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Yes Catholic
Yes Catholic is focused on highlighting stories of people who rose up and started truly living as a Catholic. Stories are powerful. You really never know who could be inspired through listening to someone's personal story of conversion. As St. John Paul II said, "Remember that you are never alone, Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives!" Join us every week as we invite a new guest to share their story. Real People. Real Stories. All Grace.
Yes Catholic
Continuing the Call with Thomas Lyons
From the echoes of an adoration chapel where a young man grapples with his divine calling, to the joyous embrace of marriage and service beyond the seminary walls, Thomas's narrative is one of profound transformation. He unpacks the complexities of discernment, sharing how the seeds sown during his seminary years blossomed into a fulfilling role in campus ministry. It's a testament to the beauty in the unexpected, the discernment of God's voice amidst life's cacophony, and the courage it takes to follow that call.
Our conversation with Thomas doesn't just explore his story, but also extends an invitation to all, highlighting the universal call to holiness that beckons each of us. He lays bare the signs of a vocation lived fully, inspiring us to lean into our talents and contribute to the sanctification of ourselves and others. Emboldened by examples like Father Mike Schmitz and the victory already secured by Christ, we close this chapter hopeful for the church's future, and for the individual paths to holiness we are all journeying upon. Join us for an episode that's much more than a story—it's an exploration of faith, vocation, and the resonance between them.
Welcome to yes Catholic, the place where real people share their real stories and realize that it is all God's grace on the move. I'm your host, david Patterson, and every week we hear a new guest share their story of how they came to give their guests to Jesus and his church. So let's get started. Welcome, thomas. Awesome Thanks, david. Thanks for having me, absolutely so. For those who don't know, you want to share a little bit about yourself before we dive into the rapid fire.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. So my name is Thomas Lyons. I'm in New Bromphills, texas, where I live, with my wonderful wife, amanda. I work for Catholic Heart Work Camp, so we do mission trips all across the country and then a few international. I do a lot of their outreach but then also speak at quite a few of the camps.
Speaker 2:Before that I was in campus ministry teaching theology at a Catholic high school and most recently I started podcast and kind of started speaking more under the title of the Continuing the Call A Seminary Dropouts Guide to Discermant, and basically it's a podcast all about discernment, all about vocational discernment, but then also kind of highlighting stories of men and women who have spent time in formation and then realize God was calling them elsewhere, but then how they're still serving the church from the gifts that they received from that time in formation. So all that and then outside of that help out. At the parish I hopefully normally Sunday nights I'm at life team where I teach the juniors and seniors alongside my beautiful wife and she has them for tonight, so they're either watching or, hopefully, behaving to her. So that's pretty much our life in the nutshell. It's ministry all the time.
Speaker 1:That's great man. Well, we're going to learn a little bit more about you with the rapid fire ready to tackle some of these questions. Yeah, let's go for it. All right, describe yourself as a kid in three words.
Speaker 2:I'd say outgoing, curious and probably a little bit rebellious.
Speaker 1:A little rebellious. Okay, would you say, you're a morning person or a night owl.
Speaker 2:Oh morning, 100%. I give me mornings. Unfortunately, my wife is a night owl so we fight about that quite a bit, but morning all the time.
Speaker 1:And what time would you say? Wake up, as usually.
Speaker 2:In a perfect world like 5am, 6am, ideally, or usually it sits around. 7 o'clock is kind of when I'm being honest. No, that's good.
Speaker 1:It's good. Okay, if you could have any super power, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Oh man, it's teleportation easy. Not having to deal with TSA or flying or anything, just teleportation.
Speaker 1:That's you know what teleportation has been coming up like every week for the past, like four weeks now. This is a thing.
Speaker 2:It's the airlines these days, man, no one wants to take them.
Speaker 1:Exactly Okay. Go to order at a coffee shop.
Speaker 2:Just in Americano, or if it's a good place with good quality beans, just a black pour over, but yeah, just black coffee.
Speaker 1:Black coffee. All right, go to short prayer.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it counts as short, but Hail Mary. Hail Mary is definitely my go to, whether it's like throughout. Hail Mary is left and right all the time, if we're like different occasions, things like that, but it's definitely my go to asking our lady to intercede for you.
Speaker 1:Okay, one of your favorite books of all time.
Speaker 2:Oh man, nonfiction is treasure and clay the autobiography of Fulton Sheen and fiction Lord of the Rings, because that's the only right answer to that question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lord of the Rings, all the way, man Solid. Okay, if you could have coffee with any saints, who would it?
Speaker 2:be, I'll say Fulton Sheen, because but he's not technically a saint yet. So Fulton Sheen, or, if you want to be technical, I'll go with Saint Dismiss, who was the repentant thief on the cross, because he was my confirmation saint. I love his story and I just want to sit down and hear how that interaction went down and what that was like. Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's powerful, for sure. Okay, if you could ask God one question, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Man, I want to say it's something pious, like you know explain like divine hiddenness or something like that. Realistically it'd be like the pyramids. Who built the pyramids? Atlantis, one of these like mysteries, I think is probably the casual answer to that.
Speaker 1:Ancient civilization mysteries as you go through. Yep, 100%, dude, we're gonna be friends, because I think about all the time. Yep, that's awesome, all right, well, let's you flew through the rapid fire. Let's kick things off in an opening prayer ask in our Lady Tentraseed, and then we'll get your share of story. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with the blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, jesus.
Speaker 2:Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen, In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen, All right man. Let's dive right in. Where's your story begin?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I guess it starts with being born. No, but I grew up cradle Catholic to awesome parents, military family, so moved around quite a bit when I was little but for the most part Texas has always been home on the youngest of three so I got kind of a tail end of it, like I remember my dad being deployed once or twice but luckily the older siblings had all the moving, grow up Catholic, like I said, pretty run of the mill. Family went to mass every Sunday, prayed before meals. For the most part Sports were a massive part in my upbringing. Wrestling was my sport that me and my brother did, and then my sister was a phenomenal gymnast. So a lot of our time was like me, my brother, my dad would travel for wrestling and then my sister and my mom would go travel for gymnastics and that was pretty much it. That was kind of the standard upbringing.
Speaker 2:Things changed a little bit come around middle school when my parents unfortunately got divorced. That obviously kind of shaped who I am now and then obviously at that time it changed my relationship with the church. I have to say I've always been rather religious, like I can't think of a time that I've ever doubted God's existence. I remember obviously praying growing up, but at that time it certainly changed. So it wasn't like I ever doubted God's existence, but my relationship with him turned into one of argument or blaming or just kind of disinterest. I mean, I remember specifically, you know time I think I was like a middle school retreat or something in sixth or seventh grade, like just praying and talking with God, saying, god, I know you're there, but I just don't care, like I don't want to serve you, I don't want to have a relationship with you, because I was blaming him for what happened with my parents.
Speaker 1:Do you say there's a lot of anger there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think more so just kind of confusion, or really anger confusion, really just kind of apathy, just like man. Well, this is what life is. It could be great, it could be awesome, it could be awful, and it's just kind of luck of the draw sort of thing. I think that that's more so. What I was frustrated with was I was like man, this stinks. I don't know why this is happening to me, but luckily God kept me just close enough to as I was going through high school and getting confirmed because that's just what we were doing and my parents were very good about that of.
Speaker 2:Even amidst all the divorce and everything, church was still somewhat of a priority, so our sacraments were still going to happen and luckily the parish that I grew up in was had a phenomenal youth ministry program that kept me around and kept me interested and really in a sense became a refuge. I started to realize that I liked who I was when I was at the church better. I liked the people that I knew at the church better. I obviously had a lot of friends and teammates, but the people that I met through ministry were just people I wanted to be more like and around more often, and so over time I just spent more and more time at the church and started to kind of heal that relationship with God and realize that he loved me, that what happened between my parents wasn't reflected of mine and his relationship, and just continue to grow from that. And so much so that right at high school I entered the seminary studying for the archdiocese that I'm in.
Speaker 1:Okay, time out, time out. Yeah, go for it. Enter the seminary. You got to unpack that a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely you went from youth group to entering seminary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, man, that's how it goes, that's how it felt, certainly, wow, you know, I think what it was was, yeah, I just like so, fell in love with it, fell in love with the church. I, you know, started to be there more and more and fell in love with God and realized that I just wanted to do something in ministry and do something a part of the church, and that kind of snowballed. So I remember distinctly saying at one point well, god, you know, hey, I care about you, I want to keep teaching. So, you know, let me go, let me go be a teacher and teach at a Catholic high school. And then God was like, that's good, but you could give a little bit more. So I was like, all right, god. Well then, I guess, youth ministry. And he said, well, hey, that's, you're getting closer, but I want a little bit more from you. I was like, well, god, what do you want from me?
Speaker 2:And I remember sitting in our adoration chapel and him saying, well, I want you to go be a priest. And it terrified me and I was, of course, like looking around, saying like you must be talking to the guy next to me, because that wasn't my thing. I'd never thought about it, but the more I prayed about it was God was saying give me all of you, right, like if you trust me. I've shown you my love, I've shown you all the good you can do when you're following me, so why not give me all of you? And it's funny I was while this conversation was going on. I was like well, god, I don't have any priests in my family. I don't even know where priests come from. So if you want me to be a priest, you're going to have to show me how to do it. And literally I say that and I kind of end the prayer in frustration and thinking I got the better of God.
Speaker 2:And as I was walking out of the chapel, I literally bumped into the dad of a guy from our parish who was currently in the seminary. And so he was like hey, thomas, how are you doing? And I was like good. I was like how's so-and-so doing at the seminary? He's like good. He's like you know, I'm going to give you his phone number. Why don't you give him a call? I think you could chat with him a bit. I was like well, god, all right, fine. And then through that relationship, he introduced me to the vocation director and then took me around the seminary and that was kind of it. So that's the bridge version, but really it was just kind of that slow snowball of I love Christ, I love the church, how can I?
Speaker 1:serve and you walked out of that adoration chapel and that's when the number was offered to you.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, Literally like as I ended that prayer, God up, walked away and God provided in that moment. Hey, here's a guy who's in the seminary who's going to answer your questions.
Speaker 1:Within five seconds basically.
Speaker 2:Yep, oh yeah, and of course I was like all right, fine, like I got it. You can't say no to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so you entered the seminary.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah. So I entered the seminary, loved it, loved it. Obviously it's like anything else there's, it's a bit of a roller coaster. So good days, bad days, good years, bad years. But was there for about four years.
Speaker 2:So I did three years of my undergraduate and then about a year of the master's program and, yeah, I loved it pretty much the whole time he was there and loving the ministry, really loving the fact that my job at that point was to wake up, go to Mass, study theology, had a chapel in every building and really just getting to cultivate that relationship and also be formed at the same time. You have constant spiritual direction, constant pastoral formation. So what I realized too, was a lot of the stuff that I came in with, a lot of baggage and a lot of kind of the rough edges were also getting smoothed out as well. So I wasn't only preparing as to be a priest, but also preparing to be just a better man and ironically, that's what ends up kind of being. The momentum shift for me now was, you know, I think, that time and formation for who I am today.
Speaker 1:And yeah, and so, looking back, like you felt like the Lord called you into seminary, but you're married now, so what, what?
Speaker 2:led you to. Yeah, absolutely. That's the million dollar question everyone always has is like and it's funny I always say it kind of in two ways Obviously something changed, right, like I'm not sitting here a priest, I'm sitting here a married man. So like, obviously something changed, but at the core, nothing changed. I always say that I always remind men and women of this when they're discerning is hopefully nothing changes in the sense of authentically discerned vocations, as you saying yes to God, you're in a posture of reception and you're saying, yes, god, I want to serve. How do I serve? Yes, yes, yes, that's what leads you into the seminary.
Speaker 2:And then the same way every day, when I was waking up in the seminary discerning and I started to feel that call out you know people tend to push back and I did it as well like no, no, god, but I'm here. And he's like, no, but I want you out. So you have to also say yes to that. So no matter, you know how, what your plans look like, if God's calling you somewhere, the goal is to say yes to that. So over time I started to feel God say, hey, this is great, but you know, this isn't your home, this isn't where I want you to be for the rest of your life, so maybe start looking elsewhere.
Speaker 2:So I didn't know what that meant to the time. So I took some time discerning with a religious order, realized that that's not where I was supposed to be. But eventually it was that it was God calling me. Hey, take some time out of the seminary. And just like I trusted him to enter, I knew it was my obligation to trust him to call me out. And that's that's where the yes kind of came in.
Speaker 1:And so was that just through prayer in the adoration chapel where you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, yeah. So that that's obviously where I felt to the strongest right was, through that prayer, the same sort of thing of just kind of the Uneasiness of, hey, you know, I'm calling you to something, something else, and you know, different times by taking on scripture and just kind of the, the familiarity and the way that God had spoken to me. You know my entire life. He's still kind of just speaking in that way. But then you also get a confirmation from the people around you. So I had a wonderful spiritual director at the time who you know, obviously I was meeting with and taking it through, and you know he was saying, hey, this he discerned it really well with me, alongside of me, same with the rest of the formators, and it was certainly a shock for a lot of people, myself included. But all of us, you know, did our due diligence and discernment and we all came up with the hey, yeah, this seems to be where God's calling you, so run along.
Speaker 1:And so what did you do next after you left?
Speaker 2:Panicked for a good couple weeks Because I was you know, yeah, and I'm sure we'll get into about. It's kind of one of things. It's like there's not a whole, there's not a very clear off-ramp for men and women who are leaving formation. It's really easy to get into formation I say really easy, but like there's a process to get in. Leaving is not necessarily the same.
Speaker 2:But so what I did was, luckily my parents were still in town, so I moved back in With my mom and my stepdad.
Speaker 2:They graciously put me up in their pool house that they have, you know, only charge me Like lawn care service and things like that that I had to pay rent with. But and then frantically applied for jobs. It was interesting, like I threw out just applications everywhere, but you know, I'm sitting there a kid with, you know, like a weird degree in theology and philosophy, no real work experience, because you can't have a job when you're in the seminary. And so I started applying for things and wasn't getting a calls back and finally I made a cold email. I sent a cold email to the Catholic school in my town and basically said hey, principal, so-and-so, like I love what you do, I love your school. I notice you don't have anyone like a sign for campus ministry. It's like I think I could fill that role and through his kind heart and the Holy Spirit we started kind of having that conversation and he brought me on to help with their formation.
Speaker 1:What was that like? To become a campus minister right out of seminary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was terrifying but in some ways I could just fit like it was. It was the beautiful kind of fulfillment of a lot of the Discernment right is like I left trusting gods and God, you're gonna have to provide for me the same way, the same way you provided me as Entrance into the seminary. Hopefully you'll provide me a way out. It was a great fit. I loved it.
Speaker 2:You know, obviously it was kind of an adjustment because it was like hey, I have to like show up at this school and act like I know what I'm doing, when in reality Like I'd go home at night and like be prepping for the next day. And, like I said, the school is phenomenal. It's a wonderful Catholic high school, the principal is Fantastic, so like the support system was great and basically we just like brainstormed and came up with this awesome you know campus ministry program. Luckily it was like in the middle of COVID, so retreats were like off out of the picture for at least a little bit. So right, didn't have to like plan those.
Speaker 2:But that was great fit, it was awesome it was. It was like I I had felt alive and like just one of those little confirmations of oh okay, like this makes sense, because I was using all of my theology and philosophy that the seminary had taught me now to teach these kids, and so that was a fantastic confirmation of Starting to see why God had led me into the seminary to be formed, led me out, and now I have these people in front of me who, in a sense, had also been providentially waiting for that to happen, sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so you're a married man, so you want to unpack how you met your wife.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. It's good because normally we tell the story together and I have to be nice about it, but now it's just me, so I can tell my side of the story. No, my wife's a saint. She's absolutely lovely and so we had known each other growing up. She's a few years older than me but we went through the same youth ministry program at the parish and I always had a crush on her. I always thought she was pretty and, you know, would try my best, flirt with her a little bit and everything. But her being the wise Person she is, realized that I was not worth her time, especially at that moment in my life. And so, you know, we were friends. And then she went off to college and I went off to seminary and we had kind of lost touch. We'd bump into each other every now and then, but we were just friends and for the last like three years of seminary I hadn't spoken to her.
Speaker 2:And then when I left seminary I went back to the parish and realized I should probably volunteer. Since I have all this formation, I want to give back to the program that got me there and I walk in the door and a lot lo and behold, my lovely wife would now, was now running the youth ministry program. Yeah, so, and it's funny so and so, like I walk in and I'm like, oh, you're in charge and and I was like I'm here to volunteer, and again, at that moment when I left the seminary, I fully thought I was going back. So I had no intentions like in my head. I was like I'm just taking a gap year, I'm gonna end up discerning either religious life or different diocese, or like I still had priesthood very much in my heart. But so for then it was about like six months or so that I was just for volunteer. We were working together and slowly but surely I of course realized like oh, hey, yes, she's still this beautiful girl who I had a crush on all those years ago and she had realized a shift in me of hey, this is not the dumb kid who I turned down all those years ago. He's grown up a little bit and has, you know, realized that there's more to life than girls and sports and all of that. And so the relationship kind of blossomed more and more and we decided to kind of give it a shot and date a little bit.
Speaker 2:But this is really where her true kind of virtue comes in was I was still really on the fence and At one point, after we had been dating for a couple months, I told her like hey, I can't do this. You're great, I love you, but my fear is if we get married, then I'm gonna miss the priesthood, like I'm gonna. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have that question of what if? And she said Okay, I understand, go sort your stuff out, go figure that out. If you realize that you are called to this, I'm here. That's really important.
Speaker 2:It wasn't her saying you know, I'll be here in 20 years. I think, like she obviously was gonna get on with her life, but I think gave me enough space and enough care that I could discern well where there is no pressures or anything like that. And Very quickly I realized that you know I was being dumb. I was looking in the rearview mirror when God was saying, hey, I put this person in front of you. And when I say, when I say quickly, it literally mean like 48 hours from that conversation. When I said like I can't do this, I'm out. Literally like 24 hours later I called her and said so, I prayed about it. I'm in a mistake. I do want to marry you. Um, then we got married, and it's been Ever since.
Speaker 1:It's basically like right after that conversation, like what were you thinking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, it was one of those. You know, I had to come to Jesus moment with Jesus and he was like, hey, idiot, like you trusted me, like, like, live by this philosophy. Yeah, like live by this philosophy of saying yes to me. This is an opportunity where, like I'm calling you to this and you're not gonna miss it, and that's the best thing is, now that I've, now that I've said yes, like I realized like, oh yeah, no, I don't like, obviously, priesthood it's beautiful and it's great. I still promote it, but I realize, no, my love is with my beautiful wife.
Speaker 1:Love that man. And so how, how long did you discern, after making that decision, to then get engaged and get married?
Speaker 2:Pretty quick. It was pretty quick because and that's one of the graces and one of the things I remind people of the benefits of even if you go through formation and it's not for you, you know that it's not for you, right? So, like our discernment to get married was it was rather quick because it's like hey, this is where we're at. We both knew what we were looking for. So, probably dated for little over six months, we got engaged December of 2021 and then we're married in May of 2022. So it was married and engaged within like six months. My, my saint of a wife planned a wedding in less than six months.
Speaker 2:So it was I'm biased, but I think a pretty good wedding, no virtuous wife, for sure, man, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So looking back right, like you felt called to the seminary. Why do you think God called you into the seminary? Like what? How do you think God spoke to you during that time to make you the man that you are today, if that makes sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely. And that's the question that you know. Obviously I think to the day that I am gonna keep unpacking and discerning, but just the immediate fruits that I've seen is one. You know it's interesting marriage and Holy orders are the only two sacraments that are kind of outward facing, as in the grace that we get from those, two sacraments is meant to Sanctify other people. So obviously with marriage, right, you're meant to sanctify your spouse and your children, and then holy orders, you're meant to sanctify those who are under your care and so. But with that they also give you grace, right?
Speaker 2:So I realize now that my time in seminary was I had a lot of my own life to clean up and seminary was a place that God was calling me to Do that. You know, I think I could have Skated by a lot in college and I was probably gonna go off and wrestle in college and kind of just live this mediocre, lukewarm lifestyle. But the seminary gave me the place to be committed enough to the church and to ministry that I desired holiness more than I would have out of it, and I think God knew that I needed a little extra push to Fall in love with him even more and pursue him even more. I needed those extra hours and adoration, those extra prayers and the formation. So it was certainly the forming that I had and I think when I was formed enough, at least in a rough sense, to be then passed off to my wife to continue the polishing and continue all of that.
Speaker 2:That's real life, yeah, yeah. So I think that I think it was a lot of that preparing me for that. And then I don't want to discount the work that I did in the seminary and I'm super grateful for that. I mean, I can think of all the you know, retreats and hospital ministry, obviously not by my own grace, but just being an instrument of that I'm sure. Hopefully, right, I hope that at the end of my life, when I'm in heaven, there'll be people that I meet there that I encountered for the first time when I was in seminary and as a seminarian and Because I because I'm not there anymore doesn't discount the grace that God gave during that time- yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:You got a question that just came in. Do you aspire to be a deacon someday? Has that ever crossed your mind before?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's funny. I get that quite a bit and I think that a lot of men who leave the seminary do. I think it's kind of seen as a Best of both worlds, you know, kind of have your cake and eat it to, sort of situation which. So I have a little bit hesitation for it. I haven't discerned it obviously right, I hope to live what I preach. So if I do wake up one day and feel that as kind of where the spirit's leading me, I'll discern it properly and see if that's that. But as of now, no, it's just not something that's really ever been on my heart. You know, I obviously love the work they do and think it would be a fulfilling mission, but for me it's it's it's not on my heart right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good answer. No, that's good. In regards to divorce right, because how old were you when your kid your parents separated?
Speaker 2:I don't know. So, middle school. So you know I was at like sixth, seventh grade, so I don't know where that puts me 12, 13, somewhere in there.
Speaker 1:Would you say that during the seminar you were able to kind of tackle Some of that healing throughout seminary? Would you say you're still kind of on that journey and like kind of want to speak to that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I think it certainly did right. Anytime you go to so obviously I wouldn't like call it counseling per se, but in spiritual direction and pastoral formation you do a lot of that. So I think, on kind of the Service on the human level, you get a lot of kind of that unpacking and you learn kind of the pastoral response to a lot of it. So that certainly helped kind of heal a lot of that. But I'll tell you what healed it the most was my relationship with God and realizing One, like I said earlier, that my relationship with God, right, the my parents are great and lovely, right, and I speak of all of it in hindsight, but the one whose love I actually need and the one who actually is responsible for raising me right is God, and that's the case for all of us right, like not to belittle our parents, but the approval that were made to seek and yearn for is God. So I think, as my relationship with him grew, the things that I felt Slighted on or upset about, I realized, well, that's okay, I can let go of that, because they're not supposed to Be there, they're supposed to be in my relationship with God and and through my relationship with him growing and healing. I think I got a lot of that. Healing, um, yeah, and then also just learning the intellectual side of it, right, like the.
Speaker 2:The analogy I use all the time is you know, god is the beautiful composer and you know, I think we have this misunderstanding.
Speaker 2:When bad things happen, we say, oh well, happened for a reason, it's like, well, not precisely right, but what? What it actually means is, while something did happen, god can use that to create something good. Um, and I saw so, like just as a composer. Right, if I'm sitting there and I play a sour note, the composer then can weave a beautiful Melody out of that Um, it's different than what the original symphony was supposed to look like, um, but God and his grace will use it, and I realized that, and that's the hindsight right, like so, my mom is married to A fantastic man who's taught me a lot of. You know what it means to be um. You know a husband and and a father, and same with Um, my stepmom and like so, all of these people who have come into my life From a difficult situation have all been grace as well, and I think that that realizing that that's how God works also helped a lot in that healing.
Speaker 1:Good answer, man. You got another question in regards to vocations. What are the best indicators that we are living our vocation fully or that we can be certain that we are choosing the right one?
Speaker 2:Any thoughts there? Absolutely, yeah, for sure. Um, I think it's really important and the first thing I always say is like, understand that all of us, we all have that shared primary vocation of holiness, right? So at the end of the day, um, the end goal is where are you going to be holy, right, god? So the God who made us is the God who loves us and the God who gives us our vocation, and his first command to us is Love me, respond to me, say yes to me. Right, and so, as long as you're saying yes to God, um, odds are, your vocational discernment is not as um like Complex or complicated as you think it is right, so like, god will put you where you're meant to be. Right, he wants you, god desires us, he wants us to be holy, he wants us to find our vocation. So, like, there's not. I think we put too much anxiety on it. Um, and then the confirmation with that is is that is like where? Where do you know that you're going to be a saint? Right, so, like, that's where we're called. Um, and I think that's a lot of discernment is hey, am I being the person that I'm called to be? Am I using these gifts that God gave me, am I Sanctifying myself and I'm leading other people to holiness? Um, and where you can do those two best is where your vocation is. Um.
Speaker 2:I always like to use the example of father Mike schmitz, um, because he's, you know, everyone knows him. Um, I was like to say so. Father Mike schmitz Probably would have been a phenomenal husband, right, like, like mr and mrs Schmidt would have been a lovely family, I'm sure, um, but father Mike schmitz is probably going to be a saint Um, and we don't know that about mr Mike schmitz, but like Father Mike Schmidt's is, and that like, and you can see that, right, you see his works and you see all the things he's doing. And it's very clear, and I think that we look for those in our own life of like, yeah, would father Thomas have been great? Like. I'm biased, but I think so, right, I think I would give good homilies and things like that, but I have much higher hopes for mr and mrs Thomas Lyons. Then I did for father Thomas, and that's. Those are the confirmations.
Speaker 1:Well said, man. So how did you? What inspired you to start continuing the call then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so a couple things. One, it was one of the resources I wish I had when I was discerning. You get a lot of discernment talks from priests and You're like well, it's easy for them to say like you're, like you're biased, right, like of course you're telling me to be a priest because you're a priest, or this could have just been my. You know angstiness when married couples, especially like old married couples we had, oh, you'd make a great priest, or like we need priests, you should go do that. I'd be like, well, okay, so apparently it wasn't good enough for you, so like, but I have to go do it, sort of thing. And so like I Wanted a resource that was that kind of middle ground where it's like, hey, look, I did it, I gave us an on a shot, I made it out okay. And like just giving people like a ton of different Conversations.
Speaker 2:So like I have conversations with priests and with nuns and with guy, with men and women who have been in formation, and everyone has a unique story, but it's always kind of the same. So, wanting just a resource that you know who, no matter who's discerning, they can go to it and be like, hey, I kind of like that story and and hopefully give them some clarity. And the other part was just a desire to give back right. So like I was very, very blessed in my archdiocese that majority of my stuff was, was funded right, people in my home diocese and in my home parish sponsor, our seminarians and I, I knew in my heart that, okay, well, I'm not called. God gave me the ability To share that and to keep ministering, and hopefully somebody else is and I want to. I want to give back in that way.
Speaker 1:It's good. So if people want to check it out, how do they go about doing that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's just continuing the call everywhere. So podcast, spotify, instagram is just continuing the call.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's kind of the best place and how'd you come up with the name for that?
Speaker 2:I Don't know right. I guess the Holy Spirit I'm chat GPT helped a little bit. Okay, just it just didn't so much as I was like continuing the call seminary dropouts guide to discernment was like it was always there. I thought about it and I went to chat GPT to like think of something better and nothing better came out. So like I it helped it kind of in the via negative sense of like I read through all of them I was like these are all awful. I think I'm gonna stick with mine, but Holy Spirit's the real answer.
Speaker 1:No, that's good. Holy Spirit all the way. Yeah, I always like to ask every guest this question. But what is your hope for the future of our church?
Speaker 2:Oh, man, I Think, on like a big scale. Right, my hope lies in the fact that the war has already been won. Right, we have a savior, jesus Christ already won. The hard work has been done. You don't have to save the world, I don't have to save the world, we just have to respond, and that gives me hope.
Speaker 2:The other side of it right in the kind of more practical side of it is the darker our world gets, the brighter the light of Christ shines, and I think we're starting to see that is we have a lot of really good resources in the world today that are just not enough and people are finally realizing that of, like, cool, go get the help you need. Go get the, the mental help you need. Right, we need those things. Go get all of that. Go heal those parts of you. But understand the one true healing comes from Christ and the easier our lives get now and the unfulfillment we feel from that only points to Christ and, in an ironic sense, that gives me hope that we're starting to realize that that Christ is our hope.
Speaker 1:Christ is our hope and you can really see a generation of Laiety as well that are just kind of saying you know what? I'm ready to stand up and evangelize. I mean, with continuing the call, with so many other Ministries going on, it's, it's really inspiring to see happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, man, and yourself, you're a part of that. I'm a massive fan and, like, it's been awesome to see and to listen to the stories of the people you bring on. So, thank you, and yeah, you're, you're a part of that too.
Speaker 1:Thanks, man. I really appreciate that. On that note, man, I just want to thank you so much for your yes to Jesus and his church. There's been such a gift to be able to hear you share your story and have a Lord called you to seminary, called you out into Ministry and then meeting your wife and now continuing the call, and the beautiful thing is that the journey continues right, absolutely hey man, it's that daily, pick up your cross daily and follow me just saying those yeses, right, just trusting that God's gonna make us saints through all of it.
Speaker 1:So it is already shared, but I'm gonna. I'm gonna let you kind of just say, like, if people do want to connect with you in any way, like, do you have a website or should they reach out through Instagram was the best way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so again, all the social media is just continuing the call and then the website is just Thomas Lyons comm. So super simple. I'm a simple guy and I don't understand technology, so it's really easy because I need the help.
Speaker 1:Thomas Lyons, comm, and you do, speaking as well Catholic.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, yeah. So, speaking kind of smaller scale, a lot of the stuff is just, you know, parish missions, different campus ministries, things like that, but open to whatever.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Well, that's great man. Well, thank you again for sharing your story. Would you be willing to close this in prayer tonight?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. So, closing the name of Father, son, holy Spirit, amen, I mean. Oh God, we give you thanks for another day to be yours, another Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of your son, to be reminded of your love for us and the care that you have for each and every one of us. Oh, jesus Christ, we ask that, during the season of Lent, we may fix our eyes on you and on your resurrection, and that we cleanse ourselves During this time in the desert of anything that distracts us from the hope that only you provide. Oh, jesus, we ask that you walk with us every day so we can be reunited with you and with all of your saints in the final days. Oh, jesus Christ, we ask all these things in your name, amen.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you like to help support the ministry, please share with others, post about it on social media or please leave a rating on review. To catch all the latest stories, you can follow us on Instagram at yescaflic and visit our website, yes catholiccom. If you have benefited from yes catholic, please consider joining our patreon community. Visit patreoncom slash yes catholic. I would like to thank our current patrons for your ongoing prayers, support and contributions that have helped yes catholic reached thousands of souls all over the world each week. First Peter 3, 15 says always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you. You have a story. Don't be afraid to share the good news of how Jesus Christ has moved in your life with a family member, friend or colleague. Give Jesus your yes every single day and watch the ripple effect of the gospel. Join us next week. The journey continues right here at yes catholic.