The Lord wants people to find their joy and move into “holy boldness” as they seek a vocation, a Jesuit brother told “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley for an episode honoring Religious Brothers Day May 1.
Using Conley’s decision to marry as an example, Brother Matt Wooters said, “You were maybe dating, and then you had to make a jump. Like, ‘I can’t continue the way I’m proceeding. I can’t live my life without you.’ And that’s kind of the move for the Society of Jesus, too, or entering all religious life. There’s a flutter in the belly, and then there’s a point … where you’ve got to make a jump.”
“That’s what I encourage young men to think about, is God calling you to holy boldness?” he said.
Brother Wooters, on the vocations team for the Jesuits’ Midwest Province, which extends from Cleveland, Ohio, south to Kentucky, and west through the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Dakotas, said his own experience included two years as a lay missionary with the Jesuits in Central America.
“What I noticed about that time is, I really liked who I was in that space,” Brother Wooters said. “I was working very close with the economically poor. I was living simply. I was going to church. So, as I was discerning what was next, I was taking all that data (and asking), OK, when did I feel like I was my best self? How can I do more of that? Who are these men that inspire me? And kind of a light bulb went off.”
Brother Wooters has served in the archdiocese, including time with the homeless and teaching Sunday school at Ascension Parish in Minneapolis. Students are fun and they ask questions without reservation, such as, “Does God have a mom? Does God have a God? I love these questions,” Brother Wooters said, “because they come from such a place of real curiosity and a desire to learn.”
To learn more about Brother Wooters’ call to religious life, differences and similarities between priests and brothers, and Brother Wooters’ love for cold water swimming, tune into this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. April 28 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. April 29 and 2 p.m. April 30.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes Father Leonard Andrie, pastor of St. Therese in Deephaven and a vicar of evangelization for Synod implementation, and Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who rejoices in the coming of spring and signs of new life in the local Church.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.
