I was born to Luke and Pamela Uebler in July of 1990. Although my mother is Protestant, my family decided to raise me Catholic. Dad took my brother, my sister, my grandfather, and me to Mass every Sunday while we attended St. James elementary school in Depew. I later chose to go to Canisius High School.

I considered myself an ordinary kid growing up. I was healthy, played a few sports in school, had pretty good grades, had a good group of friends, and was even dating for a while. Yet, when it came to religion class, I was very gifted; even my teachers wondered where I had "learned all these things about God." My peers jokingly called me Fr. Luke and while I laughed too, I pushed away thoughts of the priesthood as it wasn't something that I wanted to even consider at the time. I dreamed of teaching or entering computer science to become a programmer like my father.

Somewhere along the lines, a missing piece fell into place. I discovered that despite knowing all these things about God in my head, I didn't really know God in my heart. Our faith is all about a relationship with Him. When I started to really evaluate what the rest of my life would entail and where I should go to college, the thought of priesthood with this new understanding returned. I decided to give it a good look, and as I did so, those around me who had subtly encouraged me to consider the priesthood before now supported me more so than before saying, "I knew you had this in you. This is the right path for you." At the same time, there was peace and joy in my heart. When people ask why I am in the seminary and why I want to be a priest, I can tell them it is because I learned that God loves me and that I want to share that love with others.

I love being an ordinary guy with an extraordinary calling from God. My time at the seminary has been blessed with so many happy moments, but the challenges of the Gospel show me that I have so much to learn and that there is always room to grow. It's a busy lifestyle, one that will ask you to lay down your life for Christ. Yet, "God cannot be outdone in generosity." I love what I do; I love who I am. May you find God's call in your own lives and may you find many joys from living it out.