Transitional Deacon Ryan Glaser recalled fall of his senior year at St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul when he brought to prayer where he should enroll for the rest of his seminary studies: The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul or the North American College (NAC) in Rome.
“After some prayer, I discerned the Lord was calling me to an adventure far from home, to get out of my comfort zone a little bit,” he said, and he believed studying in Rome would offer unique opportunities. Normally “a planner,” Deacon Glaser said he felt the Lord “tugging at my heart,” urging him to “come to something that you don’t know … that’s what the Lord asks of his disciples, … come and follow me. They had no idea what they were getting into.”
No one knew in fall 2019 how hard the COVID-19 pandemic would hit Italy the following spring, Deacon Glaser said. The NAC board of governors eventually closed the college. Deacon Glaser returned to Minnesota and, days later, resumed classes online to finish the semester.
He and other seminarians who had been studying in Rome stayed at a rectory in Hopkins and Bishop Andrew Cozzens soon joined them.
Deacon Glaser, 26, said the experience was a lesson in “being ready for the completely unexpected,” along with the need for patience. “It felt like we can’t go to Mass, we can’t come together any more … but overall, it was never to take for granted the sacraments of the Church because we still had Bishop Cozzens with us, so we could have Mass every day,” he said.
The rectory had a small chapel and tabernacle, Deacon Glaser said. “We have our Lord there,” he said. “We were incredibly blessed, so I think that’ll affect how I one day minister the sacraments. I’m not going to take that for granted.”
The highlight of his experience studying in Rome was “being ordained (a transitional deacon) at the altar of the chair of St. Peter under the Holy Spirit window.” He was one of about 25 from “all over the United States.”
“How many people have been through that church … and on that hill throughout history, including St. Peter himself,” Deacon Glaser said. “It’s like, wow, who am I to prostrate myself on that floor, praying for the Holy Spirit to come down? It was an overwhelming experience for all of us.”
Deacon Glaser’s immediate family and a group of about 25 aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends traveled to Rome to witness his ordination and do some sightseeing.
Growing up, Deacon Glaser was an altar server at St. Michael in Prior Lake and then a lector “from the time I could stand on my tippy toes behind the ambo,” he said. Faith was always part of his life, but in high school he participated in theatre, robotics, golf, student government, and focused on academics, too. “Every once in a while, I’d perhaps feel a little twinge toward the priesthood, and … some people in my life would throw that out there from time to time,” he said.
His grandmother would sometimes tell him, “I think you should be a priest like your uncle,” who serves in the Dubuque, Iowa, archdiocese. But he’d reply, “No, I just don’t think that’s in the cards. I have my life planned out,” including studying computer science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “But God also has plans, I guess, and his were different than what I had come up with on my own,” he said.
Deacon Glaser attended an autumn retreat sponsored by the campus Catholic Newman Center, where he “fell in love with the Lord and realized, perhaps for the first time, Jesus Christ is a real person … and he wants to have a relationship with us.” He began attending daily Mass as often as he could, reconciliation more often and became more involved with the youth center. And he later started a part-time job as website manager for the Catholic student organization.
Yet the following summer, he had an internship at an aerospace company in Burnsville and he thought, “my life is set.” But returning to start his sophomore year at college, he clearly recalled the priest’s homily Sept. 21, the feast of St. Matthew, and that the saint’s story “tells us that God does not call us because of who we are, but because he knows who we can become.”
“That was a dagger to the heart, and any doubts I had, there’s always someone holier (who) can be a priest, someone more gifted can be a priest, that just pierced me straight to the heart,” Deacon Glaser said. “No, the Lord knows what kind of priest you can be. And I began a very quick process of discernment,” calling an uncle, who had heard that same conversation more than once, and talking with priests on campus.
Slowly, Deacon Glaser realized “I think the Lord is calling me to go to seminary and see if this is really what he wants for me.” He talked with Father David Blume, director of the Office of Vocations for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He entered St. John Vianney College Seminary in St. Paul the following January.
Reflecting on his time studying in Rome, Deacon Glaser said he was able to meet Pope Francis twice and participate in Pope Benedict XVI’s funeral, sitting in the second row and assisting with Communion as a deacon. That meant a lot to him “since he was elected pope about two weeks before my first Communion in 2005.”
“Being able to experience these things, the Lord has just been so good to me and generous … through no merit of my own,” Deacon Glaser said. “My desire is to help people come to realize that themselves, too. The Lord is really generous and loving, and we just need to be listening,” he said.
