Long before he discerned a call to the priesthood, Deacon Jessiah Rojas imagined a future on the sidelines of a football field.
At Ave Maria University in Florida, where he earned a theology degree while coaching college football, Rojas loved the strategy of the game, the competition and the relationships he built mentoring young athletes.
But one Sunday afternoon while sitting alone in his office he wondered why he enjoyed coaching so much.
The answer had little to do with playbooks or winning games.
“What I loved most was that it gave me a way to enter into the lives of young athletes, to meet them where they were, but to love them too much to let them remain unchanged,” he said. “To mentor them, but ultimately, to point them to Christ.”
That realization eventually led Rojas to question if his entire life was meant to be dedicated to bringing others to Christ.
On June 20, Deacon Jessiah Rojas, 28, will be ordained as one of five new priests for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Born in Silver Spring and raised in Upper Marlboro, Deacon Rojas did not grow up Catholic. His parents, Nick and Roxanne Rojas were culturally Catholic before becoming Evangelical Protestants, and his father eventually became an associate pastor in their church.
Deacon Rojas said faith was always present in his childhood. He was involved in church life growing up and credits his parents for forming him in a sincere love of Christ. But he had little personal experience with Catholicism until he enrolled at St. Mary's Ryken High School in Leonardtown, where he played football.
There, he encountered Catholic teaching for the first time.
“It was there that I began hearing reasonable answers to the questions I had,” he said.
One of the biggest questions for him was the Catholic belief that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist.
Eventually, he said, he reached a crossroads.
“I told myself, ‘Either this is true, and I need to become Catholic, or it’s false, and I need to actively convert Catholics away from the faith,’” Deacon Rojas said.
For months, he wrestled with the question, praying daily in the chapel.
Ultimately it was the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, where Jesus teaches that His flesh is true food and His blood is true drink, that convinced him.
“When Jesus challenged them and asked if they would also leave, Peter responded, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,’” Deacon Rojas said. “Through Peter’s confession, I found the confidence to say ‘yes’ to this truth and ‘yes’ to becoming Catholic.”
The future priest entered the Catholic Church at age 19 while attending Ave Maria University.
He spent three years coaching football at the university, serving as assistant linebackers coach, running backs coach and assistant special teams coordinator. He also coached high school track for a year, but over time found himself drawn more and more toward the priesthood.
A major influence in that discernment was Father Scott Woods, the chaplain at St. Mary’s Ryken and now pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in La Plata, Maryland, where Father Jessiah Rojas will begin his priestly ministry following ordination.
Deacon Rojas described Father Woods as the priest “most influential” in his life.
“He was my spiritual director throughout high school before I was Catholic, and he walked with me through all of these questions,” Deacon Rojas said.
What impacted him most, he said, was not simply Father Woods’ preaching or leadership, but the way he lived priesthood with what Deacon Rojas described as a “radical availability of heart.”
“He shows this receptivity that communicates to the person sitting across from him that they are the most important person in his life,” Deacon Rojas said. “People desire authenticity, and it just screams authenticity that he really cares about you.”
That witness helped reshape Deacon Rojas’s understanding of priesthood and celibacy.
“It’s not just something given up, though it is a sacrifice,” he said. “It’s living in a way that communicates how we will live in heaven.”
Jessiah Rojas entered Saint John Paul II Seminary in 2020 before continuing his formation at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
One of the biggest surprises of seminary life, he said, was learning to let go of productivity as the foundation of his identity.
Coming from athletics and the working world, he initially struggled with a life centered on prayer, study and formation.
“I wanted usefulness,” he said. “But I had to die to that and see how the Lord desired me to have this time of silence.”
Over time, he came to see seminary not as a retreat from reality, but as a period of deepening friendship with Christ.
“With loving a person comes wanting to know about him,” Deacon Rojas said.
Today, he says one of his greatest sources of hope is watching young people freely choose the faith in a culture where religious belief often seems to offer little social benefit.
At parish assignments and on college campuses including the University of Maryland and Howard University, he said he sees young Catholics searching for stability and truth.
“In a world where goalposts continue to change, where standards continue to change, they’re really looking for something that’s rooted,” he said. “Even amidst all that change, we desire something solid, and the Church offers that solid grounding.”
As ordination approaches, Deacon Rojas said he has been praying with the writings of St. Teresa of Calcutta, especially her reflections on truly encountering the love of Jesus Christ.
“Ordination isn’t the end goal,” he said. “It’s really the start.”
For Deacon Rojas, the heart of priesthood remains simple: helping people encounter Christ’s love in the middle of ordinary human life.
“How do I allow my humanity to be a bridge,” he said, “but ultimately allow people to encounter the One who actually has the answers to their heart?”
After his ordination, Father Jessiah Rojas will celebrate his first Mass on Sunday June 21 at 3 p.m. at St. John Francis Regis Church in Hollywood, Maryland. The homilist will be his mentor and friend, Father Scott Woods.
