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3: Ground Up - with Melanie Vobr
3 Plays1 year ago
We are delighted to be joined by Melanie Vobr on this third episode. Melanie has given over ten consecutive years of tireless service to Notre Dame Parish and has worked very closely with parishioners and community members of all ages. She shares her experience, knowledge and wisdom as she does her part to build a Eucharistic Culture in our local parish. "Dream big, think small, go slow!"
The websites and resources referenced can be found here:
https://dbqarch.org/archdiocesan-eucharistic-revival
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Guest
00:00:18
Speaker
Welcome everyone to the DeBucharistic Revival podcast.
00:00:22
Speaker
My name is Father Jacob Rouse and I'm the pastor of Notre Dame Parish in Cresco, Iowa.
00:00:27
Speaker
And I am joined by my brother in Christ and my brother in the priesthood, Father Kevin Earlywine.
00:00:32
Speaker
Father, where are you at?
00:00:35
Speaker
Hello, I'm in St.
00:00:37
Speaker
Patrick's in Hampton, Iowa, and St.
00:00:39
Speaker
Mary's in Ackley.
00:00:41
Speaker
And happy to be here.
00:00:44
Speaker
We are joined by Melanie Vober, who is an employee at Notre Dame Parish in Cresco.
00:00:51
Speaker
So we know each other.
00:00:53
Speaker
That is where I am, yes.
00:00:55
Speaker
And Melanie joins us today to talk about some of the Eucharistic revival and Eucharistic culture going on at our parish.
00:01:02
Speaker
But before we get into that, I'd invite her to introduce herself and tell us a little bit about herself.
Melanie's Faith Journey and Role
00:01:11
Speaker
Hi guys, so I grew up in a very Catholic family and so did both of my parents.
00:01:16
Speaker
I went to a Catholic school until I was in about third grade when my parents switched us to public school.
00:01:22
Speaker
My mom actually started a faith formation program in my home parish of St.
00:01:25
Speaker
John Nepomysene in Fort Atkinson around this time because there wasn't one there yet for the public school students.
00:01:32
Speaker
After graduating high school, I went to St.
00:01:35
Speaker
Mary's University in Winona, Minnesota to become an elementary school teacher.
00:01:40
Speaker
Even though I was steeped in Catholicism from a very young age, I never understood the reason behind our beliefs.
00:01:47
Speaker
So when I was faced with hard times and some pretty serious health scares, I fell away from the faith.
00:01:53
Speaker
My mom was amazing through it all and kept pointing me back to the power of the rosary and the sacraments.
00:01:59
Speaker
My college roommate also pushed me to attend a retreat that she had gone on through St.
00:02:04
Speaker
Mary's a couple of years before.
00:02:06
Speaker
On this retreat, I was able to hear witness stories from young adults in my age group about their personal relationship with Jesus and how they found their way through the storms of life because of this relationship.
00:02:20
Speaker
I decided to open the door just a little bit to Christ on that retreat, and he took it from there.
00:02:25
Speaker
And I'm thankful every day that he did.
00:02:28
Speaker
And though I graduated in 2012 with a bachelor's in elementary education with a middle school social science endorsement and had a teaching license in both Minnesota and in Iowa, in 2013, I found myself called to become a coordinator of faith formation and youth ministry in Cresco.
00:02:46
Speaker
And here I am 10 years later working in the same parish.
00:02:51
Speaker
And we are very, very grateful for that.
00:02:54
Speaker
I remember when I first came here five years ago,
00:02:56
Speaker
Is it five?
00:02:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:58
Speaker
I don't know, four years ago.
00:03:00
Speaker
And Melanie and I met each other.
00:03:01
Speaker
She said, there's something you need to know about me.
00:03:04
Speaker
I'm very, very in tune with the Holy Spirit, and it's very important in my ministry.
00:03:08
Speaker
And I said, okay, I think I can work with that.
00:03:11
Speaker
So it's been really great to have not only your education of young children and adults mindset working, but also just your creativity and your enthusiasm for spreading the gospel.
00:03:24
Speaker
And I'm happy to see that your background journey towards the faith has changed.
00:03:31
Speaker
has really affected in a good way how you lead and teach others.
00:03:37
Speaker
Yeah.
Building a Eucharistic Culture in the Parish
00:03:38
Speaker
Speaking of that, and you talked about the importance of the sacraments and everything, part of why we wanted to invite you specifically on, Melanie, is we've heard, I've heard at least, rumors and rumblings about in Cresco, Iowa, the parish is really striving to, in a very intentional way, build this as this initiative of building a Eucharistic identity and Eucharistic culture.
00:04:01
Speaker
at the parish and obviously this podcast is fitting into the Eucharistic Revival.
00:04:07
Speaker
So could you tell us a little bit more about that?
00:04:10
Speaker
What is going on, how it got started and what inspired you?
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah, so when I started at the parish, I kept things kind of the same, but then quickly realized that the students that were graduating were in a similar boat that I was in when I was in high school.
00:04:26
Speaker
They had that brain knowledge of the faith, but not as much heart knowledge.
00:04:30
Speaker
I saw a lot of parents dropping their children off for faith formation or youth ministry events, but not a lot of them attending mass on the weekends.
00:04:38
Speaker
So I started doing some research on best practices, studies that have been done on what keeps a child practicing their faith when they reach adulthood, and most importantly, spending time in prayer with the Holy Spirit.
00:04:51
Speaker
I then spoke with parents, catechists, and our Faith Formation Commission about what they were seeing and how we can make our parish program better at forming intentional disciples and sharing with people that they can have a personal relationship with God and how to develop it.
00:05:08
Speaker
So from these conversations, I started changing things little by little to point our parish towards having this Eucharistic cultural identity.
00:05:17
Speaker
Now, if you look back to where our parish was just five years ago, you would see some major changes.
00:05:23
Speaker
We now have a newly designed faith formation program that is parish wide.
00:05:28
Speaker
There is something literally for every age group at our parish.
00:05:32
Speaker
Of course, we start with baptism class, but then we have We Families, which is a wiggle friendly session for one to five year olds and their parents.
00:05:41
Speaker
At We Families, we do fun things like finding hearts that I have strategically laid around the church and talk about how we can find God's love in each item it's laid on.
00:05:50
Speaker
This allows the littles to get more familiar with the church and know that they belong and are welcomed there.
00:05:56
Speaker
It also starts the faith conversations happening at home.
00:06:00
Speaker
For our first to 10th graders, we have a Wednesday night program that starts the month with a family night.
00:06:09
Speaker
And during this family night, parents and their children attend and share a meal together and hear about our parish-wide theme for the month.
00:06:17
Speaker
And during this night, they're also given a bulletin, which gives them the calendar for the month, activities they can do based on that theme that take from as little as five minutes to 30 minutes, depending on how much time they have in their family life.
00:06:32
Speaker
And in this bulletin, I also give them things to do as a family based on the liturgical calendar for the month as well.
Structure and Focus of Parish Programs
00:06:39
Speaker
During the second and the third Wednesdays of the month, the children meet without parents for lessons taught by catechists.
00:06:46
Speaker
These lessons are based on the structure of the Mass, and the only textbooks that we use are the Bible, the Catechism, and the UCAT.
00:06:54
Speaker
For our 11th graders up to our oldest parishioners, we have what is called Into the Deep, where we dive deeper into the theme for the month.
00:07:02
Speaker
For example, this month, we are going to be discussing why we should care about the Old Testament since it's already been fulfilled.
00:07:10
Speaker
We also have many different adult and family ministry opportunities as well, which all point toward the Mass and most especially the Eucharist.
00:07:21
Speaker
That's excellent.
00:07:22
Speaker
There's so much going on at our parish, my parish, the parish we both have given our lives to.
00:07:30
Speaker
What I think is really cool is that the details are all flowing from the altar, especially during COVID.
00:07:39
Speaker
I
00:07:41
Speaker
wanted more adoration and wanted more confession times.
00:07:44
Speaker
And so 45 minutes before every mass daily and weekend, we've got the Eucharist exposed and the lights are dimmed and people can come in for quiet time or they can go back to the confessional.
00:07:57
Speaker
And so if that's the starting point is the liturgy and the monstrance on the altar, everything else flows down from it, from what the little kids in we families are learning to what the adults are talking about.
00:08:11
Speaker
And Cornerstone is the program that Melanie came up with as a replacement for our old religious ed program.
00:08:18
Speaker
And like she said, it really follows the mass structure.
00:08:21
Speaker
They start each session with gathering.
00:08:25
Speaker
They have a reading.
00:08:26
Speaker
They break it open.
00:08:28
Speaker
They
00:08:29
Speaker
pray for and about things that are going on in their lives and then they are sent forward.
00:08:35
Speaker
So everything in our parish has a Eucharistic flavor to it.
00:08:40
Speaker
And
Positive Impacts and Recognition
00:08:42
Speaker
I think that goes with the mountain analogy that has been going throughout this podcast of the Source and Summit, but then all of it is just us playing and adventuring on, up, and around that mountain.
00:08:55
Speaker
Yeah, we're getting a lot of mileage out of that image.
00:08:58
Speaker
Yeah, we are.
00:08:59
Speaker
A lot of mileage out of it.
00:09:01
Speaker
That's great.
00:09:03
Speaker
So if I might step into the slight host and ask both of you just a little bit spontaneously, so what would you say have been some fruits perhaps that you've seen of it?
00:09:14
Speaker
Maybe it's too soon to tell, but trying to implement this over the last five years, have you seen how it's borne some fruit in your parish and or your community?
00:09:23
Speaker
What might you say about that?
00:09:27
Speaker
I'd say some fruit.
00:09:28
Speaker
There's some good fruit going on.
00:09:31
Speaker
Just, I was worried at first that having Eucharist so often might like, it becomes complacent, but then it's the most received sacrament, most repeated sacrament.
00:09:45
Speaker
And I think just, I mean, everyone from children to more experienced parishioners come in and they see the monstrance and they know that it is, uh,
00:09:56
Speaker
There's something important going on up at the front of the church, and I should probably pay attention to that.
00:10:02
Speaker
The other fruit that we've seen is the multiplication of loaves and fishes in our own way.
00:10:11
Speaker
Melanie made a document, a little booklet that goes in all the pews that's basically explaining every part of the Mass, why and what we are doing.
00:10:21
Speaker
And then at a recent priest and pastor and staff meeting in the archdiocese called the PLSD, she presented it and I was up there with her.
00:10:33
Speaker
And then at the end of the presentation,
00:10:36
Speaker
it was overwhelming.
00:10:37
Speaker
We put up a QR code to get this little booklet and be able to print it off for everyone's own parish.
00:10:43
Speaker
And it really felt like the apostles being like, we're out of, what are we going to do?
00:10:49
Speaker
We've got so many baskets, we've got so many people to feed, and they just kept coming and coming and wanting to use this resource.
00:10:55
Speaker
And this thing that we made here in Little Cresco, Iowa was being shared all over the archdiocese.
00:11:00
Speaker
So it's really cool to see a good thing
00:11:04
Speaker
being desired and then being shared.
00:11:07
Speaker
And, and really it's all the grace and inspiration of the Holy spirit that has guided us to do all this.
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:14
Speaker
And along those lines, some fun fruits that I've seen, there's been multiple, but during the week one, when we have parents and children together, listening to the introduction to the theme, you see the parents listening more than the kids, which is like,
00:11:31
Speaker
amazing that they're getting a little bit of faith formation as well.
00:11:37
Speaker
And then our Into the Deep sessions, we've had teenagers up to like 80 year olds in conversation about the topic, which has been beautiful to see as well.
00:11:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:49
Speaker
That's awesome.
00:11:51
Speaker
Really deepening a sense of community in this.
00:11:53
Speaker
We're all in this together.
00:11:54
Speaker
Right.
00:11:55
Speaker
Beautiful.
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:58
Speaker
So I'll throw out there for this is really for both of you.
00:12:02
Speaker
But what would what would be some other thoughts you wanted to share?
00:12:06
Speaker
I mean, you already shared, like if other parishes wanted to cultivate a deeper Eucharistic identity, any thoughts you'd want to share with them, like where to begin, how to do it, what advice you might give them?
Encouragement for Parishes and Parents
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah, so I would say to dream big, think small, go slow, and don't be afraid to make mistakes.
00:12:23
Speaker
There are many things that I've tried throughout the years that have not worked out so well.
00:12:28
Speaker
They were done with good intentions and I learned from them by asking others why they didn't work out well.
00:12:33
Speaker
So don't be afraid to ask for constructive criticism and feedback from all that you do.
00:12:39
Speaker
It's what has helped us grow as a parish and develop this Eucharistic culture throughout the years and we're not done growing yet.
00:12:46
Speaker
Remember that you were placed at this time in this parish for a reason.
00:12:51
Speaker
Whether you are a parish staff member or not, your voice matters and your gifts matter.
00:12:57
Speaker
use both to do great things.
00:12:59
Speaker
Our parishioners and those within our parishes zip code deserve to know that they have a God who loves them so much that he wants to dwell within them and make them a tabernacle that goes outside of the church walls to share this amazing love with others.
00:13:14
Speaker
But the first step, the most important step, and the one you should continue to do unceasingly is to pray.
00:13:21
Speaker
Remember that this is God's ministry and not your own.
00:13:25
Speaker
He knows what the parish needs more than you do.
00:13:28
Speaker
So lean on him in the Holy Spirit to guide your thoughts, words, hands, and feet.
00:13:37
Speaker
I think collaboration is so important.
00:13:42
Speaker
Melanie and I are, and all our staff members here are in the same like directive position.
00:13:49
Speaker
We want people to know God's love through the Eucharist, and we're all on board with that.
00:13:53
Speaker
And so the different insights that I have or that Melanie has as a young mother, we collaborate, we complement and feed off each other.
00:14:05
Speaker
to be able to show it to all our parishioners who are all walks of life as well.
00:14:10
Speaker
So I would say, yes, prayer individually and together, but then also collaboration.
00:14:16
Speaker
One of our guiding principles is Kevin Fyan is director of youth in the Archdiocese, and he says that this is a laboratory, not an assembly line.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I think that's so good because if you have an event and only one person shows up or zero people, you could get discouraged and say, oh, well, that didn't work.
00:14:38
Speaker
But we just keep trying again and keep showing up and keep trusting the Lord's providence.
00:14:44
Speaker
Beautiful.
00:14:45
Speaker
Thank you.
00:14:46
Speaker
I like that dream big, think small, go slow also.
00:14:49
Speaker
Because I think we dream big and then want to go big and go all in and go fast.
00:14:55
Speaker
At least that's the way I am.
00:14:56
Speaker
I have this idea and then I'm like, let's do all of it now, right now.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, so I think being reminded we're playing the long-term game.
00:15:08
Speaker
Also, I love that you mentioned the idea of being tabernacles that were carrying Christ in the whole world.
00:15:12
Speaker
I often like to remind people in the preaching, we're like the little tabernacles with legs, you know, sprout legs and we run out into the world to carry Christ's presence out there.
00:15:23
Speaker
So, beautiful.
00:15:25
Speaker
So...
00:15:27
Speaker
So thank you both.
00:15:28
Speaker
So lastly, since I guess I've stepped into this hosting role, especially Melanie, as both a parish staff member and also a young parishioner, would you be, what would be any, like, do you have any closing thoughts or words to other young people, especially, say, like parents out there who are trying to raise their kids in the faith, about why the Eucharistic matters, why this movement of Eucharistic revival is important?
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah, as a wife and a mom of four kids, I would urge young parents and parents to take their children and teenagers to Mass.
00:16:02
Speaker
It's scary and hard, but it's necessary.
00:16:05
Speaker
Children won't know how to worship at Mass and why, unless they are brought week after week and shown.
00:16:11
Speaker
Again, I get that it's scary when they are little, but so is going to a restaurant with kids or grocery shopping or practically anything.
00:16:20
Speaker
but Mass is where we see the family of God at work.
00:16:24
Speaker
It is where we receive the sacraments and it's where they will be able to hear how our Catholic faith impacts our everyday lives and actions.
00:16:33
Speaker
Teenagers also need to be pushed and sometimes dragged to the Mass.
00:16:37
Speaker
And again, this is also scary and hard, but the Mass is where they will find out who they truly are called to be and the freedom and happiness they are searching for.
00:16:49
Speaker
They need to know the reason why you attend Mass every weekend, even though you are super busy and most likely exhausted.
00:16:57
Speaker
When we receive the Eucharist each weekend or each day, we remember that we have a God that loves us so much that he wants to be within us.
00:17:06
Speaker
If each and every person on this earth truly believed that they were known and loved that much,
00:17:13
Speaker
that they have a place where they feel like they belong and are noticed, named, and known, we would have a much different world than we have today.
00:17:22
Speaker
The Eucharistic revival is helping us to share this with others in a time and culture where people really need to know how loved they are for who they are and then push them outside of their comfort zone to achieve their true freedom and happiness the world cannot provide them.
00:17:42
Speaker
The Eucharistic revival is also showing us as adults why we attend Mass.
00:17:47
Speaker
It's not out of obligation or fear of God's wrath.
00:17:50
Speaker
It is and should be out of love for God and thanking him for all that he has given us.
00:17:56
Speaker
We don't attend Mass each weekend to be entertained or to receive something.
00:18:01
Speaker
We are there to give all that we have to our God who gives all of himself to us out of this unconditional love.
00:18:10
Speaker
You keep saying in our talks in our offices, Melanie, it's the things we are passing on are caught, not taught or caught and taught.
00:18:22
Speaker
But we can teach and we can read from a textbook all we want.
00:18:26
Speaker
But the things that our young people and that really any of our people do,
00:18:33
Speaker
learn and digest are caught, like picked up on.
00:18:39
Speaker
Like when a child is watching you do something in the kitchen or a child repeats certain words that we say, they are catching what we're doing and teaching us, they are catching what we're doing rather than being taught it.
00:18:53
Speaker
And so I think if us as ministers working in a parish are
00:18:58
Speaker
always showing forth Eucharistic revival in our own hearts, then it will be caught by others and we don't have to do much teaching then.
00:19:11
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:12
Speaker
Also, I just love what you said and I fully agree, but just about being known and loved and how much that really does have the potential to change the world and how I think I shared back in our first episode how just like for me, it was realizing that God
00:19:26
Speaker
loves me so much that he wants to be intimately close with me, like in the Eucharist.
00:19:30
Speaker
And that is, you know, where we encounter this profound love of God.
00:19:34
Speaker
Like he wants to be so close to me that he comes to me in and through the Eucharist to be like literally ingested by him.
00:19:41
Speaker
to be literally taken in and everything I am in the deepest, most intimate way.
00:19:45
Speaker
And so, um,
The Transformative Power of the Eucharist
00:19:47
Speaker
yeah.
00:19:47
Speaker
And unfortunately there's a lot of deceptive messages in the world, but I think the truth and the love of the Eucharist like really has the power to transform lives.
00:19:55
Speaker
So thank you.
00:19:56
Speaker
So thank you for what you're doing.
00:19:58
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, your, your own yes to God, both as a,
00:20:01
Speaker
a wife and mother and also in service of the church and building this culture and yeah, and helping to, to revive people in the beautiful mystery that is the Eucharist as we continue to strive in this Eucharistic in the Archdiocese Dubuque, Debucharistic revival.
00:20:18
Speaker
Here we are.
00:20:20
Speaker
Well, there's, there's plenty of things to do in Cresco and surrounding areas, but what some are the greater opportunities we have coming up in the Archdiocese
Upcoming Eucharistic Events and Resources
00:20:30
Speaker
of Dubuque.
00:20:31
Speaker
Excellent question.
00:20:32
Speaker
So a reminder that the Archdiocese of Dubuque does have a website for the Eucharistic Revival, specifically dbqarch.org slash Archdiocese in Eucharistic Revival.
00:20:44
Speaker
And we're trying to keep that updated with upcoming information.
00:20:48
Speaker
As we're recording this, it is October 31st.
00:20:52
Speaker
It may be posted at a later time.
00:20:53
Speaker
So currently, for some upcoming things, there are regular monthly Eucharistic Adoration Praise and Worship Nights at
00:21:01
Speaker
St.
00:21:01
Speaker
Patrick's Parish in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, one coming up on November 4th and one on Saturday, December 2nd.
00:21:09
Speaker
So those are Saturdays in the evening.
00:21:11
Speaker
Also, our own local Catholic speaker, Anthony D. Digman, is traveling around the Archdiocese giving different talks on Eucharistic Revival, including in December, December 10th, 11th, and 12th, he will be in the parishes of Maquoketa, Preston,
00:21:27
Speaker
and Otter Creek, Iowa.
00:21:28
Speaker
So those each are at 6.30, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
00:21:32
Speaker
And more things to come.
00:21:33
Speaker
A reminder also to check in your local parish.
00:21:37
Speaker
And we also have on the website...
00:21:39
Speaker
information about the national Eucharistic revival, including that next spring, there will be a, there's a nationwide Eucharistic revival pilgrimage that'll be passing through.
00:21:51
Speaker
And so we include some different locations and dates.
00:21:53
Speaker
Those will be passing through as they cross over in, in Minnesota, as well as into La Crosse, Wisconsin.
00:22:01
Speaker
So lots of options and we'll be keeping you updated as more things
00:22:07
Speaker
come about, but be sure to check the website and your own local parish.
00:22:10
Speaker
So, and watch for new episodes of this coming out as well.
00:22:14
Speaker
So boom, how's that?
00:22:16
Speaker
That was great.
00:22:17
Speaker
Thank you, Father Kevin.
00:22:18
Speaker
And thank you, Melanie, for joining us and sharing some of your experience and wisdom with us.
00:22:24
Speaker
It's been a pleasure.
00:22:27
Speaker
I think that concludes today's episode.
00:22:29
Speaker
I will see you on the next episode and we will see you in the Eucharist.
00:22:34
Speaker
Amen.
00:22:36
Speaker
Amen.