Road to Priesthood: The key is a relationship with the Lord

Blane Schriock was ordained a transitional deacon on May 30. He recently spoke with the West River Catholic staff to discuss his journey thus far.

What is your home parish?
Deacon Schriock: My home parish is Saint Michael in Watauga. Right up on the border with North Dakota. 

And you decided to go to seminary this way?
Deacon Schriock: Yeah. I spent more of my life growing up in North Dakota, but my family has land on both sides of the border. When I was in college after discerning, I decided South Dakota has a lot fewer priests than North Dakota on the western side, so I came south. 

When did you first start thinking about the priesthood?
Deacon Schriock: The very first thought I ever had about it was altar serving as a little kid, second and third grade, but I never started consistently thinking about it until my freshman year of high school.

Who were the priests up there at that time?
Deacon Schriock: My very first pastor I remember while thinking about the priesthood was Fr. Ron Garry. Then Fr. John Lule, an African priest that we had, was very encouraging of me to discern. He was probably one of the first to notice and engaged with me. He really propelled me a lot. I love that man so much. He would do confessions for us or adoration, and he would always say after Mass, “Have you thought about the priesthood?” Not in the pushing kind of way but a very fatherly inviting way. A lot of what prompted my vocation was from him. 

What has your seminary experience been like?
Deacon Schriock: It’s obviously a long process, but at the end of it feels like it’s gone by in a flash. The thing about seminary — people always talk about fraternity or the life of brotherhood and the life of community, class schedule and structure, the activities — but for me what’s really been the highlight is living under the same roof as the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. My bedroom is only about 30 steps from the chapel. Being able to have the Lord right there anytime, day or night, that’s the thing I’ve clung on to the most from seminary. That close proximity and intimacy with the Lord and the Eucharist that spills over to other people in your relationships with your brothers and seminary. That’s the key — the relationship with the Lord.

Is there a certain aspect of seminary life that you have most identified with?
Deacon Schriock: I would definitely say that it’s having one: a relationship with the Lord; two: the relationship with your brothers in the seminary; and three: that relationship with the parishioners that you serve while in seminary. Each seminarian has a teaching parish assigned to them and you go at least once or twice a month and do weekend work, youth group, homebound ministry, nursing home, any kind of ministry a parish does. My relationships with those parishioners have been fundamental in my discernment because that’s when you’re really living it, not just in the classroom. When you’re with the people of God it reminds you this is who this is for. It’s not just for me. It’s not just for my brother seminarians and priests. This is for the people of God and that’s why I’m doing it.

What are you looking forward to most in this last year of formation coming up?
I would say it’s the transition of coming back to South Dakota. There’ve been amazing experiences at the seminary and now I feel like I’m chomping at the bit to actually go to work and be able to come back to South Dakota a lot more this next year. We’ll be alternating every month in the spring between seminary and Rapid City. I think my heart really longs to come back home to South Dakota, back with these people, with these priests. That’s what this is all for.

How would you describe your prayer life?
Deacon Schriock: You have your standards of Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, your Rosary, your Holy Hours but what flavors my own particular relationship with the Lord, I would say is really intimacy with the Sacred Heart in the Eucharist. That’s been my biggest highlight for all the seminary. I’ve noticed in my prayers. Even the saints I have devotion to; I have a lot of devotions to different saints and my favorites all have unique relationships with the Sacred Heart and with the Eucharist. 

Can you tell me a couple of those saints?
Deacon Schriock: My favorite one is St. Gertrude the Great. She’s more often known as the purgatory saint saying prayers to let poor souls out of purgatory, but most of her writings had to do with the Sacred Heart. She has been fundamental for me all through seminary. Another big one for me would be St. Claire of Assisi. I’ve really gotten close with her in prayer. She’s a big one for defending her convent against foreign invaders by raising the Eucharist at the oncoming armies and the soldiers fled before the presence of the Lord. The third would be St. John Vianney because of his writings on how the priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus. He’s the patron saint of parish priests and he’s been a model for all of us, and for me a model with his understanding of the priesthood as the love of the heart of Jesus. 

What advice would you have for someone considering the priesthood?
Deacon Schriock: I would say two things: one, grow deeper in your prayer life and two just try it. I think we get so wrapped up in our heads. “What should I do? What does God want me to do? What are my desires? What does God desire for me?” 

I think we make discernment a mind game instead of making it a heart game where you pray out of your heart to the Lord about this and then you give your heart to him. Try it. Going into seminary doesn’t mean you’re going to be a priest. I know a lot of guys have tried seminary. They lasted a year or two, sometimes even more and they said, “Alright, this is not for me. This is not what God wants for me” and that’s more than okay. You’ll be a better man because of it.”

Spend time in prayer in the chapel over at Blessed Sacrament where I’m getting moved into for the summer. Realize that no vocation is ever borne alone. This isn’t something you choose to do. This isn’t something that you have forced on you either. This is borne out of the love of God for particular people in a particular place. I really don’t think any of it could be possible for me without the people of western South Dakota. I think they were fundamental as the seedbed for my vocation, and the Lord wants me to love them with his own love and to love him with their love. He wants me to be a bridge between God and man and see that everything is possible in my location because of the prayers and love of these people.

Were there any summer experiences that really touched you?
Deacon Schriock: I would say there were a lot of different experiences I’ve had. I’ve done mission trip work with the poor in Mexico, history and mission work classes in Rome. I think for me the one that really hit me the most was my summer doing nursing home ministry in Saint Paul. The encounters I had with some of these people I will never forget.

There’s one I remember, I was serving in a nursing home. I was visiting a woman who wasn’t a Christian. She was Buddhist I believe, and she was dying. They sent me into her room, and other than the nurse, I was the last person to see her alive. I remember I felt pulled by the Lord to hold her hand and tell her how much the Lord loved her. I was telling her these things and what struck me was her name was Emerald. Her name kept flashing in my mind, and I told her I said, “Emerald, you do not know how precious you are from the Lord. Emerald stones are extremely precious but there’s only one emerald like you in the Lord’s heart.” She gripped my hand and started crying. It was the strongest grip I ever felt. I left that place in tears and then I got a call not even a couple hours later saying that she passed away. I will never forget that.

Are there also any experiences here in the diocese?
Deacon Schriock: In the past we’ve had different summer programs where we go out and teach the youth in the diocese. That was a great way for me to learn the physical landscape of the whole diocese. We’ve also had assignments where we’ve been in parishes. We have assignments where we learned the Chancery structure and how that relates to parishes. 

Last summer, I did Native American ministry up in Eagle Butte. That was honestly impactful and close to home. I grew up around native people my whole life. My friends are natives, but I was able to learn how the Lord has a particular love for these people here in this diocese and part of that was realizing the day St. Kateri Tekakwitha died is my birthday. I’d been born hundreds of years after she died and I fell in love with her and with native culture and the native people of South Dakota.

What was your experience at the ordination?
Deacon Schriok: It was twofold: both one of deep joy as well as a particular experience of divine sweetness. The whole time I had this delight of “Is this seriously happening to me right now?!” but also a deep sense of the depths of what union with God is like. 

While attending at the altar as a deacon in the ordination Mass, the sweet smell coming from the precious blood on the altar was overpowering in its beauty. It really brought to life the words of Scripture in 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 that we are called to be the “aroma of Christ” among the world, and what a joy such sweetness of Christ the New Wine gives!

Is there anything you would like to add?
Deacon Schriock: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve driven across these prairies to get to the Black Hills or leave the hills and go out with some other missionaries out on the Prairie and every single mile has prayer behind it. Every single mile has the love of rural people in western South Dakota, people in the Black Hills. There’s so much love of God here that we don’t even realize and it’s filled across the whole landscape. I think there’s a geographic connection. 

The beauty of the Black Hills as they reach up to the heavens shows how our hearts reach out to God. The wide vastness of the prairie shows how much the expansive love of God is for his people. When you drive across western South Dakota there’s nothing but miles and miles of nothing but they are miles and miles of the love of God and his creation.