Teen's documentary, 'The Life of a Priest,' explores vocation through a priest's eyes

Jacob Sasak, 17, uses budding skills as a videographer to follow the life of his pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Lake Orion

LAKE ORION — Seventeen-year-old Jacob Sasak made his first film when he was in third grade. Inspired by his fascination with Harry Potter and the Avengers movies, he titled it “Junior Wizards.” The movie was four minutes long and starred Sasak and two budding child actors — his younger brothers.

That first project sparked an interest in filmmaking for Sasak. His parents bought him a new camera in fifth grade, and during the pandemic in 2020, he upgraded his camera again and spent time writing scripts. With the extra time while schools were closed, he produced more short films with his four younger siblings as the cast.

“Most of my films were my siblings running around with Nerf guns,” Sasak said. “But I was learning each time what worked and what didn’t.”

Last summer, just before beginning his senior year, Sasak released a four-part docuseries, “The Life of a Priest.” Each short episode features Fr. Jim Kean, the priest who serves Sasak’s parish, St. Joseph the Worker in Lake Orion.

“I wanted to make something that had a good story to it and that would be worth my time, and to do something that would glorify God,” Sasak told Detroit Catholic. “I had seen the documentary ‘Mass of the Ages,’ and it opened my eyes to making documentaries.”

When he started planning the project as a sophomore, Sasak intended to highlight a variety of priests, such as a hospital chaplain and one in a religious order, in addition to a diocesan priest such as Fr. Kean. But time and logistics — Sasak didn’t yet have his driver’s license — caused him to keep it simple.

Fr. Kean, who was ordained for the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1997, humbly agreed to be featured in the film.

“At first, I thought that it’ll be nice, it’ll be something on a pretty basic level. But as I interacted with Jacob more, I realized the exceptional young man he is,” Fr. Kean said. “And because of his focus and the professional way he was thinking about this, I knew it was going to be something very good.”

Sasak wanted to “open up” the life of a priest to people who might not know priests outside of attending Mass. Growing up, his family invited priests over for dinner regularly, and he knew many priests personally.

“I thought it was a great idea,” said Sasak’s mother, Kristy. “When we have deeper conversations with priests, we see that they are just like us.”

Sasak has always been active in his Catholic faith. He has been an altar server since fourth grade and is involved in the parish’s youth group, the J-Walkers. After his confirmation, his parents noticed a new level of enthusiasm and interest in the faith.

“Andy and I are super proud of him, to see he loves his faith enough to want to share it with the world,” Kristy said. “When he was confirmed, he really took hold of his faith, constantly reading and digging deeper. It’s been the best gift as a parent, and we pray it never goes away.”

In the docuseries, Sasak explores the three elements of the baptismal calling as priest, prophet and king in the context of the priesthood. The first episode, “The Sanctifier,” delves into Fr. Kean’s prayer life and his role as the provider of the sacrament of reconciliation.

In the second installment, “The Governor,” the calling of king is on display as Fr. Kean explains his day-to-day role as a parish pastor.

The third video, “The Calling,” tells Fr. Kean’s journey to the priesthood.

And in the final film, “The Prophet,” viewers see the priest "in persona Christi” as he celebrates the Mass and what it means to Fr. Kean to do so.

“I think (the docuseries) makes the path of a priest a little more familiar,” Fr. Kean said. “Although it’s a different calling, it’s not unfamiliar to the path of any Christian. It’s a life of living out the baptismal calling we all have. Everyone is called to have a devout life and be connected to the sacraments. I live it in a particular unique way as an ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Sasak didn’t keep track of how much time he spent editing more than two and a half hours of raw footage. At times, he didn’t know if he would finish it as he juggled the film project with school activities and homework.

“The Holy Spirit definitely helped me with this. It was a very ambitious project for me,” Sasak said. “I forced myself to learn new things that I hadn’t done before. The sound isn’t Oscar-worthy, and the color could be better, but I’m proud of how it turned out.”

He finished in time to meet his goal of releasing “The Life of a Priest” on Aug. 4, 2023, the feast day of St. John Vianney, patron saint of priests.

In the closing credits, the final text to scroll up the screen reads “A.M.D.G.,” which stands for “ad majorem Dei gloriam” in Latin, or in English, “for the greater glory of God.” Sasak hopes his docuseries will encourage young people to consider using their talents in this way — or maybe even considering their own vocation to the priesthood or religious life.

“I really enjoyed making this because it allowed me to make something using my gifts and talents for God,” Sasak said. “Just because someone has a gift for painting doesn’t mean they have to paint a picture of Jesus. But the Holy Spirit is the one who gave you the gift, so ask Him how to use that gift in the way He wants you to use it.”