A Testament to the Father’s Love
Ordained to the Sacred Priesthood on May 29th 2026, for the Diocese of Grand Island, Nebraska, there has been a continual theme in Fr. Noah Huddleston’s journey: the Father’s love.
While attending the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Fr. Huddleston began to live out the life of faith more authentically, partly through the development of genuine, healthy relationships. And it was through these friendships that he was enlightened to the truth of the Father’s love for him, something that he then and now continues to reflect upon. With his heart open to the all-embracing love of the Father, he felt the call to discern the priesthood after receiving the Eucharist and hearing our Lord probe him with the words, “Be my priest.”
And thus, it began: his life of faith oriented toward the discernment of God’s will, which led him to Conception Seminary College, where his heart was transformed ever more deeply by the loving gaze of the Father, with human formation playing a pivotal role. Human formation, in the words of Fr. Huddleston, “is formation ordered toward the growth of freedom and maturity.” He recounts his senior year, when Fr. Pachomius, the Dean of Students, really emphasized “how we are beloved sons of the Father,” which, as he continues, “allowed us to make mistakes because we knew we are loved and delighted by the Father.” Reaffirmed by others on the formation staff that “one’s needs are not exclusively bad,” rather, “they are a part of our humanity.”
With a better understanding of who he is, Fr. Huddleston headed to Rome for the latter part of seminary formation, where the seeds planted by Fr. Pachomius and other formators were watered and cared for, primarily by his spiritual director, who “let him know what he learned at Conception was real” and that “seminary formation is not designed for one to become a robot, or fit into the mold of “seminarian,” but rather, to become the man that God designed one to be, not hiding one’s quirks because “they are avenues for relationship and helping others get to the Father.”
As Bishop Hanefeldt said at Fr. Huddleston’s priestly ordination, Fr. Huddleston’s vocation to the priesthood was God’s idea—he only responded to it. And now, he is a priest—a mediator between God and man and a visible representative of God’s love. In his ministry, or rather, in his response to the Father’s infinite love shown to him, he wishes to help people, through his preaching and teaching, grow in the truths that played an immensely powerful role in his life, and help them “learn their humanity, their goodness, and the embracing love that the Father has for them.
—Br. Francis Todd, OSB
Seminary classmate to the Ordained
