Hello St. Josaphat Parish family!
My name is Sean O’Dea, and I am the youngest of my family with two older sisters (Nichole and Tori) and my parents (Mike and Tracy). Our family attended our family church together and my mom eventually took a role with the parish as the Director of Religious Education so we spent a lot of time at the parish! I began my involvement with my home parish with its Youth Ministry program and even began serving at the parish in a part time manner my junior/senior year.
When I left for college, I attended Purdue University where I was blessed to encounter one of the strongest campus ministry programs in the nation. This community was so inviting and welcoming as it encouraged all the students to get involved. Throughout my time at Purdue, I served in a wide variety of roles and leadership positions; from serving in their religious education program and leading the Confirmation class, to helping on their campus retreat program and becoming the coordinator of the retreat and many opportunities in between. I changed my major during college so that I could pursue a career in church ministry, as I felt God was calling me to work in the Church! At Purdue, I met the love of my life, Jackie, in the beginning of our sophomore year and proposed to her in our week in between finals and graduation.
In my first role, as Pastoral Assistant of Evangelization and Youth, I led many of our parish programs and ministries. My favorites included running our Alpha, Connect Groups, and Beta Nights for the parish. Our Alpha grew to serve many of our wider parish communities such as: Spanish speakers, youth, young adults, and a daytime community of new moms and older parishioners! Our Connect groups grew to three different communities of 15-25 people that would gather in homes and share a potluck meal, listen to a member's testimony, enjoy small group time, and share intentional prayer ministry. Beta Nights were wonderful one-off opportunities where we gathered to learn about the power of invitation and radical hospitality. We would host these nights in between our Alpha sessions to bring our Alpha community and wider parish community together for an experience of what Alpha is all about, while diving into some new topics (radical hospitality, invitational community, and learning our testimony). When my wife and I got married, we moved out to Illinois to begin our life together.
In Illinois, I found a role as Youth Director. At this parish, I helped to recreate our High School Youth Ministry, which was lost in between directors. I developed our parish’s first ever Middle School Youth Ministry, which brought forward a lot of support and interest. Through Covid, we kept our ministries rolling online. I also served on the task force for our reopening. I coordinated, trained, and organized all of our volunteers for our reopening. As we approached our parish anniversary, I had the privilege to serve on our website task force, and worked on a team to recreate and re-envision our parish website. During my time at this parish, though, I felt God pulling on my heart that there was something else he was calling me to do.
In my search, I was blessed to meet Mary Jane and Father Francis, and learn of the absolutely wonderful vision that St. Josaphat Parish has developed. I am beyond excited to get started and join in the Mission, Vision, and Purpose of St. Josaphat. In my first year, I would love to get to know each of you, my new parish family! Please reach out anytime (
sean@stjosaphatparish.org) to set up a time to meet, whether at the parish, or for coffee/lunch! I would love to get to know each of you who make St. Josaphat Parish so uniquely wonderful! Thank you for welcoming me to your community. I am so excited to get to work!
