Susanna Parent, GIVEN ’16

“My key takeaway was that I was enough. GIVEN helped me realize that I had what it took to make an impact on the world…”

Please share a little about yourself – feel free to include a fun fact!

I am a Wisconsin native, along with my husband Brad, but we share our home in charming old Saint Paul. Our first baby is expected to arrive into the world the day before our two-year wedding anniversary and we are over the moon to meet him or her.

Speaking of the moon, one of my favorite things to do when the sun slips past the horizon is to sit outside underneath twinkly lights with my loved ones and share a meal together. I love to explore all the Twin Cities has to offer, and since my husband joins me in a love for travel, we are always grateful for an opportunity to indulge our wanderlust spirits. I share some of these adventures on my blog Fiat and a Lily, the same blog where I share my freelance writing.

I serve in the Archdiocese of Saint Paul & Minneapolis as an Evangelization Manager and as part of this position I produce a local radio show, The Rediscover: Hour, aired on Relevant Radio as well as manage the Behold Series for young adult women. Fun fact, fellow Given Alumni Member, Bridget Busacker, is on the speaker team!

Describe your professional work/ministry/family life. How were you led to this? What are you passionate about?

What I love about working for the Church is the opportunity I have to work with other young adults, especially young women, and to learn from them what they hope to see more of either in the Church as a whole or in their local parish community. At the GIVEN Forum, a passion stirred up in me to help others experience the same peace and confidence I found in not only recognizing the gifts I have been given, but also the honorable responsibility to share those gifts with the world, the gifts that only I can give.

The Behold Series was created to help encourage women to fulfill the special roles they have, and to do so with boldness, heroic virtue, and authentic femininity. Each evening of Behold is designed intentionally with time for fostering community with other young adult Catholic women, a live presentation from a variety of speakers, time for Eucharistic Adoration, small group discussion, Q&A and weekly Action Steps. Topics throughout the series range from “What is Complementarity and the Feminine Genius?” to “Praying with Lectio Divina” and even “The Art of Catholic Entrepreneurship and Blogging”.

What are the personal strengths that you’ve been given and how do you utilize them?

Throughout the years, Jesus has been inviting me to more deeply explore and understand the desires of my heart. This requires a lot of practice and discipline in focusing on developing a greater sense of self-knowledge.

After committing to spend time with learning these desires and considering what they might mean, I knew that they centered around experiencing Christ through things like beauty, community and writing.

In developing and sharing my love for writing, I experience great joy and fulfillment. The GIVEN Forum helped me to recognize that my desires are good and meant to be attained, and that fulfilling them brings delight to the Lord.  Today I utilize my strengths by freelance writing, including writing as a regular contributor to the online women’s magazine Verily, as well as the Blessed Is She blog.

What women inspire you, and why?

Before studying abroad in Rome, a friend said to me, “When you are in Italy, the Saints will choose you.” This turned out to be very true for me when our class made a pilgrimage to the hometown of St. Catherine of Siena. Her and I had a moment in the Basilica San Domenico, and from then on I knew that she had my back. My devotion to her deepened even more intensely after reading Sigrid Undset’s great work, Catherine of Siena.

As I learned of St. Catherine’s life, I was in awe of how she dedicated her life to intense prayer and caring for the sick. I was especially moved by the fact that in her own home she chose to sleep in a small cell-like room using a raised bed of rock as her pillow.

Her heroic boldness led her to playing a vital role in ending the Avignon papacy and I love the fact that she was not only a Mystic, but also a Doctor of the Church. People said of her “Never has man spoken thus, and it is beyond doubt that it is not a woman who is speaking, but indeed the Holy Spirit.”

Are there friends and mentors that you depend upon? How do they support you?

My husband Brad is the person in my life who is always there encouraging me to explore and experiment with my passions. His support is evident to me by his patient, listening ear when I go on and on about various ideas I have and by his genuine care for me to go out and try them. He helps to lessen my fear of failing because he knows that if something doesn’t turn out quite as I imagined, then that is the Lord’s way of pointing me in a more specific direction. This gives me the freedom to try new things, knowing that God will always point me towards the path he wants me to go on.

What is the best advice/encouragement you’ve received about vocational discernment?

I seriously discerned a call to the Religious Life while I was in college. When I was sharing with my spiritual director about how I felt conflicted and confused about what the Lord was trying to show me in prayer, he asked me one simple question.

“Has Jesus proposed to you?”

His question left me silent and unable to answer. Holy hour after holy hour I prayed for the Lord to strengthen my desire for Him if I was meant to be His bride. I prayed that he would give me clarity and confidence in the direction he wanted me to go… but all this time I had been putting the pressure on myself. What my spiritual director was trying to help me understand was that if Jesus wanted me to be His bride, He would not only woo me and pursue my heart in a very special way, but He would also be the one to make the move, to let me know that He wanted me to be His and only His.

After praying with this, it didn’t take long for me to realize that Jesus had other beautiful plans for my life.

Prayer is essential for everyone, but especially for women who are active in the life and mission of the Church. Do you have any favorite devotions or prayers?

One of my fail proof prayers is the Memorare. There are seasons in my life when I feel closer to the Blessed Mother more than others, but I always have confidence that she hears my cry and sees my heart when I pray the words of this prayer.

It is a prayer steeped in hope that “anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.” It is also a humble yet confident plea where I stand before her “sinful and sorrowful” begging her to “despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.” It is a prayer that allows me to simply yet specifically go to her with all that I hold in my heart.

Do you have a favorite inspirational quote?

One of my favorite quotations is by Pedro Arrupe:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God,

That is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings,

What you will do with your evenings,

How you spend your weekends,

What you read,

Who you know,

What breaks your heart,

And what amazes you with joy and gratitude.”

What were your key takeaways from the 2016 GIVEN Forum?

My key takeaway was that I was enough. It helped me realize that I had what it took to make an impact on the world, and yes, while it would take action on my part, that action would be accompanied by God’s grace.

In a keynote by Sister Mary Gabriel, Novice Director of the Sisters of Life, she shared a quotation by Hans Urs Von Balthasar, saying “When you say ‘yes’ to God unconditionally, you have no idea how far that yes will take you.” The adventure which this implied had me captivated.

Gloria Purvis set this in stone for me during her talk on Reclaiming the Public Square where she asked emphasized three aspects of answering God’s call:  Are you willing?  What are you willing to risk?  You are able.

She followed this up by acknowledging, in the words of St. Teresa of Avila, that “prayer and comfortable living are incompatible” and that God doesn’t always call the qualified, he qualifies the called. Purvis called me on to give a counter-witness to what the world says it means to be a woman and my “yes” has taken me further than I had imagined, just like Sister Mary Gabriel said it would.

What was your GIVEN action plan? Describe its mission, audience, and impact.

As mentioned above, the mission of my GIVEN action plan, Behold, is closely related to what the GIVEN Forum instilled in me. To help women recognize the gift she is, realize the gifts she’s been given, and give to the world the gifts that only she can give.

Behold is intended to support young adult women, ages 21-29, in answering this call.

Its impact has been shared through testimonials from Behold participants, including women who have committed to parish communities, formed strong Catholic community with other women they met in the series and by re-instilling in them a commitment to daily prayer. Even years after the first Behold Series has taken place, I still see fruits coming from it today.