As Deacon Ryan Sustacek was going through his high school years, he had a particular profession in mind for his adult life. It was not the priesthood.
“All the way up through high school, I wanted to be a math teacher,” he said. “I liked math, so that’s what I wanted to do. In grade school, I didn’t even really think about becoming a priest. That wasn’t even on my mind — farthest thing from it.”
That’s not to say faith wasn’t important to him. His parents, Steve and Jennifer, intentionally taught him about prayer, Mass and the sacraments at the parish where he grew up, St. Michael in St. Michael. He also actively participated in the parish youth ministry, which brought him to Extreme Faith Camp in 2010 after he finished the sixth grade at St. Michael Catholic School.
The week-long experience “absolutely changed everything,” said Deacon Sustacek, 26. Even though he wasn’t enthused about going — his mom signed him up — his attitude changed during his time at camp.
“I loved it, I really did,” he said. “I remember being really inspired by some of the older guys.”
One of them was Paul Shovelain, now Father Paul Shovelain, who also grew up in St. Michael parish and was in formation for the priesthood at that time. It was during this week of camp “when I met the Lord,” Deacon Sustacek recalled.
The highlight of the week came during a gathering with other campers when a priest walked through the crowd with a monstrance holding the Eucharist. Campers got an individual moment to adore the Eucharist and receive a blessing from the priest. That year, the priest was Father Donald DeGrood, now Bishop DeGrood of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Deacon Sustacek was “overcome with emotion,” he recalled. “It was a real experience, as clear as day. It was like: God loves me, he has a plan for my life, and whatever my life entails from here on out is going to be with him.”
The theme for camp had to do with the priesthood, and it was stressed throughout the week. Deacon Sustacek went back to camp every summer after that all the way through high school. He called the first year “foundational” in terms of his spiritual life and what followed in subsequent years.
“If you’re not going to promise to give your life to God, then priesthood doesn’t make sense at all,” he said. “If that moment wouldn’t have happened, if the Lord’s grace wouldn’t have touched me in that way right there, the later stuff couldn’t have happened.”
After his experience at camp, it was a gradual path to the point where he started considering the priesthood. He was a competitive swimmer in high school and wanted to continue swimming in college. He was recruited by St. Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona to swim, and he still wanted to be a math teacher. So, his plan was to go there, compete on the swimming team and study education.
He made a visit to the school his senior year of high school, but it didn’t feel right. After that, he made a visit to St. John Vianney College Seminary (SJV) in St. Paul. There was a strong connection between the Sustacek family and SJV. Father Bill Baer (who died in 2018) was the rector of SJV from 1999 to 2010 and was also the priest who performed the wedding ceremony of Deacon Sustacek’s parents. The rector of SJV when Deacon Sustacek made his visit was Father Michael Becker, who had been the pastor of St. Michael when Deacon Sustacek was growing up.
Because of these family connections to SJV, “I had the sense in my heart I’m supposed to go visit the seminary,” he said, noting that this sense came while he was in an adoration chapel at St. Mary’s during his visit there. “When that idea (of visiting SJV) came up in my heart, it was like I’m being pocket dialed.”
“It felt like, in prayer, the call was clear,” he recalled. “Someone’s calling me, and I’m supposed to go (to SJV for a visit).”
He visited SJV the weekend after his visit to St. Mary’s, and he went by himself. On the way there, he felt “way out of place,” but that feeling dissipated after he arrived. It was replaced by “the same fire I experienced at Extreme Faith Camp.”
“The timing (of the visit in November 2015) was just perfect,” he said. “I loved it. And … I could totally see myself here.”
After the visit to SJV, he now was leaning toward enrolling at the University of St. Thomas in the fall after his graduation from St. Michael-Albertville High School. But he wasn’t sold on the priesthood yet. He thought maybe he could enroll at the University of St. Thomas as a general student and compete on the swimming team, but not join SJV.
Then, something happened the spring of his senior year during Mass at St. Michael when his sister Rachel was confirmed. Occasionally, the parish has the confirmation at its church rather than at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul. The presiding bishop, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who now leads the Diocese of Crookston, gave a message at the end to those being confirmed. Deacon Sustacek was up in the sanctuary as an altar server, so he, too, heard the message.
The bishop talked about the vocation of marriage, then added that some of the young men would receive the “special call” to the priesthood. Deacon Sustacek recalled Bishop Cozzens saying that “if you have that call, run to it with joy.”
“And when he said that, the priest that was sitting next to me … Father Nathan Laliberte, turns, and he’s like: ‘Ryan, he’s talking to you,’” Deacon Sustacek said. “I’m like: How did he know that? How did he know to say that?’ And, (Father Liliberte’s words) hit me so deep. So, at that moment, I knew I needed to go (to SJV).”
He didn’t join SJV right away in the fall of his freshman year at St. Thomas. Instead, he followed through with his initial plan of enrolling as a general student so he could swim and get involved in student government.
“Within a couple weeks, I remember thinking to myself, ‘I made the wrong decision,’” he said. The window of his dorm room in Brady Hall gave him a direct line of sight to the dorm at SJV. So, he saw SJV seminarians walk back and forth every day. That led to a simple thought: “I’m supposed to be there.”
He went to SJV and enrolled the following semester. He stayed there all the way through to graduation, then entered The St. Paul Seminary the following fall.
Looking back on all the steps that have taken him to the cusp of ordination to the priesthood, “I’m just blown away by what God has done,” he said, noting that his dad currently is in formation for the permanent diaconate.
One of the first things he will do after his ordination on May 25 at the Cathedral of St. Paul is serve at Extreme Faith Camp, where he will be the priest holding a monstrance with the Eucharist and blessing each camper.
“My home parish is going to Extreme Faith Camp in the middle of June,” he said. “And so, I will be the priest all week there, which is surreal. It’s like: Pinch me. Am I dreaming? Fourteen years later (after the first year at camp), I’m the priest at Extreme Faith Camp. What happened?”
He answered his own question:
“God’s grace.”
