"It caused me to pause and reflect: is this how I feel as well?"| Beth Allison

When Beth was discerning long-term missions as a young adult, she took an opportunity to go on a mission trip to Ecuador, which transformed the way she viewed the Eucharist forever. In this episode she describes that trip, her life working in ministry, and how travel and pilgrimage have bolstered her faith in Jesus and dependence on him in the Eucharist.

(00:44) We meet our guest, Beth Allison, Parish Engagement Coordinator, at St. Aloysius parish in Downtown Detroit, where Fr. Mario serves as pastor and Leah attends as a parishioner. She shares a bit about her journey from interior design to full-time ministry. 

(03:01) Beth describes where her strong faith comes from, attributing much of it to the way in which her parents raised her and her brother, and her experiences as a teen in youth ministry. She also describes how her relationship with God has been particularly strengthened through travel. 

(06:04) Beth describes some of her experiences on a mission trip to Ecuador that she went on as she was finishing up college, and how that trip transformed the way she viewed the Eucharist. 

(09:49) Fr. Mario asks Beth to share how she restores the joy she experienced on that trip in her daily life now. He comments on the tendency to begin to approach the Mass as routine and ordinary. He shares how he and Beth first met shortly after he had gone on a trip to Ecuador himself, and experienced similar things in the community he encountered there. 

(14:29) Beth shares what it was like to return from the mission trip with a great desire to share her experience and describes telling her mom and friends about it. 

(18:35) Fr. Mario asks Beth about a trip she recently took to the Camino, walking 500 miles, on pilgrimage, through Spain. She shares why she finds travel and pilgrimage to be especially beneficial in growing her relationship with the Lord and in his sacraments. 

(20:36) Beth shares how she is able to share her love for the Eucharist in her role as a youth minister and in current role as a Parish Engagement Coordinator. Fr. Mario comments on how working for the Church can make it hard to remain rooted in prayer and devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. He highlights how Beth is a disciple first and foremost, consistently seeking Jesus in her own life, as a foundation from which to share her love for him. 

(24:20) Beth shares how she prioritizes silence in her own prayer life and how she works time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament into her own day-to-day life.