Jesuit road trips across the Midwest to promote vocations

By Christina Capecchi For The Catholic Spirit

Brother Matt Wooters spends most of his time on the road in his role as vocations promoter for the Jesuits’ Midwest province, cruising in his white Toyota Corolla and sipping black coffee. Though he’s based in Chicago, the 35-year-old has ties to St. Paul, which he visits seven or eight times a year.

Q What are the keys to a good road trip?

A Playlist, No. 1. (It) has to match the mood and has to be diverse. There’s a time to sing Lizzo at the top of your lungs and there’s a time to sing church songs. I like to have 45-minute segments — a conversation with a friend, a podcast, prayer, the rosary. That’s how I chip away at hours on the road.

Q You lead retreats and give talks to college students. How do you approach those conversations?

A It’s a tough time to be a young person. They’re entering a future that is uncertain. The path is less clear than it was 10 years ago. I have a lot of empathy for young people and their holy questions. What do I want to do with my life? What’s going to make me happy? How can I make money?

What I hope for young people is that, through a process of discernment, you can see how God is already moving in your life. Some people think you have to get in shape before you can do CrossFit. No, no, no – CrossFit is the workout! We can frequently push off discernment, “Oh, I have to work on my prayer before I can get there.” Well, God is already at work in your life. When do you feel gratitude? When are you moved by beauty? When is something so silly you laugh out loud?

How do we engage the present tense, the reality, and approach the future tense with hope and joy, not letting the fear drive our choices?

Q And how do we?

A It all starts in love. We are made in the image and likeness of God. Part of my job is just to remind them how loved they are, that they are good. Then we can ask: What fires you up? When are you your best self? What’s the version of you (that) you want to be in five years? Let’s aim toward that.

You can reframe the questions about vocation and future based on what you already know about yourself — “OK, maybe this is silly, but I love making pottery.” OK, you love creating. Let’s work with that. It doesn’t have to be running a pottery shop. But you’re really fed by making.

It’s using God’s raw material. God’s already doing that.

Q Is there relief when you frame it that way?

A There can be relief. There can also be frustration that Jesus doesn’t speak in clear sentences. Should I take this job? Should I marry this person? They want Jesus to thunder from the heaven, “Yes!” That’s not how it works.

In Jesuit discernment, we talk about consolation or desolation. In any given encounter, are you growing in faith, hope and love — or not?

Q That can show them the next right step?

A Totally. And it’s important to pay attention. In the spiritual realm, we believe there are different spirits in our lives. There’s the good spirit and the evil spirit. The evil spirit tends to be very loud and critical and analytical. It tends to be in your brain. “You can’t do this. You’re not good. What if you fail?”

The good spirit is quiet. It’s always quiet and it’s always soft and it’s always consoling. “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.” And it’s in your body — it physically lives in your body.

You have to create the silence for it. You have to not have input (from elsewhere) to hear the voice.

Q Which is hard to do!

A Very hard! The internet exists for a reason: so we don’t look away from it.

Q You just spent a weekend off the grid.

A I was in the woods of northern Michigan helping my buddy chop down trees. There was no power, we brought our own water. It was amazing! In a hyper-digital world, to do real stuff with a friend, there’s no cellphone reception and you can just chop up trees — that’s something really beautiful.

Q Tell me about your ritual of coldwater swimming.

A Every morning, I meet friends at sunrise on Lake Michigan. If you’re swimming in a Great Lake, you are so small, and that is so powerful. It’s baptismal. How you go into the baptismal font is different from how you leave. Not only are you physically wet, but you’re drenched in grace. I feel the same. And whatever worries or fears you had going into it are gone when you’re done. You’re laughing and having fun.

I frequently go up to Collegeville to see the monks at the abbey. I swim with them in Lake Sag (Sagatagan). I think one monk swims every morning if it’s not frozen.

Q What’s the trick? Do you submerge quickly?

A I go in really slow. I do an acclimatizing thing — ankles, knees, hips, chest, then all the way up. Your fight-or-flight response kicks in. Your first response is to clench and hyperventilate. But you can breathe through that. You can reset your nervous system: “I’m safe, this is OK.” Then you feel bliss. You’ve got a high cortisone level in your brain — all this stress — and once that goes down, you have this rush of emotions. “I did something hard, and I’m still OK. I moved past the scary part and now it’s kind of awesome.” Your brain is flooded with happy chemicals.

Q Does that happen every time — even when you do it daily?

A Every time.

Q Cold-water plunges are trending. There’s something to it.

A It’s a little adventure you can have. There’s something to having a thrill.

Q What is the spiritual underpinning to that?

A Almost always we’re trying to fill a God-shaped hole in our heart. And I think more than anything, we crave to live with God forever, as St. Ignatius says. All this stuff that brings me closer to God — I’m hungry for that. I want more of that.

Q You’ve said before that you can be thick-headed, and God uses very cold water to bring you back to him.

A It’s so true! We get caught up in our stuff. But it’s hard to think about what emails you need to send when you’re watching the sunrise and you’re freezing.

Q What else makes you feel alive?

A I deleted all my social media this year for Lent. I decided to text all my friends and ask if they’d have time after they put their kids to bed to have a real talk. People loved it. I’d schedule it. I really like authentic connections.