Jennifer Sustacek, the mother of recently ordained Father Ryan Sustacek, said her son mentioned feeling a call to the priesthood in high school. But with no priests in the Sustacek family, the idea came as a surprise, she said.
At first, she imagined a priest’s life as the monk in the Epcot ride Spaceship Earth at Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
“In my mind, specifically, I thought of him just sitting there,” Jennifer said. “If you have ever been to Epcot in that big Spaceship Earth where the monk is laying on the desk with a pen in his hand and there’s just kind of books and stuff everywhere, that was my misunderstanding of what seminary meant.”
The thought made Jennifer nervous. Even when Father Sustacek attended the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Jennifer said, she and her husband urged him not to join the seminary in his first semester. Their son was so unhappy, however, that he would beg them not to go back when he came home for the weekend.
“He didn’t want to be there,” Jennifer said. “It was not for him, and he later tells us that he would look out his window of the dorm and he would see St. John Vianney (College Seminary (SJV) in St. Paul) and (the seminarians) were so happy and they were outside playing, and he would see this and he’s like, ‘That’s where I need to be.’”
Around Thanksgiving in his first semester at St. Thomas, now-Father Sustacek approached his parents and asked them to visit the university to meet the vocations director for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis at the time, Father David Blume. Despite being hesitant, Jennifer said they agreed to meet Father Blume.
“I actually happened to see a video online at SJV the night before we went and met Father Blume,” Jennifer said. “It just showed something that I wasn’t expecting. It showed brotherhood and this community. It was just so different from what I understood what seminary meant.”
At that point, Father Sustacek received his parents’ approval and joined the seminary. He is now the parochial vicar of St. John Nuemann in Eagan and chaplain for the summer youth ministry Totus Tuus.
“He was so happy,” Jennifer said. “You could see the change when he moved to SJV. He was joyful. He was living a structured life. He was learning to discern, he was learning to pray and he had all those things that he didn’t have when he was living across campus in the dorm. I could see all this and it just made me happy. … But interestingly enough, I was still struggling. I was still having a concern, and my concern was I have been a hospice nurse for 12 years. My worry for my son was not that he wouldn’t get married, not that he wouldn’t have children. I, as a hospice nurse, did not want him to die alone. … Death can be beautiful when you’re surrounded by your loved ones, and that was truly weighing on my heart, knowing that he wouldn’t have a family, knowing that he wouldn’t have children.”
Jennifer said she prayed with this thought and struggled with it until January of 2018, when Father William Baer died. Jennifer said Father Baer was instrumental in her life and presided at her wedding.
“It was a wintery day,” Jennifer said. “We went to the funeral. It was snowing, the roads were not the best. It was at the Cathedral. The Cathedral was packed and the love there was so warming to my heart, and I felt a conversion that he (her son) was going to be OK. He would not die alone. I walked out of the Cathedral that day and I looked at my husband and I said I am 1000% OK with whatever he decides. And since that day I have been his biggest cheerleader and whatever he decides in life, I was totally OK with.”
To hear more about Father Sustacek’s journey to the priesthood through the eyes of his mother, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Aug.2 and 2 p.m. Aug.3.
The program also includes a discussion with Colin Miller from the Center for Catholic Social Thought at Assumption in St. Paul about his new book, “We are only Saved Together: Living the Revolutionary Vision of Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement.” Additionally, Father Toulee Peter Ly from Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood fills listeners in on the move for Hmong parishioners to Presentation from St. Vincent de Paul in St. Paul.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the program can also be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
