April 17, 2009
Washington seminarian will be ordained June 6 at cathedral
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
From the time Ryan Hilderbrand was a kid, he’s had the ability to see things others may not. That ability has led him along the path to priesthood, and will probably serve him well as a priest.
He was raised in Washington, Ind., the son of Deacon Dennis and Terri Hilderbrand. They were members of St. Mary’s Church in the small town, and Ryan was a server for the pastors there.
Even as a young boy, he was able to see how the priests served their flocks, especially during funeral liturgies. “We’ve always been blessed in Washington with good priests,” he said, “and at St. Mary’s we had Father Phil Kreilein, Father Ron Zgunda and Father Lowell Will.
“I had a lot of respect for them. They were men who commanded respect, and they were people I wanted to be like.”
Because he lived near the church, Ryan was often asked to serve during funeral Masses. That’s when he started watching the priests as they helped families grieve. That’s also when he began to learn that even when things don’t make sense “God is present anyhow.”
He attended Washington Catholic schools for 12 years, and made a Teens Encounter Christ [TEC] weekend while he was in high school. Once again, he came away with a new understanding of priests and their lives. While watching Father Tony Ernst during the TEC weekend, Ryan saw priesthood as an option for himself.
What he learned that weekend his parents had already surmised. “They always kind of knew, and they were not surprised when I said that I was going to seminary.
“They never introduced me as ‘this is our priest’ and they never put any pressure on me, because they knew it was between me and God and the Church.”
After high school graduation, he headed north to St. Paul in Min-nesota to study at the University of St. Thomas. College life was a challenge for the teen. “It was sink or swim,” he remembers. “I had to become an extrovert. If I wanted any friends, I had to go out and get them.”
He compares his first years in college seminary classes to basic training in the army. “We all showed up looking pretty ragged, and they had a welcoming Mass.” Then there were the challenging words: We are here to turn you into good Catholic men.
He finished college seminary, earning a double major in philosophy and Catholic studies, and then he headed to Mundelein Seminary in Chicago.
“In many ways, I grew up in St. Paul,” he said, adding that his four years there “are a testimony to the fact that grace is unmerited. God’s grace carried me through.”
One of his earliest realizations of God’s grace occurred during his Confirmation. “God put people into my life, my sponsor and teachers,” along with the realization that “this is either worth everything I have or it’s nothing at all. This should consume my life.”
That’s when he began living “as if I was part of a larger plan, that reality was bigger than me, that I was made to be at the service of something greater than myself.”
When he left high school he felt called to the priesthood, and he decided “to see if God wanted me to be a priest. The only place to find that out was in a seminary. By the time I graduated from college, I knew it was for me.”
Actually, Ryan was certain of the call to a celibate life before he was certain of his call to priesthood. He was in Rome when he discerned that God wanted him to devote himself to God’s service through celibacy. When he asked his spiritual director whether this was the “right way” to discern, his spiritual director used the Mass as an analogy for his situation. Just as the Offertory comes before the Consecration, God wanted Ryan to offer himself in a celibate life before being consecrated at ordination. “It took me a couple of years to really absorb all of that,” he admits.
He realized then that “when I feel called by God to do something, I never lack faith that he can get it done through me. He can make it work somehow.”
When he is asked about his strengths, he talks about the tools he was given at Mundelein Seminary. He said he was taught to “read reality theologically, to discern where God is moving in the world.” That means “not applying sense to the senseless — for instance, in illness or death — but to see God moving in them.”
He also learned that the purpose of the study of theology is to enhance preaching which results in the salvation of souls. “We are challenged to do the hard work of bringing what we study down to earth.”
As part of the Mundelein program, Ryan spent six months with Father Ray Brenner at St. Joseph parish in Jasper. Once again his ability to see things others might not served him well. “I saw the way Father Ray is a pastor. That man exudes faith. He has a very deep faith, and I thought, ‘I want that.’
“Problems don’t ruffle him. He takes them in stride. His whole life is faith.”
Ryan’s own faith is sustained by the words of St. Paul in Galatians 2:19-20.” With Christ I hang upon the Cross, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Ryan explains that he believes priestly life is one “surrounded by the Pascal mystery, which begins with the Cross and ends with the Resurrection. If I want to live with Christ in glory, I need to be with him on the Cross.
He also cites Exodus 14:14: “The Lord himself will fight for you; you have only to keep still.”
“Tasks can be daunting for priests, but God promises, ‘I will fight your battles for you as I did for Moses.’”
Ryan is acutely aware that he will be ordained at a time when there is a shortage of priests. “We’re playing baseball without men on the bench,” he says, referring to the shortage and also to the time he played baseball at Washington Catholic High School. “We had nine people, and no men on the bench, and we’re facing an analogous situation now in the diocese.”
He knows it’s not helpful to question God “for putting me in this position. We are stepping out in faith in this diocese, and I’m glad to be a part of it. I’m full of hope.”
Hilderbrand is concluding his studies at Mundelein, and will be ordained to the priesthood on June 6, 2009, at St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville by Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger.