I couldn’t place the feeling until I served as an altar boy at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Parish in Edmonton. I remember looking at my hands while serving and wondering if the Lord was asking me to use those hands for ministry as a priest.
Although I fully intended to go to seminary, I took my father’s advice to first study education at university, where I wound up struggling in my faith. What pulled me through was my encounter with the Madonna House Apostolate, a lay community whose members live promises of poverty, chastity and obedience. They truly showed me the face of Christ. When I met my wife, Kim, a few years later, I took her to the Madonna House soup kitchen on our second date.
I married Kim in 2007, entered the Ukrainian Catholic seminary in 2011, and was ordained a priest Jan. 1, 2016. The Lord has blessed our family abundantly and has given me his special grace to serve his people both at the family dinner table and at the Holy Table of the Lord.
Father Michael Bombak
Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Edmonton
St. Nicholas Byzantine Ukrainian Council 7659
Calgary, Alberta
Learn more at eeparchy.com.








