Ryan O’Hara, content director for St. Paul’s Outreach (SPO), said that the first words his now-wife, Jill, said to him were “I do.”
The two were playing “some kind of bingo game at church where you’re finding different people who have done different things,” O’Hara said. O’Hara had asked if anyone runs 10 miles a week, and Jill shouted, “I do.”
The couple will celebrate 25 years of marriage in November.
O’Hara also hosts the “Better Preach” podcast, which is focused on developing and delivering “great Catholic talks.” He recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley for an episode about dating in the 2020s.
Dating and discernment of marriage is “what every Catholic single young adult is thinking about, but we’re not really talking about it,” O’Hara said. “There’s a lot of anxiety,” insecurity, fear and pressure of “not only am I going to find the one, but how will I know if it’s the one?” he said. “And what does God think about all of this?”
Being top of mind for so many young adults, “we wanted to address it,” O’Hara said.
O’Hara is a featured speaker and presenter at a five-part series called “Call Me: A Catholic Young Adult’s Guide to Dating Discernment,” which starts Monday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. at Our Lady of Grace in Edina. The series runs through Oct. 16. It is aimed at both young adults who are single and those who are in dating relationships, O’Hara said.
“The hope is that we would put dating and discernment and preparing for marriage in context, and that it’s not happening in a vacuum, and that we as Catholics have a relationship with God,” he said.
Don’t expect “theory” at the sessions, O’Hara said.
“I think people need a good theology of marriage, but also a theology of who we are as persons of God and who God is,” he said. “We’re going to get practical,” because “that’s actually, I think, the thing that no one’s really talking about.”
During the interview, Conley asked O’Hara for one piece of advice he wished he had been told back in his dating days. To hear his response and to learn more about the upcoming series at Our Lady of Grace, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Sept. 15 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. Sept. 16 and 2 p.m. Sept. 17. To learn more about the “Call Me” series, visit olgparish.org/olg-news-events/call-me-series-2023. To learn more about SPO, visit SPO.org.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with art historian Liz Lev, who describes the wonders of sacred art and its role in a life of faith; and Sean Pilcher, director of Sacra: Relics of the Saints, who discusses veneration of sacred relics.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
