent forth to bring Christ into the world.”
Mazurek, God-willing, will be ordained to the diaconate on May 31, 2024, at 3:30 p.m. ET, at St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette. He also extends an invitation to anyone considering attending the ordination Mass: “If people have never been to an ordination Mass before, I would encourage them to come, whether it’s my ordination or a future ordination, because it is something that is so powerful to witness.”
Bishop John Doerfler will be the principal celebrant, with priests of the diocese concelebrating. The public is welcome to attend, and a livestream will also be available at www.facebook.com/TheUPCatholic or at www.youtube.com/TheUPCatholic.
