Episode 3: Father Joseph Martin

In this episode of Cup of St. Joe, host Suz Entzeroth sits down with our associate pastor, Fr. Joseph Martin, for a thoughtful conversation about faith, vocation, and the quiet ways God prepares us to follow Him.

Raised in a large Catholic family in St. Louis and homeschooled alongside six siblings, Fr. Martin reflects on the formative experiences that shaped his faith—from daily Mass and family prayer to discerning the priesthood during his college years. Hear how God used moments of uncertainty, wise mentors, and the witness of his family to lead him to a life of joyful service as a parish priest.

Along the way, enjoy personal stories, reflections on priestly life, and a few fun facts—including his love of hockey, hunting, the Fourth of July, and the three items he’d bring if stranded on a deserted island.

Grab a cup of coffee and join us as we continue Cup of St. Joe—a podcast dedicated to sharing the faith stories and the personal witness of our parish community, one cup at a time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:01

Hello, I'm Suz Enzroth, the host of Cup of St. Joe, a podcast where we explore the faith stories and personal witness of the St. Joe's Poudible Parish. Today's episode, I'll be interviewing Father Mart. I can't wait for you guys to hear it. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy. Super excited about this. Um You've been at the parish for about a year and a half, you said. Um and this is just to kind of have us as the parish get to know you, um, go back into time and see what you were like as a kid and for sure. Yeah, just see who see who you really are. Thanks. Um, but I always like to start off with an icebreaker question. Okay. So the question is if you were on a desert island and you had three things you could bring with you.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Oh wow. Okay. What would you bring? And then why would you bring it? Well a good copy of the Bible so that I have the word of God.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Maybe laminated in case it gets wet.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Well, actually, I think I would I would do a Roman missile, bread and wine. I think that's what I would bring.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

So those three things. Yeah. That is Yeah. No like fire starter or you can figure that all out. Yeah, figure that all out. You can do it without it. You've seen Castaway, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

All right. So we're just gonna start from the beginning and tell us, you know, how you grew up, um, what your family life was like, siblings, where you where were you from and for sure.

SPEAKER_03 1:34

Yeah, thanks so much for organizing this and uh making it possible. Um I was um born locally, so I was here, I grew up in St. Louis. Um I'm one of seven. Uh my parents um uh had seven children, and I'm number five. Uh so I have four older siblings, two younger. Um my dad was one of five boys, and my mom was one of two girls, and then when they got married, they had five boys and two girls. So it's just kind of funny how it all worked out.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Irony.

SPEAKER_03 2:07

But um way back in the day, both sides of my family are from St. Louis, uh, like North City, but my parents both grew up in Northeast Ohio, and then after school, they moved back to St. Louis for work, and then they started in Bridgeton at St. Mary's, uh, that was their parish uh for a number of years, and then they moved to uh town and country, so kind of St. Anselm Parish. Um St. Mary's is a runway now, so it's no longer there, but um St. Anselm's Parish is still there off of Mason Road. It's where the um the monks from St. Louis Abbey uh take care of that parish. Um they also take care of priory school. And then for a number of years during my um childhood um and adolescence, the monks uh had another community there called the Oratory of Saints Gregory and Augustine, and it was a apostolate for the traditional Latin Mass and sacraments, and it was just four minutes from our house. And so my parents um loved uh taking us there, and so that was from like 2007 to 2017.

SPEAKER_04 3:17

So you actually listened to Latin Mass when you would go?

SPEAKER_03 3:19

Yeah, growing up was um just like very familiar and normal, um, and I'm so grateful for that. Uh because um, yeah, the more we learn about the history of the Mass, uh, the more it just comes alive uh when we go to Mass um and are a part of that.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Uh do you speak Latin?

SPEAKER_03 3:40

I don't speak it, but I can read it, um which is a great help. It kind of opens up a whole world in terms of uh scripture, theology, um, writings of the saints, things like that. So um, so yeah, that was a blessing growing up. Um our home life was uh a little bit unique. We were all homeschooled, so I was homeschooled from K through 12. Uh most of my siblings were, except for my oldest siblings and my youngest. Um the rest of us were pretty much homeschooled all the way. Um my mom and dad felt really c uh called strongly by God and just by their own um situation that, hey, this is something that we can do. It's something that the Lord's inviting us to do, and we're gonna give it a shot. And so they uh they did, and um it was very much uh more off the beaten path back then. Uh homeschooling in the 90s and early 2000s was especially in St. Louis. Um, you know, I think there were back then there were 30 plus Catholic high schools in St. Louis, and so it was very unique. Um nevertheless, they found a lot of other great families uh that were uh homeschooling as well. So, you know, here in our parish, I'd been reconnecting with some of those old families. So one of them is um Tom and Mimi McDonough, like uh their kids, and myself and my siblings, we went to the same homeschool co-op growing up. Um yeah, there's and then you just kind of reconnect um that way. But I loved homeschooling and um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

Man, your mom, she's the one that taught you guys.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

She did, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:26

She has to be an amazing person. I give so much props to the to the parents who homeschool. Sure, yeah. That's a real gift, yes, especially giving it to your kids to be able to do. I am not called to do that.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah, right. It's not for everyone.

SPEAKER_04 5:40

It's no, um, but it it takes a lot of you know patience and I I I think homeschooling is an amazing option. And it is something that's kind of happening more nowadays, I feel like, for uh families. They're choosing homeschooling. I've heard a lot, a lot of families who are choosing homeschooling.

SPEAKER_03 5:57

So Yeah. Sometimes it's um so yeah, as uh moms and dads, you know, we have to pray and kind of discern along with the other families around them, like, is this what God's calling us to do? And then it's kind of case by case and season by season. So um, you know, every child is different and every season of life is different, and so um, and so homeschooling might be uh might be right for a certain student or a certain time, uh or it might not. So um, but it's part of I think the charism that's given to moms and dads to be able to discern that.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

So Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:35

So big family, you guys were all strong in your faith, it sounds like yeah, my parents really um set a strong example for us.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

That's amazing. So, what what did your faith formation kind of look like from when you were young and then as you grew up?

SPEAKER_03 6:51

It looks like um it looked like the the main foundation blocks were Sunday Mass and um sometimes daily mass because we were blessed to live so close to the parish and homeschooling, um it was a great way just to start the day and just kind of have a have a good start to the day. We didn't go to Mass every morning, but but it was always an option, and then especially when uh older siblings were driving, it became an option too. Um faith formation looked like uh praying before meals, um, taking that time to thank God for um the food that we were about to receive, and then we also would have a devotional practice of praying like three Hail Marys before eating. So we would say grace and then pray three Hail Marys. And uh my mom and dad um it was really when we they did that as like insurance in case we didn't pray the rosary, we would at least have those three Hail Marys, you know. Uh, because we were not we were not regular with the rosary every night either, but um uh but they would try, you know, and on nights when mom and dad were like struggling, I think they would really try to they would say, Hey, we're gonna pray the rosary tonight. We really need to, you know.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

Um I find that interesting that she they chose it right before you ate because it's like an extra sacrifice if you're like starving. Oh yeah. And you have to like say three and you're just staring at the food, and yeah. Precisely extra, extra grace is given that for the sacrifice.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Yeah, I think subordinating our lower appetite to our higher, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:32

Good discipline.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

It was it was really good formation. I remember as a little kid, every once in a while we would order dominoes, and the dominoes would be in the box on the table, and like the um the cocaine smell coming out of the box. And uh and the domino's uh location near our house misspelled our name, and instead of saying Martin, it said Martian M-A-R-T-I-A-N, and it had our address, and I remember just staring at that, praying free Hail Marys and just being like drooling in a cat of time. Yeah, just like drooling.

SPEAKER_04 9:07

Yeah, I need not be.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

And uh I'm like, why does it say Martian? Why are we eating it?

SPEAKER_04 9:12

Let's say these faster.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Right, exactly. Uh and then mom started adding Hail Marys. Oh, as you get older, so it ended up being four for a long time, and then she tried to add a number five, and it didn't pan out. Um the five never caught on. But she had specific intentions for each Hail Mary. And um it's funny, I'm like, is this how the rosary was invented? You know, like we keep asking for different intentions for each Hail Mary. So anyway, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:43

Okay, so you guys sound like a close-knit family, and yeah. Were you pretty close with your siblings?

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yeah, I think so. Um, I am so grateful for my siblings today. Uh um, you know, I wish I had been nicer to them growing up, and I wish we had had like really been more uh um loving as kids, but we it is what it is, and God's been really kind and keeping uh our relationship strong and like as adults, yeah, we have good relationships with each other, and it's just a priceless gift. So yeah. Um, you know, Pope John Paul II and others have said like the greatest gift that parents can give their children is a sibling. Yeah. I've I have no idea what my parents sacrificed. I th I can kind of see a shadow of it looking back, and at the same time, I'm so grateful. Um can't imagine life without one of my siblings, you know.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

Yeah. Did any of your other siblings join um the priesthood or no, everyone's else is married.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

Okay. Um the last sibling to get married was my youngest brother, and he got married a week after my ordination, so I got to be the efficient at the wedding and say the mass.

SPEAKER_04 11:02

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 11:03

And um that was, yeah, well, you know, life highlight. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:11

So you have lots of nieces and nephews, I assume?

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Uh yes. Um, there are 15, and so um half are in town, half are out of town. So um grateful just yeah, for my siblings and their witness.

SPEAKER_04 11:25

Awesome. So um, so walk us through how you became a priest. Like what did that look like? How did you decide that?

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Well, as a kid, you know, in a very Catholic family, um, nevertheless, uh one challenge I had was being probably too private about my faith. Uh it took me a while to own it for myself and to really in a concrete, sustained way, you know, um live out my baptism and really um and my confirmation and and give my life to Jesus. Um that took time to for that faith to mature. Uh as a young child, I was very free and uh open. And then middle school, high school, college was much more private. Um there's so many things in our culture, uh, even if you grow up in a good Catholic family, uh there's there's so many uh influences in our culture that say, well, your faith, that's your thing, you know, that's that's private to you. Um and sure, it is ultimately uh uh so personal to uh have a relationship with Christ, uh to speak to him each day, um, to receive him in the sacraments, but nevertheless, it is um it is something that should animate our entire life. You know, our relationship with him um isn't something that uh is in a is in a box. So it took me time to become more uh liberated, I would say, and just and being a cr a free Christian, you know, just open and bold about uh this person who who I love and who I know is my Lord and my savior. Um the what that looked like was in college, um I like I would go to mass very often, even throughout the week as a college student.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

Where'd you go to college?

SPEAKER_03 13:24

At St. Louis University.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

Oh, you went to Slope.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

Yeah. So blessing there was just a lot of access to the sacraments and uh the Jesuit priests being around. And um although like I didn't have that uh group of friends or especially early on in college that was together uh being a Christian community, uh that kind of happened as time went on and um grew closer with individual friends who could support and challenge me and vice versa, um how to put God at the center of our lives, you know. And I'm so grateful for those guys and gals that were there, uh especially my senior year. Senior year is where I kind of realized um that being private about my faith, trying to keep my options open, not simply taking steps forward and and risking, taking risks for Christ, avoiding that was actually leaving me very anxious. Um trying to explore all these different career paths. And when people would ask me what my plans were, I would have a long list of things. Um exhausting and and anxiety provoking, I would say. Um one time, uh, so for example, like I was trying to uh I was interested in starting a company, like working on a project with some friends that would turn into um a company after graduation. I was exploring internships at different corporations.

SPEAKER_04 14:51

What was your major?

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Math and finance.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

So I kind of purposely picked majors that were like very broad and you could do a lot with them. Because because I was like I I just didn't really know what I wanted to do. So I was like, well, I guess I'll just pick some kind of ones that could go different directions, you know?

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Um I wonder how many people graduate with a degree and actually use that degree in their current career field. Like I wonder.

SPEAKER_03 15:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:18

Because I don't use either one of mine right now.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

Sure. Yeah, it's um that's a whole conversation of our education. Um I will say, like, sometimes we forget the purpose of education is um is not necessarily like to be a useful person, uh, but to be um just a a free person. You know, education is about uh becoming free from the pressures of the world and to be free to uh live for God, you know. So, you know, the word education means to lead out, and it it comes from like leading out of darkness into light. And so no matter what we study, if through the process of that we come to desire higher things and become free from wealth, pleasure, power, and honor and and false gods, uh, and free to to serve the one true God, then that's a good education, you know. Um so it uh it's good to have skills too, though. So knowing I think today lots of we you know skills are in are are all around us, but um the the freedom that's uh that's a little more rare. Well yeah, so um in college I um yeah, I just felt pulled in all these different directions, exhausted, anxious, not sure where uh where I wanted to go. And I remember one time there was uh I was on this date uh with someone and she asked me, like, hey, we were seniors in college, and she asked me like, hey, what are your plans for what are your plans for after graduation? And I listed all these things and I mentioned like the priesthood as one item among many others, you know.

SPEAKER_04 17:08

And um that one caught her eye, didn't it?

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Of course, yeah. Like that was the one thing that uh she recognized as like, wow, that's pretty rare. Who else is thinking of that? And then to her credit, uh, and I'm so grateful, like she focused on that and asked about it and really showed interest and excitement about wow, what an what an amazing thing to be considering. And I wanted to die on the inside, you know. I was very embarrassed and didn't want to talk about that, but also didn't feel like in good conscience I could not talk about it. Right. So uh that kind of gives you a picture of like uh you know, 21-year-old me trying to trying to um uh stay uncommitted, you know. But um in fact, right at that moment, all of these uh Jesuit seminarians who were studying at SLU and were dressed like this, they all walk into the restaurant right then.

SPEAKER_04 18:01

So it was uh little nudge from the Holy Spirit right there.

SPEAKER_03 18:04

Yeah, right. And so um yeah, pretty uh pretty clear sign that um God was knocking on my door and um trying to he was trying to give me the courage to to open that door. So um so yeah, that was uh that was my experience in college. And then I eventually applied to the seminary kind of as a way to um just to see. I I had this thought like if unless unless I give this a real shot, I'll always wonder um whether or not I should have answered the call. And so I turned in my application, and that whole process of um learning what was asked of uh seminarians, uh what formation in the seminary looked like, um, what they were looking for in terms of a candidate, that was a real examination of conscience for me and a a moment of conversion. So I was like in my college dorm room, like November of my senior year, and I was reading a a document that is basically put out by the Vatican. It's called the uh the program for priestly formation. Um the Vatican and the the U.S. bishops, you know, put this document out as a way, it's not meant for for like seminarians or like people applying to the seminary to read so much as it is for like uh people who run seminaries, like it's like guidelines. So I was like in way over my head, and but it was really good. It was great to read this, and uh it was a wake-up call. It's like, actually, no, this is not, you know, the church doesn't need me, so to speak. Like um Christ wants me to give my heart over to him, uh, to turn away from the world and to uh trust that where he's calling me is um is green pastures, is a is a is a beautiful and happy uh future, not something that I have to be afraid of and and kind of you know keep my cards close to my chest um regarding. So um so the process of applying to the seminary was a conversion moment for me. And so were all my years in the seminary. Um but after I applied, they asked me to wait one year. So the year after I graduated college was a gap year kind of. And um when I received that news, it was very um, it was kind of unsurprising, but it was also extremely uh motivating. Um and it made me realize, hey, this is something I really want.

SPEAKER_04 20:43

Like I didn't know um like you didn't like that you had to wait for it a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 20:47

Yeah, it it like a a small uh taste of rejection really fired me up.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

Yeah, it can. It's like something you don't get, you're you want it more.

SPEAKER_03 20:57

Right, exactly. And um, you know, you have to be careful that that um that like you know zeal to uh to prove yourself can go wrong. But that was where I was at at you know age 22, and God used that for good. And that year became a year where I learned how to pray. Um I began to be just more uh free on uh spiritually in terms of um freed from attachments to sin in the world. Um and uh I was able to travel, visit different religious communities because it I thought um at that time I was really interested in the Society of Jesus. I had met great Jesuits at Slough, and then the stories of St. Ignatius, St. Francis Xavier, um St. Isaac Jogs, Peter Claver, Edmund Campion, like those early Jesuit saints and martyrs, um really got me fired up. Um they were they just lived. Heroic lives that inspired me when I was in college. And so I I really thought maybe God's calling to me to be become a Jesuit.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

In discerning that year, though, and visiting and going on retreats, um it became clear that the Lord wanted me to be a parish priest, or at least that's what I felt comfortable starting with, is like um I remember I talked to um the archbishop at that point. I said, Well, what should I do? I, you know, should I start, should I go to the seminary? Should I go to a religious order? He was like, Hey, you have a you have a great seminary in your backyard. Um, start there, you know, just like be open and and um be at the service of your local bishop and start there. And so I did, and and that's where I ended up staying. So um, but yeah, that year, that gap year um was really formative. Uh it was the year of mercy, uh 2015-2016. Um and so much uh um so much um spiritual profit that the Lord uh bestowed on me that year. Um got to work for my dad, so I had turned down job offers thinking I was going to the seminary, and then when that got uh pushed off, I was like, uh-oh, now what am I gonna do? Yeah. But it turns out my dad, who he had his own doctor's clinic and his office manager retired short notice right around the time I was graduating. And he needed somebody just for a period of months to um help him because he was transitioning from private practice and joining uh a hospital system.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 23:39

And so he needed somebody for a short period of time. Uh it wasn't a long-term commitment, it was more responsibility than I would have probably had in a starting level job, entry-level job, and I received income and had flexible hours so that I could travel, pray, go on retreats. I mean, it was like it was like the and I got to work with my dad, who um is retired now, so that you know, that opportunity is past. And working with him was I like I I took a bunch of business classes. Nothing taught me as much as going to work every day with my dad, you know, about the dignity of work, what it means to be um a father and a and a good um provider, uh, taking care of employees, taking care of patients. Um you know, he had a beautiful portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe in his office. He he gave his employees off on Good Friday every year. Um, you know, it was uh it was a it was truly like a family, you know, that um that he um kind of uh led, you know, uh his few employees that he had, and um it was awesome. So in college, it's so easy to get um kind of swept away by the get rich quick stuff, the um, you know, young people, it it's it's it's so easy to be dazzled by kind of the empty show of the world. And a great antidote to that was simply waking up early, getting in the truck with my dad before it was light out, driving to the office, unlocking the door, turning on the computers, like turning on the lights, all this, you know, at you know, 5 30, 6 in the morning. Like that was uh the best business class I ever took, you know. And it was so precious. It was just like it was six to eight months, really, that that it was able to be uh that it took place.

SPEAKER_04 25:41

So it's probably a huge blessing for him to have you available.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

Yeah, I don't doubt it.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

That quick.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

Yeah. In fact, it was my mom who organized it. Yeah, I didn't cherish it a lot. Yeah, but mom was like, well, Joe needs a job, you need an office manager, he's going with you.

unknown 25:56

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

And so, yeah, and I'm grateful for my dad who put a lot of confidence in me because I remember I was entering in these codes uh so that insurance companies would, you know, dole out uh payments that go with these procedures. And if you enter the code in wrong, even by a little bit, you know, you don't get paid. It comes back as an error. And so, like, and there are people who like go to school for that, you know. Yeah. Entering in health codes, like like health insurance is is incredibly complicated. I was in way over my head trying to figure that out, and it's like uh and meanwhile, like the person who did that also answered the phones, also did HR, also did accounting. So it was um, it was a lot uh for uh so I was on the phone with the previous employee or the previous lady who had left. I was on the phone with her for like an hour a day.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

Um a lot of a lot of very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

It's quite a time to be alive. But uh once that was over, it was uh um it was time to move on, and that's when I entered the seminary uh that year after college and and a new journey began.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Yeah. So what did your parents think when you told them you wanted to become a priest?

SPEAKER_03 27:14

They supported it. Yeah, they were um my mom uh kind of always knew, I think, that my heart was drawn to the priesthood, and so she would kind of give little nudges. My dad, um my dad was more cautious about encouraging me. Uh he was always supportive, but he would say, you know, no matter what you do, Joe, we're gonna support you, you know. And he would, and just he was all about like just uh if that's what the Lord's calling you to do, um, then go forward, you know.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Right.

SPEAKER_03 27:47

So the two of them together like didn't push me, but they did encourage me, and I'm so grateful for that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

That's amazing. Yeah, that's a huge, huge gift to your family, I'm sure, too, to have you um be the family priest. It's a really cool thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:04

It is. As a diocesan priest, you're called to remain close with your family. Um, but once once the church uh ordains a man, uh he truly is set apart from from everyone, really, including including my own family. So um I'm blessed, like I don't feel like uh, you know, I I've never felt like my my family has has been trying to like claim me as their own, you know. Um but it is important that a good healthy boundary, just like when you get married, um, you know, a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to a wife and the two become one flesh. Um, there's an analogy in the priesthood when because really at the rite of ordination, the mass where men be where deacons are ordained priests or seminarians are ordained deacons, sometimes you sit with your family for the first part of Mass, and then after the gospel, uh the deacon finishes proclaiming the gospel and then calls up the men to be ordained. And they actually leave the pew where their family, they're sitting with their family and cross into the sanctuary and stand before the bishop. So there's a symbolic um removal from the world and from the past life, uh, so that we can be a priest uh for all. Um and celibacy goes hand in hand with that as well. Um to have an undivided heart, to be um totally consecrated to God on uh and at the service of the church, and to um give up really the best thing in life, which is um domestic life and um the joy of belonging to another person in a spousal relationship, uh, for the uh to witness to the greatest joys that will surpass all of all joy, all earthly joys um which are what are waiting for us in heaven. Um and so uh celibacy goes hand in hand with that uh that consecration, that kind of removal from the world um in order to be at the disposal of uh of the church.

SPEAKER_04 30:19

That's that's a good point. And a lot of people, I think, um, at least in today's world, they kind of wonder why do Catholic priests not aren't allowed to get married? You know, it's like they have that question. What would you say to that?

SPEAKER_03 30:33

Well, I once heard a priest say, uh it's kind of kind of blunt, but he said, Well, do you want to pay me twice as much to do half the work?

SPEAKER_04 30:42

Because it's a lot of work to do both.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

Right. Uh so that's I mean, a parish has to support their priests, so that that's um now they're gonna support a priest and a family, you know.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

And braces and food and college, maybe, and um, it's a lot, you know. Priests, so that's a practical reason. The church actually doesn't focus mostly on the practical reasons, though. Right. The real reason is what Jesus talks about in Matthew 19. Uh he says that there are some who are called to say no to marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. And he says, Let those who can do it. And what he means by that is Jesus invites some men and some women to to say no to marriage so that they can say yes to him with an undivided heart. And that is a gift. Um, it's not something you have to do to go to heaven. It's not a commandment, it's a counsel, which is an invitation that invites uh a free response. So as priests, we don't feel um like celibacy is some burden, like, oh well, if I want to be a priest, well, I guess I I guess I can't get married. Like I felt that when I was 18 years old, but when I was in the seminary, I became free from that mentality and I realized no, this is a um invitation from Christ to belong to him, uh, body and soul. And that's what Jesus um has with regard to God the Father, he and to the church. He he gave himself over body and soul, you know, this is my body given up for you. Like that is a that's also the um kind of the fire behind the love of celibacy, you know. And with and it's the same fire that also um uh preserves the love between husband and wife, you know, this is my body given up for you. Like that's the love, that's the love of husband and wife, and the and what then becomes the love um for children as well.

SPEAKER_04 32:57

Like, yeah, and as a female, having the kids that's another part of giving your body over to them. Exactly. This is my body given up for you as the mom um having birth, yeah. That's something I didn't uh even think about until I had kids, was like the when they say that that part at mass, it's like it means something different now, you know, once you've done something as far as giving your body to another. Yeah. Was there anybody that you had along the way that kind of was like a mentor or really inspired you as you were becoming a priest?

SPEAKER_03 33:31

Yeah, my dad was a big one. Um I would start with him. He um inspired me, and it it grows as I look back on his example. Um, you know, he was he was home uh every night um that I can remember if if he wasn't, then I I just don't recall those nights, you know. Um, and what a gift that was. He wanted to um he suffered a lot, he he yeah, he suffered a lot, sacrificed a lot in order to have a small uh doctor's practice privately. It wasn't uh flashy or uh probably lucrative as being a part of a big system, and yet he wanted to be able to give his employees off on Good Friday. He wanted to be able to give fair wages, he wanted there to be um uh he didn't want to have to be called away from his family unless it was absolutely necessary, you know, and so so embarking on that was a was a major gift that he gave. Um and then he just uh he would have the car pulled out on Sunday mornings, you know, and and he'd be the first one in the car waiting for us all to pile in, you know, to go to mass. So yeah, presence, uh so present and then very sacrificial. So I couldn't have um couldn't have said yes to a life of sacrifice without that example provided by him, or you know, there there's lots of father figures though. Um and um it doesn't have to be a blood relationship, right? But we all need a father. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:25

So you've been at the parish about a year and a half. Um is this your first parish?

SPEAKER_03 35:31

First parish as a priest. As a priest, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 35:34

So So reflect on those on the year and a half. How do you like it so far at St. Joe's?

SPEAKER_03 35:38

It's amazing. Yeah. Um your my first year of priesthood, as I look back on these moments, like I'm realizing how sacred they were and am more and more grateful for that first year. Um, you know, that first all the liturgical feasts of that year that were that I was celebrating for the first time. Um the encounters that I had with people who were born or who died during that year, um uh the the way the parish uh welcomed me and received me, um, the gift of like hearing of what priests in the past had provided for the parish, and then to feel um kind of in line in a succession, kind of carrying the torch, so to speak. So um hearing about Father Mays and Father Westhoff and Father Nord and you know, so many that came before. I got to live with Monsignor Callahan for the first month, and then Father Fisher moved in, so it was it was uh it was it was it's been great to see and learn from Father Fisher uh about what it's like to um because we kind of were received into the parish together and we have different roles in some ways, but in other ways the same as priests, and so um learning from him and uh being mentored by him, um a lot of times it's just like I'm in the kitchen with my laptop and I'm just kind of firing questions as he's cooking or something. And that's which I heard he's a good cook. Excellent. Yeah, no, it's um uh second to none. So yeah. Anyway, but yeah, that's it's been uh really special, incredibly holy first year, and then now that that year is past, um I am more settled here and just more able to um kind of be in a normal rhythm and keep learning about what it means to be a priest.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

How do you like working with the sisters?

SPEAKER_03 37:43

A lot. Yeah, I love the sisters a lot. It's pretty special that we get to have them here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:48

I love seeing them around and at mass on Sundays. Yeah, it's crazy. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 37:52

Very special. Yeah, it's absolutely crazy.

SPEAKER_04 37:54

Yeah, we don't take those ladies for granted because they're they bring a lot to this parish and school.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:00

We're gonna get them on here uh soon.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 38:04

Whether they know it or not. So we're gonna do um some fun facts about you that we might not know. Okay. Um, so your first name is Joseph, right? Which I think is awesome that you're at St. Joseph. Yeah, for sure. Um, all right, so what sports did you play growing up, if any?

SPEAKER_03 38:22

Um Well, when I was really little, we were a hockey family.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Um St.

SPEAKER_04 38:26

Louis Blues.

SPEAKER_03 38:27

Well, yeah. We were big blues fans, and then we played hockey um at a local club. Um, that was until I was like eight, and then as we couldn't be a hockey family anymore, we're too many kids, yeah, too much travel. Um we would like try a sport for like five years, and then just my parents would be like, you know what, we gotta take, we gotta step away because our family comes first.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

You know.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

So none of us in our family really excelled at sports. Um you can't really get to a certain level of athletics, and your siblings also be able to uh I mean I mean it becomes it becomes pretty difficult. I I think there are some families who do it, but as a big family, um my parents had to really be intentional about okay, um, this is becoming too much. It's too much to be going to Chicago every weekend for hockey uh with seven kids. It's too much for us to be for you know three straight days at a swim meet, uh and for us to be divided like that we're gonna and so when I was 14, like my so okay, so when I was eight, we stopped at hockey. When I was 14, we stopped swimming. And um, I went pretty far with swimming. Um, you know, I had um triple A times and was um competing in some regional um meets in the Midwest.

SPEAKER_04 39:57

Um is this high school you're talking about?

SPEAKER_03 40:00

This would have been like eighth grade, ninth grade is when I stopped. So when I was 14, 15, I kind of stopped swimming as seriously. It became more of a summer thing. And then I swam for a rec team in college, which was fun. Um but uh hockey, swimming, and then when I was in high school, something I did go pretty deep into was speech and debate. Uh there was a nation national homeschool speech and debate league that was um I was a great out outlet uh socially, and it just like taught me how to research well, public speak, uh think quickly on my feet, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_04 40:38

Amazing skills to have, for sure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:41

Um and great friendships from that that I still have to this day. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:47

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 40:48

So yeah, we would, you know, my parents would like to send, okay, this sport is taking over our lives, we're gonna step back, and then God would kind of open up a new window. And um, you know, I didn't swim in college, uh, I didn't I didn't swim NCAA in college, but I also uh because I kind of stopped in high school, but because of that, um I have all the skills that came from switching from swimming to speech and debate, you know. And uh God worked through all that and my parents did the best they could.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

So do you do any hobbies now like uh pickleball or any of that kind of stuff?

SPEAKER_03 41:29

Yeah, I try to uh I try to practice the piano and um play tennis and go to the gym regularly, and uh those are kind of main hobbies, and then um I love reading and I love um working outside, doing projects and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 41:50

Um Alright, so what would you say your favorite saint is?

SPEAKER_03 41:54

Or who is uh Saint Joseph, um my favorite saint, but um uh Our Lady as well, if uh she's part of the options.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

She's definitely part of the options, yeah. The Queen.

SPEAKER_03 42:09

Twelve Apostles, um, especially Peter uh and John, and then from there, um Saint Louis, the King of France, uh Vincent de Paul, Ignatius, France the Savior, uh Peter Peter Claver has been a saint that I've really in recently um I just got a book on him and um feel a lot of connection with him.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

So that's one I haven't heard.

SPEAKER_03 42:36

What's his uh his name uh Saint Peter Claver. Uh he grew up in Spain, became a Jesuit priest, and then moved to um present-day uh Colombia, South America, and he lived uh on the coast in the Caribbean there, and then as the slave ships would come from Africa, he would minister to the slaves getting uh who were getting from off the ship onto the uh on onto the slave market and getting sold off. And he completely gave his life to them. So he's often called uh the Apostle to the Slaves.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

So yeah. We'll have to look in into that.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:15

So what's your favorite movie?

SPEAKER_03 43:18

My favorite movie is the original uh Gladiator.

SPEAKER_04 43:22

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

Yeah, not Gladiator 2.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

Not the second one. Yep. Uh and your favorite book?

SPEAKER_03 43:28

My favorite book is a little um novella called The Lilies of the Field by um William Barrett. And uh it's just like a short uh novel about this um it's this uh African American single guy who get finishes his service in World War II and he buys a station wagon and starts driving across the country, and then he comes across, he stops for gas. Uh and it turns out that where he stopped is this these immigrant German nuns who are trying to build a a mission in New Mexico, and then the story goes on from there.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

So it sounds was it is that a true story or uh it's no, it's it's fiction.

SPEAKER_03 44:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:19

So would you say you're tidy or messy?

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Uh tidy.

SPEAKER_04 44:23

Tidy?

SPEAKER_03 44:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:24

I could see that. Yeah. I feel like your mom was probably really tidy.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

Oh, really? Yeah, my dad more so than my mom. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:34

Wish I was more tidy.

SPEAKER_03 44:36

It's fair.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

Um maybe it's maybe it's something my kids can just have innately and they'll be tidy and not learn from me.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:45

So what's your favorite holiday?

SPEAKER_03 44:48

Uh 4th of July.

SPEAKER_04 44:50

Oh, okay. I was not gonna I was not gonna guess that. Yeah. Why do you like Fourth of July so much?

SPEAKER_03 44:55

I love the summer. Um I like uh cooking outside. Usually like that was like a big family reunion for us every year. And uh I just yeah, I know a lot of people don't like summers in St. Louis, but I actually love that nine 9,500 degree, high humidity summer in St. Louis. I actually like that.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

So yeah, give me the heat over the cold. I'll take the summers here way more than the winters. That 4th of July is a great holiday. It's like one of those ones that you don't think about when you get asked that question. Right. But it's a great one. And just celebrating our country, you know. Yeah. It's an amazing country.

SPEAKER_03 45:33

It is.

SPEAKER_04 45:34

All right, so do you have any hidden talents that we don't know about?

SPEAKER_03 45:38

Um, I am I can like uh slaughter animals. Really? Like like deer hunting, you know, like field dressing and processing a deer. But we also um we had some small farm animals when I was growing up, uh goats, chickens, and rabbits. Okay. Um my parents were trying to like get closer to their food, teach us responsibility, and uh they just had the opportunity to kind of go for it, and so we did. And so, like uh like there's some home ec stuff that I know that is kind of a hidden talent. Yeah, okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:17

That is definitely in talent I did not expect you to say. Yeah, but I can appreciate it because um my husband's a big hunter and he got me kind of doing it now.

SPEAKER_01 46:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:27

Um, but he does the all the like field dress and um butchers it, right? That kind of thing. He's told me if I kill one, I have to do the field dressing myself. So I have had to like, you know, do all that.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:39

It's uh it's it it makes you appreciate your food more, I think, and respect the animal. And yeah. Do you do any hunting? Are you a hunter?

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Yeah, I don't do as much deer hunting. It's tough as a priest. Deer hunting is kind of a two-day job. One day hunting, one day processing the meat. Right. And that's like if you don't do anything else. Like to be honest, you probably have to scout, you gotta set up a stand, you gotta be you're gonna be kind of watching, ideally have some some game cams or something. Uh but it at the absolute minimum, you could probably you can deer hunt in maybe two days. Yeah. Uh maybe one day, but it's like and then you gotta have freezer space and then you gotta cook. Right. Or you gotta use that meetup uh that you harvested. So it's tough as a priest to do that. Um on the other hand, turkey hunting is can be done in a morning, you know, it can be done in three hours. Absolutely. You call the turkey. It's harder, it's harder to harvest.

SPEAKER_04 47:35

That's easier. So yeah, easier said than none to just call them and then they're there and then.

SPEAKER_03 47:40

Um turkeys have extremely good vision. Uh they're fast, they're smart, and they um are hard to kill.

SPEAKER_04 47:49

So have you gotten any?

SPEAKER_03 47:50

Yeah, I have. Um, but I'm like I'm like two for ten on turkey hunting.

SPEAKER_04 47:55

So I mean, that's probably how about average.

SPEAKER_03 47:58

Right. And that's probably a yeah, that's probably a decent record. So awesome.

SPEAKER_04 48:02

Yeah, I just learned to turkey hunt a few years ago with my husband. Yeah, it's the best. It is very funny. The weather's nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:09

Usually, you know, April, it's like the spring is like in full bloom sometimes. You hear them from all over the place.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

Yeah, it's exciting. I like it a lot. It's um become a hobby of mine and a passion that my husband has that we can do together. So it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 48:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

Well, thank you for doing this. This was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you for making it possible. Oh, absolutely. I feel like