Now marking his 25th year as a priest, Father Timothy Baer – the pastor of St. Nicholas Parish in Laurel, Maryland – has a vocation journey that began when he was a college student at the University of Maryland, working nights as a rock disc jockey in area bars and then going to a chapel to pray for God’s guidance.
The title of rock musician Peter Frampton’s 1976 hit “Show Me the Way” might have summed up that time of his life. The future priest’s nights that began with him spinning classic rock songs by groups like the Rolling Stones often ended with him praying quietly before the Eucharist at a late night Holy Hour.
“After my DJ gigs, St. Mark’s in Hyattsville had a 24-hour Adoration chapel. I’d go there and hash things out with the Lord,” he said. “That’s where I fell in love with the Lord as He’s present in the Eucharist.”
The year after graduating with a degree in speech and communications, he joined the seminary for the Archdiocese of Washington, studying at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, where he would earn a master’s degree in theology.
“Seminary was the first Catholic school I ever went to. I’m a CCD success story!” said the priest, a Silver Spring native who is now 55.
In an interview before his ordination to the priesthood, the future Father Baer said his family was not surprised by his decision to become a priest. “I was the last one in my family, it seems, to figure out that I wanted to be a priest. Some of the people in the bar business were a bit taken aback, but not anyone in my family,” he said.
The youngest of four children of the late Mason and Betty Baer noted that his father was Jewish and worked as a clothing salesman, while his mother was a devout Catholic.
“My mom made sure no matter where we were, we went to church,” he said, adding that his father and his other family members were very supportive of his decision to enter the seminary.
He joked that maybe his vocation should not have been surprising after all, because “I have both Testaments running through my veins.”
In 1996, Father Baer was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, on the 50th anniversary of the day of that prelate’s own ordination to the priesthood in 1946.
“That was a great day,” said Father Baer, noting how he felt “joy at being able to know from now on, that much was set. I was going to be a priest for the rest of my life.”
After celebrating his first Mass at St. Joseph Church in Beltsville – his home parish where he had grown up and received the sacraments of First Holy Communion and Confirmation – Father Baer received his first priestly assignment as a parochial vicar at St. Mark the Evangelist Church in Hyattsville, where he had prayed so many Holy Hours in the Adoration chapel while discerning God’s plan for his life.
“It really fit like a glove,” he said of that first experience as a parish priest. “I loved what a priest did, and still love what a priest does.”
The new priest began a life of celebrating Mass, preaching homilies, bringing the sacraments to people at all stages of their lives, and teaching schoolchildren about the faith.
“That’s still why I am a priest. You get to do that,” he said.
After later serving as a parochial vicar at St. Ambrose Parish in Cheverly and St. Mary of the Assumption in Upper Marlboro, in 2006 Father Baer was appointed as the administrator of Our Lady of the Wayside in Chaptico, a country parish in St. Mary’s County, and the next year, he was named as the pastor there.
“The people really taught me down there… (that) they want a man of God to show them the face of Christ as their servant. They educated me as to the expectations people had of their priests,” he said.
Father Baer led the Chaptico parish for five years, before being named as the pastor of St. Mary of Piscataway Parish in Clinton in 2011, which marked its 375th anniversary in 2015.
The parish’s name reflects its historic connection to that region’s Piscataway tribe of Native Americans. A large, dramatic painting above the baptistry in the church by artist Henry Wingate depicts the 1640 baptism of Piscataway Tayac (chieftan) Kittamaquund by Jesuit Father Andrew White, the “apostle of Maryland” who celebrated the first Catholic Mass in the English-speaking colonies in 1634 at St. Clement’s Island. The Prince George’s County parish traces its beginning to 1640, and the painting memorializes that historic baptisms of the Piscataway leader and his family members, which happened not far from the present-day church.
“I felt myself to be in continuity with a long history,” Father Baer said, noting that during the anniversary year, the painting was unveiled, and then-Washington Auxiliary Bishop Barry Knestout baptized three Piscataway children.
Another milestone for St. Mary’s Parish during Father Baer’s years there came during Catholic Schools Week in January 2020, when Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory visited and blessed the new Media Center at St. Mary’s School of Piscataway, which included state-of-the-art technology and an expanded selection of library books, thanks to the generous support of parishioners and school families and a donation from Jeff Kinney, the author of the famous “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series who grew up in the parish.
Helping to welcome the cardinal that day was St. Mary’s new principal Lynsie Reavis, a veteran teacher at the school who coincidentally had been taught by Father Baer when he was a young priest and she was a fifth grader at St. Ambrose School in Cheverly.
That, said Father Baer, was an example of “the priesthood coming full circle,” as a former student he taught religion to had gone on to become the principal of his parish school.
“I really loved the opportunity I had to hire her,” he said, adding, “I knew she’d be great.”
Father Baer became the pastor of St. Nicholas Parish in Laurel in July 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. He said that time offered him “a real opportunity for my personal growth… (and) the capability to be more alone with God” as he prayed in the rectory chapel, harkening to the times of prayer that had drawn him to the priesthood.
The initial COVID-19 shutdown, he said, offered priests “just us and God time, early in the pandemic.”
He noted that for parish priests with all their administrative responsibilities, it’s vitally important to make time for daily prayer and for deepening their spiritual life. “Things you’re going to do administratively and sacramentally will only be as good as your prayer life,” the pastor said.
In June 2021, Father Baer welcomed Cardinal Gregory and former pastors of St. Nicholas for a Mass marking the 50th anniversary of the church’s dedication, and the congregation included founding parishioners and new parish members, including African immigrants in that increasingly diverse community.
The priest said the anniversary Mass offered “a collective sigh of relief” as parishioners were again worshipping together after being apart during the pandemic. “The joy was palpable that day,” he said.
In his free time, Father Baer enjoys hiking or having dinner with some of his brother priests, and the former disc jockey likes to collect vinyl records, with his favorite artists including Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry.
Reflecting on his anniversary, the priest said, “It doesn’t feel like 25 years. It’s gone by fast, in a good way...all in all, it’s a good life, to have the confidence you are doing what God wants you to do. No day is ever the same. I’ve very grateful to God, I’m very grateful to the people and to my brother priests.”
