Tracy Kessler focuses on helping members of Glenmary missions
talk about their faith

Tracy Kessler has been a woman on the move since she was hired as Glenmary’s evangelization consultant in August 2007. Based in Glenmary’s Department of Pastoral Ministers and Pastoral Services in Nashville, Tenn.,Tracy has visited almost every Glenmary mission and has led programs in several of those missions.

Tracy Kessler

The North Carolina native came to Glenmary after 12 years of working as a youth minister in the Diocese of Raleigh. But she first came to know Glenmary through her longtime friend Glenmary Father Tom Field, who died in 2004.

“He always told me that there are many ways that I could work to bring about the Kingdom beyond youth ministry,” Tracy says, and when she saw the ad for the evangelization consultant, she thought the job could be one of those ways.

She likes to tell people that through her job she gets to visit the people in Glenmary missions and lead workshops and retreats to “help them feel more comfortable in sharing their faith story with others, develop skills that enable them to share their faith more effectively and invite others to share their faith journey as Catholic Christians.”

“In their everyday lives these folks are working with non-Catholics who ask them questions like ‘Why do you believe in the pope and not God?’” she says. “By being better prepared to answer the questions and share their faith in the language of the culture in which they live, folks can explain their faith in a way that others understand easily. And most importantly, the Catholics learn to be more comfortable with their own faith.”

Coworkers Meet: Glenmary coworkers met in October 2007 for their annual gathering at St. Mary Retreat Center in Swanee, Tenn. The week-long event, coordinated by the Department of Pastoral Ministers and Pastoral Services, was filled with prayer, learning, mutual support and planning. Pictured above, from left, are Lorraine Vancamp, director of DPMPS; pastoral coordinators Sister Mary Bordelon, Metter, Ga.; Sister Alies Thérèse, Ackerman and Eupora, Miss.; Sister Mary Jean Morris, Bruce, Miss., and Sister Kate Regan, Ripley, Miss. Photo/Tracy Kessler

The questions that come from non-Catholics are familiar to Tracy, as are the Glenmary mission counties. As a Catholic raised in Durham, N.C., she was among the Catholic minority. In Durham, she was a member of a mission community that traces its beginnings to meeting in a local funeral home.

Tracy has also been able to put her experience as a youth minister to use in her new position. She has found that the pastors and professional ministers she meets are very interested in youth ministry and want to develop programs to engage and invite youth to become more involved.

She has led confirmation retreats and is looking forward to developing other ways of connecting with the youth and adults in Glenmary missions.

“I love what I’m doing,” Tracy says. “I love being in the missions and helping others become more aware—and more comfortable in sharing with others—that being Catholic is a wonderful, beautiful thing.”