Simon Tran

CTK Seminarian Intern for 2023 - 2024
Phone: x240
Email: Click Here to Email

I was born and raised in Las Vegas to Vietnamese immigrant parents, Ziao and Lan. I was baptized at St. Anne’s and attended school at St. Viator’s during elementary school, and later attended public school, graduating from Coronado High School in 2017. My parents and grandparents were influential in my vocation, and my fondest memories from my childhood include using cereal and milk to play pretend Mass for my grandparents when I was four years old. It was in those early years of my life that I believe the Lord was planting the seed of my vocation and was nurturing my calling through the prayers of my parents and the encouragement of my parish community at Our Lady of La Vang. My childhood pastor, Father Joseph, was another influential person in my vocational journey, who after much pleading on my part, allowed me to altar serve even before I received my first communion. Altar serving gave me an vital opportunity to foster my love of serving God and my parish community at the altar which I still hold dearly in my heart as I continue in my discernment of the vocation to the priesthood. Besides altar serving, some of my favorite things to do are to ride my bike, build Lego sets, read Catholic fiction novels (my favorite book is The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene), visit art museums to gaze upon sacred art, visit different churches to admire the architecture and beauty inspired by God and made through the work of human hands, and spend moments throughout the day in silence to listen to and sing sacred music and chant.


It was not until a bet I made with my uncle on Christmas of my senior year of high school, that I knew without question that the Lord was calling me to discern the priesthood, and through the persistent prayers and encouragement of my parents throughout my years in high school and after much prayer and discernment in my final semester of high school, I willingly and freely accepted the Lord’s call for me and contacted Father Ron in the Vocations office and entered the seminary, beginning with my four year undergraduate philosophy studies at Mount Angel Seminary of the Benedictine Abbey of Mount Angel, Oregon, where I graduated in 2021, and am now continuing my studies in theology at St. John’s Seminary of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in Camarillo, California, where I have completed my second year of Theology and now am in my pastoral internship year here at Christ the King. It is Christ’s merciful love poured out on the Cross to save us that embodies why I desire to be a priest, as my grandfather said to me before he died: “Simon, if you want to be a priest, do so to save souls.” I look forward to meeting you and to journey together with you in our faith as we build up the reign of God in our families and our homes, and in our home here in our parish community, and beyond, through the service we share with one another and as we walk in love with one another “as Christ loved us and gave himself up us” (Ephesians 5:2). Please pray for me, as I hope with God’s grace and will, I will be ordained a priest of Jesus Christ in three years for the Archdiocese of Las Vegas, my home, and know that I hold each of you in my prayer daily. God bless you!