Following God’s promptings to help others, Deacon Derek Gilde carved out a 15-year career in social work and mental health. Hoping to draw more people to Christ, he entered the seminary and will be ordained a priest May 25 at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
Growing up as a Lutheran in a faithful church community inspired him to “follow Jesus no matter where the road leads” and begin to consider becoming a pastor, said Deacon Gilde, a native of River Falls, Wisconsin.
“During a period of wrestling, I began to hear the Lord confirm to me an invitation instead to tend to the corporeal needs of human brokenness in the world, so I followed the path of social work,” he said.
In his years of public service, his faith and understanding of God’s presence in the world became more fully alive, Deacon Gilde said.
“These years were equally beautiful but also met with struggles in the reshaping of who I am and the capacity to see God’s providence in the messiness of my own life and those around me,” he said. “It was especially the people who suffered most but clung to God’s word and overcame that inspired me to not give up my study of Scripture and theological wrestling.”
One circumstance after another — including meeting a pastor who introduced him to the writings of St. Augustine and C.S. Lewis — piqued his interest in the Catholic faith, Deacon Gilde told the “Practicing Catholic” radio show in the days leading up to his ordination. After reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church and speaking with Catholics, he converted and later joined the seminary.
Despite his winding road toward the priesthood, Deacon Gilde said he is confident that it was providentially ordered by God. “I could sense his leadership (in) many moments of my life. You just have to follow when he calls,” Deacon Gilde told “Practicing Catholic.”
Deacon Gilde, 44, is in a class of 12 other priestly ordinands for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the largest class since 15 were ordained in 2005.
“I am grateful and excited to be part of a large class,” he said. “For me, it has been incredibly inspiring to look to other men who are walking alongside me and delight in the diversity of gifts, edifying qualities, and different expertise and insights from a variety of life experiences.”
Inspiring examples of priestly life for him include Bishop Michael Izen, who, in his several assignments as a priest, led “the community in Stillwater with such great faithfulness and genuineness of heart;” Father Jake Anderson, who serves at St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center in Minneapolis, for his “incredibly deep and evangelical preaching;” and Father Andrew Jaspers, who ministers in the Apostolate of Catholic Health Care Professionals and as a chaplain at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, for “helping me learn to pray more deeply and teaching me more clearly what a vision of priesthood might look like.”
Looking ahead to ministry as a priest, Deacon Gilde said he is enthused about witnessing and being part of what God is doing in the lives of the faithful, especially in a parish setting.
“I truly cannot narrow it down to one thing,” Deacon Gilde said. “But one of the greatest spiritual realities I have yet to experience and joyfully anticipate is calling upon the Holy Spirit to offer Mass” and imparting God’s grace through confession, confirmation and anointing the ill and dying, he said.
“But even when that day comes, the words of Psalm 139:6 will remain: ‘Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high I cannot attain it.’”
