In college, Jane Lynch was drawn to “a more disciplined spiritual life, something deeper.” By the time she started her teaching career, she realized a community life in a religious order was not for her. “I didn’t really know there was any other way to dedicate my life to God,” she said.  

But then a member of the Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ asked if Lynch might be interested in “a vowed life.” After a year of learning, she said yes “to the good Lord” and became an aspirant in that secular order. “So it was by word of mouth that I found out that there was another way of consecrating your life to God besides being a religious in a community,” she said. 

Jane Lynch

Meisha Johnson recently interviewed Lynch and Natasha Sager, a member of the Caritas Christi secular institute, about secular institutes, for the 9 p.m. Nov. 11 debut on Relevant Radio 1330 AM of an episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. Johnson, filling in for show host Patrick Conley, is a convert to Catholicism and works as the director of pastoral care and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at St. Joseph of the Lakes in Lino Lakes. 

A secular institute is an organization of consecrated persons professing the evangelical counsels of celibacy and chastity, poverty and obedience while living in the world. Members of a religious institute, on the other hand, live in community with one another. Secular institutes represent a form of consecration in secular life, not religious life, Sager said. “Basically, we take our consecration, we take the heart of God, into the heart of the world,” she said. 

“We live more of a hidden life, a leaven in the world,” Lynch said. “Wherever our professions are, our work is. We’re sort of a hidden witness in the secular world.” 

Now retired, Lynch has worked with immigrants at a school for 10 years and is active in volunteer work, including as a befriender at church and maintaining an active prayer life. “There’s never really a typical day,” she said. “It’s wherever the good Lord leads me. And I’m glad to have the extra time to get involved in different things with our institute.” 

Natasha Sager

Sager helps with ministries at her church, including faith formation and vacation Bible school and has led a young adult group. She also does vocations work for her community, such as updating promotional materials. “Right now, I’m rebuilding the website for the U.S. Conference of Secular Institutes,” she said. “I do a lot of media work and social media work for my community and for the United States Conference of Secular Institutes.” 

Someone considering the religious life, should “pray, pray, pray,” Sager said, and talk with a priest or someone else at the parish who can guide with discernment “because … when God moves in the heart, prayer is the first step, and then reaching out and taking that step and seeing where God is leading you to.” 

“It’s been a wonderful 40 years,” Lynch said. “It’s a wonderful way of life.” 

To hear the full interview, tune in to this episode of “Practicing Catholic” which repeats at 1 p.m. Nov. 12 and 2 p.m. Nov. 13 on Relevant Radio. To learn about Lynch’s and Sager’s institutes, visit their websites: Secular Institute of the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ, simkc.org; and Caritas Christi, ccinfo.org.

In addition, people can visit the Office of Vocations’ website for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 10000vocations.org, or contact Sister Carolyn Puccio, delegate for consecrated life, archspm.org/staff/carolyn-puccio/archdiocese.

Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Father Tom Margevicius, director of worship for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, who describes the concluding rite for his latest “Mass Class;” and Father Michael Skluzacek, director of pastoral formation at The St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, and sacramental minister at St. Wenceslaus in New Prague, who discusses “spiritual fatherhood.” 

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