Here I am Lord, I’ve come to tell you my game plan - How God interrupted

Glory Be to Jesus Christ! Glory Be Forever!

Let us begin by consecrating this blog to the Holy Trinity, through Our Lady of Confidence and St. Joseph, Most Strong.

My name is Jonathan Lashyn, although many people also call me Jonny. I am a husband, father, former hockey player, and—by the grace of God—a Catholic journeying with you to answer the call to holiness (with varying degrees of daily success and failure).

I am the oldest of six children, and my siblings and I grew up in Saskatoon. We attended Ss. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church on Sundays, but we also frequently attended daily Mass at various Roman Catholic parishes.

Our faith was woven into the ordinary rhythm of family life. The sacraments were central, and we prayed the Rosary together. One of the images from my childhood that has stayed with me most strongly is that of my dad getting up early before work to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. My dad also helped lead Conquest for nineteen years—a Catholic formation program for young men that my brothers and I were blessed to participate in.

Looking back, I realize that I received a tremendous gift. I was given an example of what it looks like for the Catholic faith to be more than something we do on Sundays. It was meant to shape the whole of our lives. At the time, however, I certainly didn't appreciate all of this as much as I do now.

Hockey Became My God

Outside of school and Church, I spent a lot of time playing hockey. A lot of time. From the age of six, I wanted to play in the NHL and win the Stanley Cup. I thought that if I could accomplish those things, I would have a very fulfilling life. Eventually, hockey became much more than something I enjoyed. It became my identity. Although it took me years to admit it, hockey had effectively become my god.

That desire took me to Camrose, Alberta, where I played three years for the Kodiaks in the AJHL. From there, I received a Division I scholarship to Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts.

During those years away from home, I continued to pray the Rosary, read the Bible, and attend Sunday Mass. From the outside, I probably looked like a pretty good Catholic. The problem was that my heart was divided. My motivation for being faithful was often little more than this: If I keep God happy, maybe He'll help me make it to the NHL. I had essentially made a deal with God and, unsurprisingly, it didn't work very well.

My life became increasingly compartmentalized. There was “hockey Jonny,” “school Jonny,” “Church Jonny,” and “family Jonny.” I was trying to be four different people that I couldn't keep together.

“My Will” or “God's Will”

Going into my third year at Merrimack, the tension reached a breaking point. My heart felt like it was being torn in two between my will and surrendering to God's Will. During the 2015 Christmas break, my family and I were at the Shrine of Venerable Olympia and Venerable Laurentia in Saskatoon. There was a service to open the Doors of Mercy at the shrine. I was not in a particularly good mood. After venerating the relics, I prayed what can only be described as a prayer of desperation:

“Venerable Olympia and Venerable Laurentia, I know you are in Heaven, and I know that I am supposed to get there too. But I have no idea how, so you’d better help me!”

With that, I stormed out the door. But something happened when I walked through those newly consecrated Doors of Mercy. The tension that had been building inside me suddenly released. It felt like a blind had sprung open, letting sunlight into a dark room, and I had hope.

Not because I suddenly knew what God was going to do with my life, but because I began to understand that I didn't need to know; I needed to love and trust Him.

Learning How to Pray

Soon afterward, I had the inspiration to change the way I prayed. I had always been capable of tremendous focus when I was in the weight room or on the ice. I could train with intensity, push myself, and sacrifice for hockey. However, when it came to prayer, I was often distracted after about 0.372 seconds. So I decided to try to bring the same intentionality to prayer that I brought to hockey. My first goal was simple:

Pray the Rosary every day in front of the Blessed Sacrament with as much love and devotion as I could—and then trust that Mary would take care of the rest.

Only God knows how many times I got distracted, but I strove to be faithful to that resolution. Slowly, something began to change, and prayer was less about something I was doing for God and more about time spent with God.

Soon afterward, I began to feel a call to discern the priesthood. I had experienced that call before, but this time there was peace. Over the course of two weeks, three complete strangers independently asked me if I had ever considered becoming a priest. After the third person asked, I figured I should probably pay attention.

Seminary—and a Different Kind of Training

During the final year and a half of playing hockey at Merrimack, I spent four or five weekends with the Franciscans of the Primitive Observance, a small branch of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal based in the Boston area. It was a great gift to spend time with these prayerful men. Nevertheless, I gradually felt God leading me back home to Saskatchewan.

I turned down some opportunities to play semi-professionally in the United States and Europe and eventually spent some time at Madonna House. It was there that I began seriously wrestling with a question that has stayed with me ever since: How is a Christian called to train?

What does it mean to train—not merely to get into better shape, but so that we may love God more with each rep/set/practice/competition? I am still wrestling with that question. However, I believe that the essence of every weight-loss program, strength program, and sport can be found in the two Great Commandments:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12:30–31).

In other words, to live what the Church has always taught—to love God is the foundation of everything we do, even when it comes to health, fitness, and athletic goals. The easiest way to do this is to listen to St. Paul and “pray without ceasing,” so that we can “present ourselves as a living sacrifice to God” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 and Romans 12:1). Remember, prayer is first and foremost a state of being with God and that we were created to be with God forever in Heaven.

In 2018, I entered Holy Spirit Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta. The next five years flew by. I am incredibly grateful for the professors, formators, students, and fellow seminarians who taught me so much—not only through their words, but through their examples. If I had to sum up my seminary experience, it would be: “God loves me” and “God desires me to love Him with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.”

The first statement went from being something I knew intellectually to something I began to know in my heart. As noted above, the second became a framework for understanding almost everything else. We were created to love God with everything we have, and without that foundation, life is ultimately empty.

We are also called to actively pursue a life of virtue. Strength and health are not ends in themselves; they are part of our responsibility to care for the bodies God has given us. The virtue of “Care of the Body” falls under the broader virtue of Wisdom. Seeing strength as a virtue radically changed the way I thought about training.

“Lord, Please Give Me Friends”

Part of discerning the priesthood is asking, “God, how do You want me to be a priest?” I felt called to finish my seminary studies, but I could not see myself being ordained immediately afterward. Additionally, I yearned to know more young Catholics in Saskatchewan since I had spent the majority of the previous eleven years outside the province.

On July 20, 2021, I wrote down a very simple prayer: “Lord, please give me friends.” A few days later, I was invited to volunteer at Ignite, a weeklong Catholic youth camp for high school students. I met more than one hundred students and fifty young adults who were on fire for the Faith. God answered my prayer.

He also answered it in a way I never could have anticipated. One of those young adults eventually became my wife. We stayed in touch after the camp and during the start of my fourth year in seminary. There was a lot of prayer involved, and it became clear that we were called to discern marriage together.

We were engaged in the summer of 2022 and were married in the spring of 2023. During our engagement, I also came to understand that God was calling me to focus on the Royal Priesthood and to live my vocation as a layman immediately following seminary (being Ukrainian Catholic, I could be a married priest). My wife and I have since been blessed with a son and a daughter, and we have another child arriving in early 2027.

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How We Ended Up in Wakaw

Which brings us to Wakaw. Two months after we were married, we discovered that we were expecting our first child and that our one-bedroom condo would quickly be too small. So we began looking and praying for a house. But as we searched, we felt God nudging us in a different direction. Instead of buying a house, we felt drawn to buy a few acres of land.

So we rented a house, bought the acreage, placed it under the care of St. Rita and St. Joseph, and kept praying. For a year and a half, our prayer was essentially: “Lord, please give us some unmistakable sign of the next step.” We felt the call to live near an active Catholic Parish so that we would always have an opportunity to participate in Sunday Mass and visit our Lord throughout the week. Before making an offer on the house in Wakaw, there was nothing particularly extraordinary about the circumstances,  although we were excited that Wakaw offered daily Mass at St. Teresa’s!

Then we went to sign the offer. We noticed the dates for the removal of conditions and the transfer of possession.

March 19 and May 22

The feast days of St. Joseph and St. Rita. We took that as the sign we had been asking for and the call to take the next step while trusting that God will take care of everything else.

Why This Blog?

Which brings us, finally, to the reason for this blog. I don't have everything figured out. I'm still learning how to pray, to be a husband and father. I'm still learning how to train better and how to order my life toward God. But I believe that these things are all integrated.

Our spiritual lives, our family lives, our work, our health, our training, our relationships, and the ordinary decisions of each day are all called to be sanctified by God and for God. Being a Christian is not another task we check off the list; it is fundamentally who we are. Striving to live that out makes life extremely interesting!!

My goal for this blog is to help you love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbour as yourself. I want to explore what it means to live the Catholic faith wholeheartedly—in prayer, family life, work, training, health, virtue, and the ordinary circumstances of everyday life.

To echo Vatican II, becoming a saint is not reserved for monks, priests, or people who have everything figured out. It is the vocation of every Christian. So wherever you are in your journey, welcome. Let's strive to be fully alive, to pray, train, love, and, by the grace of God, to let Him make us saints.

Mater Mea! Fiducia Mea!

My Mother, My Confidence.

St. Joseph, Most Strong, pray for us!

Written by Jonathan Lashyn

12:30 Training