By Amy White
The Texas Catholic

In a sense, Father Parker Thompson’s journey to the priesthood has been a lifetime in the making. As early as childhood, the idea of dedicating his life to the Church had already begun to take root in the young boy’s heart.

Father Thompson, 28, was born and raised in Plano, the son of Kathi and Bryan Thompson. He grew up surrounded by family and friends, steeped in the love of his parents, his older brother, and a sprawling extended family.

“For us, it was always really stressed, the importance of family and friends,” Father Thompson said.

The Thompson household was a faithful, “very Catholic” one, the priest recalled. Each Sunday, the family would attend Mass together at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church; and there, Father Thompson’s journey to the priesthood began.

Seeds of discernment
When retelling his discernment story, Father Thompson began the account in the pews of his home parish. A fourth-grade student at the time, he had begun attending daily Mass at St. Mark the Evangelist with his mother over the summer. During one of the Masses, he noticed that the altar server was his age; and he was intrigued.

“I think there’s just this closeness that someone can have to the altar, to the mystery of the Mass,” he said. “As a young boy, I was really drawn to and attracted to doing something to serve the Lord. I saw those other kids serving, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Soon, Father Thompson began altar serving at Sunday Masses throughout the year and daily Masses over the summers. Often, he would serve alongside an older, retired priest who began asking him about his future vocation.

“[The priest] would ask me every once in a while, ‘Have you ever thought about being a priest?’ As the years went on, one week was ‘yes,’ the next week ‘no,’” Father Thompson said.

“Looking back, that was the seed that was planted.”

In eighth grade, Father Thompson hit another major milestone in his discernment.

“My family went to Rome to visit a Dallas priest who went to seminary over there,” Father Thompson remembered. “In Rome, I saw the fullness of the Church, the heart of the Church. That’s when I really had the most special moment and when I said I’m really going to think about this as I go into high school, about becoming a priest.”

Mark Shepherd, a longtime family friend of the priest, recalled that a young Father Thompson began talking more and more about the priesthood around this time.

“I remember talking with his folks about his calling, and I remember all of us said, ‘It would be a dream come true, but let’s not put pressure on him. Let’s just let God work in His own ways, and we’ll see where this leads,’” Shepherd said.

Father Thompson, who had attended St. Mark Catholic School grades 1-8, graduated from the school in 2011 and began attending Jesuit College Preparatory School. Inspired by his trip to Rome, Father Thompson spent his years at Jesuit seriously discerning God’s call for his future. Under the direction of mentors at Jesuit, he began frequenting daily Mass at the school, attending St. Andrew’s Dinners in the diocese, and visiting Holy Trinity Seminary for their public Sunday Masses.

Soon, the time came to make a big decision: “Am I going to go to seminary or go to college first?”

“Making that decision to enter seminary, looking back, I don’t remember a crazy, overwhelming feeling,” Father Thompson said. “I just remember talking about doing applications and just feeling very certain that applying to seminary is what I wanted to do—So much so that Jesuit asked us to apply to multiple colleges, and I just applied to seminary.”

Father Thompson joined Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving in the fall of 2015.

Seminary years
Although Father Thompson began seminary in Texas, he soon left the state to continue his studies; in 2016, he moved to St. Joseph Seminary College in Louisiana and then entered Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans in 2019—a big change for someone whose family is firmly rooted in the Lone Star State.

“Pretty much all of our family was born and raised in Texas. My family’s been in Dallas since it first started,” Father Thompson said. “Having been born and raised in Plano with all my family and kind of being one of the first to move out of the state was impactful and very memorable.”

The priest said the move was an opportunity to encounter new friends, new priests, and new cultures. Father Thompson’s slew of summer assignments—including assignments at St. Ann in Coppell, the Institute for Priestly Formation in Nebraska, and Prince of Peace in Plano—also offered him the opportunity to interact with new communities.

From 2021 to 2022, Father spent a pastoral year at St. Monica in Dallas, an experience that he said “really solidified my discernment, knowing that this is something the Lord is calling me to.”

The following year, on April 29, 2023, at the National Shrine Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dallas, Father Thompson was ordained a deacon.

“It was very surreal,” Father Thompson said. “Walking into ordination, I was a little nervous; but I remember very distinctly, once I received ordination itself, this deep peace came over me.

The rest of the Mass was just amazing and very peaceful.”

After diaconal ordination, he spent his diaconal internship at St. Pius X Catholic Church.

‘The next chapter’
On May 18, Father Thompson was ordained as a priest at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Frisco.

“It feels surreal—so many years of formation and growing and learning about priesthood—to finally be at the threshold and starting the next chapter, starting the life of a priest, which I thought about for so long,” Father Thompson said. “Finally being here is really exciting… It’s really putting into action all the formation.”

The ordination was attended by spiritual mentors, family, old friends—those that had been with the priest for the long journey.

Shepherd, who attended the ordination with his family, recalled Father Thompson’s journey from kid to priest, saying, “He and my sons used to play outside. They were always playing private eyes and spies and soldiers… He’s still the little boy who used to come over to our house and hang out and be a part of our family, but he’s grown in so many ways.

“We could not be more excited,” Shepherd said. “He’s just going to bring youthfulness; he’s going to bring excitement to Mass, to his parish; he’s going to bring a level of enthusiasm that’s going to be contagious for parishioners, wherever they’re lucky enough to get him.”

As a newly ordained priest, Father Thompson said he looks forward to being “one among the people as a priest” and “bringing Jesus Christ and His love and His mercy through the sacraments to the Church.”