Youth Ministry & Faith Formation and Diaconate
8
The Lord Calls
and We Must Follow � bout two and a half years ago, I felt the Lord calling me to leave a position
at Pax Christi in Rochester doing a job I loved, Youth and Young Adult Ministry, to be the Director of Youth Ministry and Faith Formation at the Diocese of Winona-Rochester. Every time the Lord has called me to something different in my professional life, it has been very clear to me. Oftentimes it is a feeling that I have done all I can do, and it’s time for the next person to come in and take it to the next level. That is exactly how I had been feeling at Pax Christi, and when the opportunity to take the position at the Diocese came up, I felt drawn to it. My desire was to move from discipling young people to discipling the disciplers (our youth ministry and faith formation coordinators). After having been a youth minister for nine years, I remember what it is like to feel alone in ministry, especially those first few years. The Lord has been very good to me, and I have been incredibly blessed to work with such wonderful coordinators for the past two and a half years. Now, I feel the Lord calling me in a new direction vocationally, which is to be a full-time mother. 2023 was a wonderful whirlwind of a year for me: I got married in May, found out we were pregnant, and I felt called to make the difficult decision to once again leave a job I love. However, there has been much peace through this decision, and I trust that the Lord has already handpicked the person who will replace me in my position. Another lesson I have learned through multiple ministry position changes throughout the years is that we are all replaceable. I know that sounds harsh, but it is true, and thank God we are! Youth Ministry
and Faith Formation at the diocese is not dictated by or dependent on me. Jesus called me to this position for a time, and He has also called me to something new in His time. Discernment and trying to listen to the Lord can feel elusive at times, and perhaps in your life it hasn’t been easy to determine what God wants. Although the Lord has made it more obvious in my work life, He definitely took His good ol’ time in my personal vocation. My nickname for God has been (and still is) “last minute God.” I sure hope He isn’t too offended by that! However, the lessons I have learned (and am still learning) from discernment have greatly benefited me while walking with others in their own discernment (especially young people), so I wanted to share a few thoughts in my final Courier article regarding discernment. I am definitely no expert, but I hope it at least can be food for thought. 1. God isn’t trying to confuse you. The Lord works in peace, and the devil works in confusion and unrest. Never make a decision in a time of desolation or lack of peace (those aren’t my words, but the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola in his Rules for the Discernment of Spirits).
2. God can’t drive a parked car. Someone told me that years ago in Spiritual Direction, and I never forgot it. If you feel like you have two good options laid out in front of you and God isn’t giving you a clear “yes” or “no” on something, He may just want you to choose! There are many decisions in life that don’t require intense discernment, and that can also be true regarding multiple good bigger decisions. A prayer of mine when making decisions when things were not clear has been, “God, this is the decision I am making. If it is not right, please put a roadblock in my way and redirect me.”
Who Do You Desire?
so many attractive distractions in technology and its devices. There are so many divided hearts among us now, and so many divided lives! It is time to end all Deacon John Hust of this! It is time to repent. God alone will ultimately Director of the Permanent Diaconate unite us and satisfy our deepest desires. jhust@dowr.org Do we live a distracted divided life, glued to our phones, and addicted to a constant flow of data? Who do we most deeply desire? Is it God who is present, right here, right now within us? He is Emmanuel. Can we remain focused on him? By DEACON ROBERT YERHOT, MSW Why do you let us wander, O Lord? Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!” (Isaiah offer these words to all who seek a deeper relation63: 17a) Do we pray in the same way, with the same ship with God. intensity, and with the same desire, or do we distract Over 30 years ago in my psychotherapy practice, ourselves with what never satisfies? I and my colleagues were concerned about the impact Maybe we should ask ourselves whom we most screen time and cell phones would have upon the deeply desire. Is it God? Do we love him enough, long brain development and social adjustment of young for him enough, and watch for him enough? Our lives people. Our concerns have been proven well-foundought to ache for his presence, burning in anticipaed. Despite the promise of a greater unity through tion of what happens at every altar at every Mass. The internet connectivity, we have experienced increased heavens themselves open and God comes down to be disconnection within the human family. There are with us, Jesus himself.
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January 2024 w The Courier w dowr.org
Dana Thirstrup
Director of Youth Ministry and Faith Formation dpetricka@dowr.org
3. Discernment takes time. Sometimes way more time than we ever thought it would! For the past 15 years, I went back and forth in my own discernment about whether I felt the Lord was calling me to religious life or married life. I finally got to a place where I realized even if He wasn’t calling me to either, I was happy as a single spiritual mother. I wish I would have gotten to that place sooner, as it would have saved my heart and mind much anguish!
4. Learn to will the Will of God. One of my favorite spiritual guides and authors, Thomas Merton, wrote that and it has always stuck with me. When we don’t think we want or understand the Will of God, sometimes the only thing we can do is try to will his Will. That is a great act of surrender and detachment that the Lord will bless greatly and eventually (in His time) transform our will to His. The Lord has a plan for your life, but He is a gentleman and doesn’t inflict His Will upon us against our will. I truly believe life is a beautiful journey of conforming our imperfect will to His Perfect Will, where we will find lasting peace and joy ultimately in Heaven. Again, it has been a blessing to be working in the Diocese of Winona-Rochester for the time God has called me here, and there are so many wonderful youth ministry and faith formation coordinators I will miss working with. Our youth are in good hands! God bless you, and know of my prayers for you.
Isaiah felt the ache and the desire. Do we? Isaiah could only anticipate. We can see…. on the altars of our parishes! We have all heard stories like the one I am about to tell you, but this one is true and personal. Nearly 95 years ago, my grandma longed for the one she loved in the Eucharist. She longed enough to literally walk from the farm north of Waseca every Sunday, year around, to Sacred Heart Parish (about an eight mile round trip) to attend Mass. Nothing kept her away until she died at a young age. I never met Grandma, but the image of her walking remains with me and strengthens my desire for Jesus in the Eucharist. Our hearts and lives are too distracted, too divided. Many of us have lost our longing and love for the True Presence of Jesus, his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist. We have fallen to the idol gods of technology. We must repent. Our hearts and souls must ache and burn for the One we most deeply desire in life. Put down your cell phones and pick up Jesus. God bless all of you! Deacon Robert Yerhot serves the parishes of St. Mary in Caledonia and St. Patrick in Brownsville.
