Our featured priest this month is Father Darin Schmidt. Father Schmidt was born in Sioux City, Iowa, and has six brothers and two sisters (he is the youngest). He was ordained on June 26, 2015. He serves as parochial vicar for the St. Martin of Tours Pastorate, which includes parishes in Idylwilde, Lesterville, Scotland, Springfield, Tabor, Tyndall and Yankton.
What did you do before the priesthood?
I was a student, but with my family I’d also had paper routes, lawn mowing, snow removal and some painting and tree removal. During summers, I worked at Curry Seed Company on the edge of Elk Point in corn and soybean fields.
How did you get your call to the priesthood?
I was aware of a call to the priesthood from a very young age, maybe 5 years old, so I considered and prayed about it gradually for many years. Reading a biography about St. Augustine and then the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church during my sophomore year of high school, I believe, solidified my desire. I attended the fall gathering of seminarians of our diocese before the fall of my senior year and began praying the Liturgy of the Hours. This and a visit to the seminary gave me a lot of confidence to enter formation after doing a summer of Totus Tuus.
Is there a particular part of Catholicism that really fascinates you?
What I usually say gets me most excited about the faith is what’s called the “lay apostolate,” or, in other words, the mission and call of every baptized Catholic to allow Christ and his Gospel to transform all our daily activities; to take the Gospel out into the secular world to transform the culture around us; to consecrate our work, our study, our leisure as an offering to God and spiritual sacrifice.
A close friend in junior high and high school really challenged me in this, talking about how our belonging to Christ should affect everything and make us live differently, as students and athletes, how we converse with others and look for opportunities for spiritual conversations and prayer. “Introduction to the Devout Life” by St. Francis de Sales is a fairly easy read that talks a lot about this and the necessity and real practical possibility to seek a life of holiness in every vocation, especially for those living in the world. As a priest, it’s exciting to equip other members of the faithful with what’s needed to transform our own lives, along with the world around us.
Who was most influential in your life?
My parents and a lot of my siblings in different ways taught, and continue to teach, me about most of the most important things in life. I credit most of my willingness to respond to a call to the priesthood to the witness of my parents and their willingness to receive all that God willed for them in their marriage and life together. Father Leonard Fox was one priest I really admired as I was growing up.
What’s your favorite part of being a priest?
Surprisingly enough, for someone really shy as a kid and not at all inclined to being the center of attention or public speaking, I think I’ve always enjoyed preaching the most. It’s a great privilege to open up the Scriptures to others, help them perhaps see and think about things from a different angle, and to call them to deepen our relationship with Christ.
What’s the most challenging thing?
Office work is the most challenging. It’s not fun. It’s not exciting, but it is important.
Who is your go-to saint? Why?
Besides Christ and his Blessed Mother, I don’t necessarily speak a lot directly to many saints day-to-day (besides maybe St. Anthony when I’ve misplaced something), but I do admire and try to imitate and learn from quite a few. If I had to pick one, it would probably be St. Joseph. He is the patron of my home parish, of our diocese and of the universal Church, so I’ve long considered him a special patron of mine as well, as he lived with and learned from Christ and the Blessed Mother so closely.
