Interview with New Seminarian: Jim Southard

Jim Southard is a parishioner at the Church of the Madalene in Tulsa. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma and is currently working as a meteorologist in Tulsa. He will be attending St. Meinrad Seminary in the Fall 2021.

Could you tell us a little about your family, growing up, and your faith life?
 
I was born and raised in southern California, outside of Los Angeles in Orange County, as the youngest of four kids and the only boy.  We didn't have a whole lot of experience with faith as children.  I do remember going to Sunday School at a nice nondenominational Christian church that our neighbors invited us to.  From that I was able to get a basic grasp of the Gospel and who Jesus was (and is).  But my sisters and I weren't really all that into it, and my parents didn't force the issue, so they let us stop going.
 
It wasn't until my college years that I got to see what a living Christian faith looked like.  In my adolescent years I grew up without anything resembling faith in my life.  I didn't deny that God exists, but I wasn't certain that He did.  I was kind of in this mushy agnostic or pagan condition where I wasn't really much of anything.  But when I got to the University of Oklahoma, I was lucky to find several friends who were strong in their faith.  They would be excited for events at the campus ministries, whether Methodist, or Episcopalian, or Catholic.  It was obvious to me that their faith was important to them and that it energized and animated them.  But at that time in my life, it wasn't something for me.
 
It wasn't until a few years after I graduated from college and made my way to Tulsa for my job that things started to change.  But that's a good segue to your next question...
 
I hear you are currently working as a meteorologist, tell me about your interest in weather. When did that start? Is that what you’ve always wanted to do? Did this help with your faith journey?
 
Southern California is not a place that is known for exciting weather.  It's just for the most part nice, benign weather, pretty much all the time.  Even rain is unusual there and thunderstorms are an even more rare treat.  So on those one or two days a year that we would get thunder and lightning, I would be right there at the window watching the show.  That was the beginning of a lifelong fascination with the weather that continued into my young adult years.  I decided to see if I could make a career out of it, so I applied for admission to the University of Oklahoma, which has a highly regarded program in meteorology.  I was accepted, and I packed up my car and moved to Oklahoma at the end of July 2002 and immediately got smacked upside the head by the summertime heat and humidity.
 
After I graduated in 2005, I found my job here in Tulsa.  I was very excited to be a professional meteorologist.  We were a small company operating in a very specialized niche.  We had the latitude to be innovative and to try new things, and we were able to develop some new products that allowed us to gain notice and grow.  Personal success followed; I received raises, earned bonuses, racked up commissions.  I got myself my first new car, and graduated from an apartment to a house.
 
After a few years though, I started to notice a growing dissatisfaction in my life.  I had the things the world tells us we need to have in order to be happy, yet I was not happy.  I used to be really excited about work, and while I still liked my job and what I was doing it started to take on more of a tedious feeling.  It was becoming more of a slog.
 
At the end of one particularly long and grueling day, when once again I was the last one in the office building to go home for the day, I had an amazing experience.  I was walking across the parking lot to my car on a warm summer evening.  Normally I would be hustling to get out of the summer heat and the nasty humidity, but instead on this night the air felt calm and warm, gentle and pleasant.  I stopped my walk and just took a look around at the sky.  It was nearing sunset, and the clouds in the sky were painted in those lovely pinks and oranges that we can get during that twilight hour.  But there was one in particular that caught my attention - a distant thunderhead off to the northeast.  It was odd because there wasn't a chance of thunderstorms that day.  It was in a perfect spot - our office building sits on a little hill and from that location we have a great view off toward the northeast - and I could see the entire cloud from bottom to top.  When the sun got a little lower and it got a little darker, the oranges and pinks gave way to silvery lavender hues and the flashing lightning within the thundercloud became visible.  I stood there in the parking lot, enfolded in the comfort of the evening air, and took everything in for what had to be over an hour.
 
It was puzzling to me.  How did that thunderstorm get there?  There weren't supposed to be thunderstorms that day.  How come it was in the perfect location for me to be able to see it, and at just the right time that it would catch my attention as I went outside?  I thought about it, and arrived at the conclusion that this was something that couldn't be explained away as a string of coincidences.  Someone was causing it, and was doing so to try and get my attention.  So, when I got home, for probably the first time in my life I knelt down and I prayed to God.  It was my Road to Damascus moment, when the Lord broke through to me and upended my life.  He spoke to me in my language that day, giving me signs that, as a meteorologist, I would see and recognize and appreciate.  And I understood his action as an invitation, not a command.
 
The next day I reached out to a couple of my old college friends whom I had admired for their faith.  I shared my experience and my newfound belief in God, and asked them for their advice on what my next steps should be.  Over the course of several conversations in the following days and weeks, they helped me learn the basics of their Catholic faith and answered a literal multitude of questions.  They then strongly suggested that I look around my neighborhood to find a church that I liked, because I was getting to the point where there wasn't anything more I could learn on my own.
 
That got me into the Church of the Madalene on a hot late July day.  I didn't burst into flames when I walked through the church doors, which I took as a good sign.  The people there were friendly, and nobody pointed and laughed at the new guy who didn't know the responses or when to stand or sit or kneel during Mass.  The homily was wonderful and felt tailor-made just for me.  I decided that day that the church search was one-and-done, that I'd be staying at the Madalene for a while.  RCIA started up not long afterward, and I was received into the Church by Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy Eucharist on the Easter Vigil, April 19, 2014.
 
Who are some of your favorite Catholic writers? Favorite saints?
 
When I was first learning about the Church and beginning RCIA, my college friends suggested I read "The Seven Storey Mountain" by Thomas Merton.  I had never heard of him or his story.  In Merton's account of his own calling and conversion, I saw that he had gone through many of the same things that I was.  It was a fantastic book for me to have discovered at that point in my journey.  There's a lot of consolation to be found in seeing how the struggles I might be going through at a particular time in my life were also someone else's struggles at some point in the past, and if they made it through then I can too.  When I was a little farther along in my conversion, I was able to get a lot out of the Confessions by St. Augustine.  I've also enjoyed "The Genesee Diary" and "The Return of the Prodigal Son" by Henri Nouwen.  I love reading good books.  It's inspiring to read the biography of a saint that is new to me, and books about the Church or the faith are nourishing both to mind and heart.
 
It's hard to pick out a favorite saint.  But one of my most beloved is St. Francis of Assisi.  He had a profound conversion experience in his life too, and his life from that point on was radically different.  One of the things I find most attractive about Francis was how well he was able to love God and neighbor, and live a life of simplicity and austerity, yet without ever losing joy.  Much like with the Gospels, every time I return to a biography of St. Francis I find something new there that is inspiring, consoling, relevant, and timely. 
 
Some other favorite saints of mine (and this list changes over time):  St. Peter Faber, St. Joseph, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Ignatius of Loyola, Bl. Stanley Rother, Bl. Solanus Casey, Bl. Michael McGivney, St. Teresa of Kolkata.
 
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the Blessed Virgin Mary.  More than any other saint, she has helped guide me to Our Lord through her example and her prayers.
 
When did you feel the call to discern the priesthood? Was there someone who nudged you toward the priesthood or was there a priest you looked up to?
 
After I came into full communion with the Church, I learned that as a single man there are many paths open to me.  I had read of Thomas Merton's journey as a convert to become a monk and a priest.  I was reading about the many various religious orders that are out there, to get a survey of religious life.  I had begun my formation to become a Secular Franciscan.  I was inspired by the deacons at the Madalene, holy men with the hearts of Christ the Servant, who were also family men.  And there was still the possibility of getting married and having a family myself if I met the right woman.  Amid all of that I never really thought much about the priesthood.  I felt, at the time, that the dignity of the priesthood was something too great for me, and that I should consider other options instead.  So I considered the diaconate, and then, as perhaps a deeper expression of my Franciscan calling, religious life with the Franciscans.  At first I was focused on the vocation of the religious brother, but after visiting with some Franciscan friars I came to see that the priesthood was maybe not quite so out of reach for me, even though I'm older.  That pushed me to reach out to Father Pratt with the Diocese's Office of Vocations to seek the Church's help with my discernment.
 
What are some of your favorite hobbies?
 
Around the house, I enjoy reading and working on the yard and gardening.  I like to go exploring in the outdoors, touring around different parts of the state by car, or getting outside to go for a long hike.  I have hiked a very small section of the Appalachian Trail, and I hope someday that I might be able to hike longer parts of the Ouachita Trail in southeastern Oklahoma and Arkansas, or the Ozark Highlands Trail in western to northern Arkansas.  

When is your favorite time of the day to pray? Favorite prayer?

This might change as I get farther along in my formation, but for now at least, I'm at my best in the afternoon and evening.  I want to give to God my best hours, so I prefer to attend Mass in those evening hours.  When I make my Holy Hour of adoration, I try to do that in the afternoon or evening if possible as well.
 
I always try to arrive to Mass 30 minutes early so that I can pray the Rosary as a way to shed the day's demands, busy-ness, and distractions and to focus myself.  I enjoy praying the Rosary because I always get something out of it, no matter which set of mysteries I'm praying that day.  The Rosary is also well-known enough that it's easy to pray it together with others, and it's pretty awesome when a large group prays the Rosary together.
 
What characteristic do you most admire in a priest? In a dad? In a single man?
 
In a priest, one of the things I most want to be able to emulate is availability.  What I mean by that is a willingness to give time and attention to his people as much as he possibly can.  That could take many forms, such as staying late after Mass to visit with individuals, or poking his head in to an RE class to say hi to the kiddos, to participating in parish events.  And I hope it would also show up in the "heavier" things of life like offering counsel in times of crisis, visiting the sick or the homebound, or being present with a grieving family at the death of a loved one.
 
In a father, one of the things I admire most is gentleness.  I think it's great to see dads show gentle and tender love to their kids, especially the little ones.  There's a time and place for firmer discipline, but I admire dads who don't automatically resort to that all the time.
 
In a single man, I admire faith.  It is not easy to be single in the world we live in today.  In my own life I experienced pressures and anxiety brought on by well-meaning family members and friends who were innocently wondering why I wasn't dating more or when I was ever going to settle down and get married.  And these days everyone is bombarded by temptation in our oversexualized society.  It is a battle to remain faithful to the teachings of the Church when we are assailed on all sides.  I think it's a great act of faith to be able to reject all those temptations, all those nagging words whispered from the Enemy, and to resist him steadfast in the faith.
 
I think in all of these can be found the traits of self-mastery and self-sacrifice, and moreover, charity.
 
What do you love about Tulsa? Favorite restaurant to go to in Tulsa?
 
Tulsa has been a great place to live and work.  It feels like a right-sized city to me:  not so compact that it feels cramped, yet not a big sprawling mess either.  Traffic is usually not a big deal, and it takes maybe a half-hour tops to drive all the way across the city.  It has all the major national chains of shops and restaurants that out of town visitors would be accustomed to, plus plenty of local places too.  We have a lovely city.  Tulsa is not flat, it's hilly and green and full of neighborhoods with character.  Kilkenny's is a treasure on Cherry Street.  They have a great variety of flavorful foods; there is something delicious there for just about any taste.  I like going there after the evening Mass at Christ the King on a weeknight when Cherry Street is more mellow.
 
What are you most looking forward to in seminary?
 
There are so many things I'm excited about with St. Meinrad's.  I love the idea of a great big church in the middle of a small town in the country.  I hope that it will be a quiet and serene place where I can better hear the still small voice of God.  I'm looking forward to a more intensive period of prayer and discernment with the help of the formators at the seminary.  I hope I will get the chance to regularly go for a walk or run in the area around the town.  I'm going to try really hard to avoid the Freshman 15 and to get myself more fit.  I love the idea of living under the same roof as the Blessed Sacrament.  I think it will be wonderful to have a chapel right nearby that I can go to whenever.  I'm excited to get to know my brother seminarians from the Diocese who will be there with me, and to meet seminarians from other places too.  I hope that I will be able to stay in touch with the other new seminarians who will be up the road at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis.  The Ohio River is a short drive away, and I imagine carving out a little time for myself to sit by the banks and watch the mighty river go by for a few minutes to unwind at the end of particularly challenging days.  I'm looking forward to developing the gifts that I've been given and hopefully discovering new talents that I can put to use.