West St. Paul-based NET Ministries “ruined my life in all the best of ways,” said Brother Paschal Listi, vocations director for the Franciscan Brothers of Peace in St. Paul. NET Ministries, a Catholic youth ministry, trains and sends teams of missionaries across the country to facilitate retreats and other evangelistic events.

NET Ministries taught him about personal prayer, brotherhood and sisterhood, “and inspired me to discern my vocation very seriously and joyfully,” he said. Brother Paschal said he is grateful to have found the call through spiritual direction. Born in Texas, he believes “God has a sense of humor to bring me up here to Minnesota.” He visited Franciscan orders around the country that were “tugging at his heart,” but said the order in St. Paul “just resonated with my soul like the strings on a cello, you could say.”

Brother Paschal recently joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show producer Kayla Mayer to discuss the Franciscan Brothers of Peace and the recent 18-mile walking pilgrimage in honor of Blessed Solanus Casey.

Blessed Solanus, a Capuchin Franciscan priest, was born in 1870, baptized in Prescott, Wisconsin, and confirmed at St. Michael in Stillwater. Brother Paschal said that where Blessed Solanus really shone was “helping people to trust in God’s providence, teaching them to thank God ahead of time for however he would be working in their lives and answering their prayers.”

“I think he’s a great example for all of us … anyone striving for the kingdom, especially in humility, just accepting God’s providence in our lives and flowering and growing right where we’re planted,” Brother Paschal said.

Brother Michael Gaworski founded the Franciscan Brothers of Peace in 1982, Brother Paschal said. “He helped start Pro Life Action Ministries in St. Paul, and he discerned that God was calling him to this celibate way of life, living in community … and to being a new brotherhood, a new foundation right here in St. Paul, Minneapolis.” Brother Paschal said the mission and charism of the Franciscan Brothers of Peace is “the dignity of life, is to rebuild, like Francis was called to do, rebuild the Church, rebuild the dignity of life wherever it is threatened.”

The Brothers do that in “the traditional Franciscan way,” he said, of serving the poor, including with a weekly food shelf, but also by offering pro-life apostolates, sidewalk counseling and prayer outside “abortion centers.”

To learn more about the Franciscan Brothers of Peace and their ministries, and how to support them, visit brothersofpeace.org. To hear the full interview with Brother Paschal, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which debuts at 9 p.m. Aug. 4 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and repeats at 1 p.m. Aug. 5 and 2 p.m. Aug. 6.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes an interview with Amy Cummings from Partnership for Youth, who describes summer experiences for young people at parishes and their potential impact on young Catholics; as well as Marci Franzen, project manager in the Office of Communications at the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and Julie Woodruff, a parishioner of St. Joseph in Red Wing, who describe their recent trip to the Diocese of Kitui in Kenya.

Listen to interviews after they have aired at PracticingCatholicShow.com or choose a streaming platform at anchor.fm/practicing-catholic-show.