Oeding Named Executive Director of God’s Embrace Ministries
God’s Embrace Ministries, based in High Hill, named Stacy Oeding as their new executive director earlier this year. The Record sat down with Oeding a few weeks ago for a wide-ranging conversation about her organization and the Roman Catholic Church in general.
Oeding said God’s Embrace is an independent nonprofit organization separate from the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Victoria. However, she said all of the training and materials they produce come with approval from Catholic authorities, especially the local Bishop.
“We’re not replacing anything the Church does, we’re just helping to facilitate,” she said.
God’s Embrace began in Michigan by Dr. Michael Fonseca before coming to Texas. Formerly a Jesuit priest, Fonseca requested and was granted laicization from his priestly duties in 1990. He remains in good standing with the Church and now works as a lay person to bring people closer to Christ.
“He served a lot within the church counseling religious and others with addiction and other challenges,” she said. “He started to identify a lack of formation within the church. He started writing books and creating content to help people dive deeper in the faith. Along this journey, he was invited by the Diocese of Victoria to do diaconate formation.”
Fonseca would fly to Texas once a month to instruct men who were in the process of becoming deacons.
“A lot of the deacons said, ‘You need to offer this to lay people,’” Oeding said.
From there, he met occasionally with lay people to help them more deeply explore the Catholic faith.
“It evolved into what it is today,” Oeding said. “He’s written over 12 books. They’re all geared toward praying daily, immersing yourself in scripture and a personal relationship with God.
“He and his late wife Cherrie would say rather than curse the darkness, they wanted to light candles,” she added. “That was one of their goals – to reignite and illuminate a love, joy and enthusiasm for the Catholic faith.”
Oeding encountered God’s Embrace after attending an ACTS retreat.
“I had been a cradle Catholic and went to Catholic school,” she said. “I guess I was in my 30s, as an adult, when I realized there was so much more to this.”
Oeding outlined the basic philosophy behind God’s Embrace.
“One of the big things is the prayers of the Church, our Catholic prayers,” she said. “So unpacking them – what does it mean when we pray the ‘Our Father,’ the ‘Hail Mary,’ or just making the Sign of the Cross? That’s one of the beautiful things. We talk about tradition, and some people balk at that. But when we learn the ‘Why?’and the ‘How?’we can learn a lot about our faith just in those prayers.
“The other part of it is a focus on our daily face-to-face with God,” she added. “It’s a non-negotiable. It’s a time and space where you offer a minimum of five minutes, or however much you can do, and just sit with God in silence and allow Him to be heard. There is so much noise in the world. Even in the world of spirituality and prayer – we want to go to an app or listen to a podcast – and all of those are good things. There’s so much more great Catholic content out there than at any point. But it does not replace this one-on-one relationship with God. There’s no real substitute for that.”
The ministry offers books and retreats to help the faithful establish a life of prayer. The book programs offer daily instruction over the course of 12 to 14 weeks.
“Days One and Seven typically address some aspect of the faith or spirituality, and Days Two through Six you’re immersing yourself in scripture,” she said. “It offers you a verse and a reflection to pray with, and always encapsulated with our morning prayers, evening prayers, Act of Contrition, and all those things. It helps people to grow in that area – to be still and in the presence of God.”
Oeding began working part-time with God’s Embrace over 10 years ago. She took on the role of Executive Director this year.
“We’re kind of in a new phase. Our founder has taken on a new role as Director of Healing at Our Lady’s Healing Center in Seadrift. And he’s 82, not to mention. So there’s always been the idea of a succession: what does God’s Embrace Ministries look like when Michael is no longer at the helm driving things. That discussion had been happening. Then this opportunity came up for him to take on this role and still be involved here. We’ve always done the ministry side of things really well. But the non-profit side, we’re coming to grips with: funding, stakeholders, what programs should we offer?”
Oeding said the organization is currently working on a strategic plan. Part of that involves informing the community about what God’s Embrace is all about.
“Sometimes I’m surprised out in the local community how many people don’t know who we are and what we do,” she said. “So maybe this is a time to tell our story. Plus, there’s a huge Catholic population here. There are a lot of faithful. If they don’t know what we offer, I want them to know that.”
God’s Embrace also offers training for people to become spiritual directors. Oeding said she believes the kind of spiritual formation God’s Embrace offers can help with the mental health crisis facing so many individuals and the community as a whole.
“Research shows that spiritual practice can have a positive impact on people’s mental health,” she said. “We know there are circumstances where people need medical intervention – chemical imbalances and that sort of thing. But we’ve forgotten about the journey and discipleship where we experience great consolation and joy of the love of God.And desolation – where we experience the absence of God, even though we know he’s not absent. We experience these feelings. Sometimes that’s purification. We’re being purified by God for a greater purpose. Part of it is helping people to identify and see that.
“We want to treat the physical all the time, that’s necessary,” she said. “But sometimes we’ve lost sight of the spiritual and making sure we’re taking good care of our soul as well. We have to be very mindful and acknowledge where one crosses into the other. We’re never going to get outside of our wheelhouse. But there’s a lot of things that can be addressed spiritually, through prayer.”
Oeding said today’s society wants instant satisfaction.
“We don’t like suffering in any way, shape, or form,” she said. “But then you learn about these great saints who welcomed suffering, because of the closeness it brought them with Christ. So we try to help people understand that God does not will for bad things to happen. We have free will. We’re in a fallen world. We try to help people understand He’s with us, He suffers with us. A return to that reality is important. You don’t get to Easter Sunday without Good Friday.”
Oeding also spoke about the recent election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope. Oeding said she never thought the Cardinals would elect an American pope.
“I never thought I’d see the day,” she said. “I was sitting with Eric (her husband) and watching the interviews with his brothers. And they were saying how he was planning to visit in August, and they didn’t know if he’d be able to visit now. And I’m thinking, ‘Wow, your brother is the pope!’
“I think it’s going to bring a certain level of being relatable,” she said. “He’s got these brothers, and they live in Florida and Chicago. I hope maybe for the Church in America, it brings some relatability. Maybe people will explore what the Catholic Church is. It’s an exciting time for the Church in the United States.”
Learn more about God’s Embrace Ministries at godsembrace. org.