Priest finds great joy ministering to men and women ‘of one mind’

Father Tyler Tenbarge chaplain of a Legatus’ new Evansville, IN Chapter. He was raised with six siblings on a farm in Haubstadt, IN, just 19 miles north of Evansville, entered the seminary for that diocese, and was ordained in 2016. He serves as an associate pastor and diocesan vocations director and hosts the podcast “And With Your Spirit.” Evansville is home to 72,000 Catholics with 43 active priests.

He was introduced to Legatus through a cousin and her husband, Lindsey and Matthew Nix, charter members of the Louisville (KY) Chapter.

Why did you become a priest?

I heard a call to the priesthood when I was younger, but I thought pursuing my own preferred career and a family life would make me happy. After high school, I was elected to serve as state president, then national vice president of the National FFA (Future Farmers of America). In those two-and-a-half years, I traveled more than 150,000 miles, met with President George W. Bush in the White House, and helped raise financial support for the 600,000 student members of FFA.

I had thought that if I could just attain the many things I thought would bring me happiness, then I would find my calling. It turns out that those things, in fact, did reveal God’s plan for my life: it was to leave them all behind. I love my job, and I am so happy as a priest.

What are the greatest blessings in your vocation?

The greatest two parts about being a priest are my prayer life and the goodness of God’s people. Jesus asked His disciples to “remain in Him” on the night he instituted the priesthood (John 15:4). Priests are configured to the person of Christ the head. When priests pray, there is a special grace there, and even after just five years, I cannot imagine my life without it.

Secondly, the very little I have done for others cannot measure up to how much the Church and her many good women and men have given to me. Priests – myself included – really are undeserving of the love and kindness of our people, and yet I have found they do not cease to give.

Describe the kind of man who is a good fit for the priesthood.

I suppose the answer is simple: the best type of man for the seminary is the one you would want preaching to your own parents and presiding
at your own funeral. Does the man know Jesus Christ, and has he given up his own pursuits to follow Him? Does the man love the Church, and has he shown that concretely? Does he possess himself, living a virtuous life and having already found disciplines that are the hallmark of timeless holiness?

Those are the men we want as priests. If you know one, tell him you see it in him. He might not yet see it himself.

What interested you in working with Legatus?

I am a part of Legatus by request of my bishop, but more so by the good I have found in it. Every Catholic is in different places in life, career, family, and locale, and each of us benefits greatly when surrounded by others who are “of one mind,” as St. Paul says (Phil 2:2).

We get out of things what we put into them. Since our time is limited, why not put the best of yourself into the best of things? For Catholic professionals, Legatus is one of them.