MEET PARISHIONER AND CATECHIST JOHN VIRNIG: Responding Faithfully to God's Call

The Bible is filled with examples of God calling people to do His work. There was Moses, who was not an eloquent speaker and yet was called to confront the pharaoh, or Amos, a shepherd whom the Lord called to be a prophet, to name just a couple.

John Virnig, who served as a catechist for a class of seventh, eighth, and ninth-graders this year, first served as a catechist after he joined St. Andrew in 1997, teaching two classes from 1998 to 2000. He then moved to other roles in the parish from 2000 to 2021, while raising his family of five children.

When John was asked to serve as a catechist again, he admits that he didn’t feel entirely qualified for the task. But, he saw the need for more catechists and was willing to help fill it.

“I was absolutely nervous when I began,” he says. “I’m used to dealing with the public, talking to people, and conversing with them, but I was nervous about how good of a job I would be able to do as a catechist. I’ve helped my own kids and nephews and nieces with math, so I do think I can teach on that basis, but I had no experience teaching a group prior to these courses and am not particularly gifted in that way.”

Yet, the Lord led John to this service.

“The Holy Spirit came before I was asked to do this role,” he says.

John traces the start of this path, in part, to Real Presence Radio, a Catholic radio station serving our area at 89.5 FM. John donated to some of their fundraising efforts and had tuned in to the station one night when he happened to catch an interesting story.

“It was about one of the Church fathers, and that set me on a course of doing a lot of reading on the early days of the Church and got me interested in apologetics,” John says. “To hear about what the Church fathers did to progress the faith is inspiring.

“That was the learning process,” he adds. “It’s what made me feel like I could do this or was called to do this. I feel like there was a plan there for me to learn more about the faith in my later years — that it was to get me to do something like this. There’s a need and I felt like I was being called to serve as a catechist. You don’t have to be an experienced teacher in order to volunteer.”

John saw the contrast between the work of the Church fathers to promote the faith and the increasingly secular culture in the United States.

“Though I don’t feel super well-qualified and it’s not my forte, I felt that there’s a need to reach our children and to teach them the faith and hopefully give them confidence in the faith, and then they can do their part to reverse the trend,” he says. “With God’s help, I can help a little.”

His class of seventh, eighth, and ninth-graders learned about Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body lectures.

“It’s fun to see their curiosity and see them responding to learning more about the faith,” John says. “Theology of the Body is very anti-cultural. It’s almost the opposite of the messages they hear in the outside world. It can be challenging to what they hear, but it’s good to see their curiosity and to see them learning.”

Teaching the course has also helped John to continue to learn more about the faith as well. Each catechist is given the subject matter and material to teach in their course, along with a syllabus. In order to prepare for class, John says he usually spends some time going over the material in advance, before teaching the 75-minute Wednesday night class.

“You always learn along with the children,” he says. “I certainly feel that way. In order to teach the subject matter, you have to learn it. Some of it is consistent with what I’ve learned over the years, but there’s a lot you end up gaining as well. It’s nice to learn more about the faith, getting more and more knowledge. I’m always ready to learn more and this was a great way to do that and to spark further interest as well. I’m always getting a deeper understanding of the faith, learning along with the students.

He’s grateful for the great group of students he gets to teach weekly.

“I’m thankful,” John says. “The group of kids I had made it easy on me. They had been at school all day and then came from 6:45 p.m. to 8 p.m. for class. I’m grateful for their support.”

“To a very small extent, I feel like I’m doing some of God’s work,” he adds. “I think it’s important to reach children at that age and to set them on the right course, giving them a good background to hopefully make their life much more joyful and rewarding since they know the truth.”

Catechists are needed at all our parishes for the 2022-2023 school year. Is God calling you to lead our youth? Please contact, Ann Voller, Area Coordinator of Faith Formation and Youth Ministry, at 320-226-5205 or areaffcoordinator@holyfamilyarea.org.

John Virnig with his daughter, Allie, and son, Matthew, at the Space Needle in Seattle

John Virnig