Jenna Ripp

When she was single, it was easy for Jenna Ripp, our coordinator for religious education and baptism preparation, to live a faith-filled life.
     Now that she is a parent, she understands a little better the struggle to incorporate faith into everyday life.
     But she says her job here has given her the tools that she needs to guide her church family and her own family.
     “It has given me a way to apply how I am trying to help parents here to my life as well,” said Ripp. “Because now that is my reality, where in the past it wasn’t.“
     Praying before meals and teaching the sign of the cross are two ways that parents can help their children learn the faith.
     “And they can learn the faith!” said Ripp. “We just have to take the time. It does mean time and a little effort, but kids, especially young kids … they want to learn. They look up to their parents.”
     As the coordinator for the religious education program for grades pre-kindergarten through fifth, Ripp said her main goal is to help catechists and parents to teach the faith to their children.
     “We want them to learn something,” she said. “But more so, I want them to see an adult in addition to their parents who is interested and invested in the faith and someone who can show them that the faith is real and it has affected their life in a big way. Witness is huge.”
     However, studies have shown that parents are the most influential in their child’s faith life.
     “We are here to support them and hopefully we are doing that … obviously we can always grow and improve,” Ripp said. “But I think it is also difficult to know the faith. Hopefully we are able to provide (parents) with the stuff of the faith.”
     Ripp encourages parents to make their faith real at home. “Making the faith into a relationship with Jesus, learning and saying prayers, going to Mass … and knowing that you can talk to Jesus for whatever reason – good or bad.”
     Ripp said she lives for “those little a-ha moments” that you get when teaching students. 
     “It is fun when they make connections and get the faith … and they understand it in a way that we can’t … that is innocent and pure.”
     The enrollment numbers in the elementary religious education program have remained steady over the years, and Ripp said she is very happy with the retention rates among third-graders.
     “I think that is a huge win,” she said. “They aren’t just leaving after receiving the sacraments.”
     Ripp is also responsible for baptism preparation, sacrament preparation for First Reconciliation and First Communion, planning and conducting Vacation Bible School during the summer and managing the VIRTUS (safe environment) program for the parish.
     She took over the baptism preparation class during her own pregnancy.
     “It was perfect timing,” she said. “I really felt I could relate to the moms and dads going through it. We were walking the same journey … becoming first-time parents.
     “I really like walking that journey with people and knowing that it is a really big moment in their lives,” she said. “They have welcomed a new child into their life and with that is going to come a lot of changes.
     “But our faith is steadfast and not changing and there to meet us in whatever capacity we need if we are willing to approach it.”
     Ripp’s faith life started right here at St. Bernard parish. She served at Mass beginning as a fifth grader through her senior year at Middleton High School. She was involved in the parish youth group and went to Camp Gray during the summers.
     “Those years were pretty influential on my faith,” said Ripp. “Seeing young adults who were excited about the faith and other kids my age that were into the faith as well … that makes a big difference.
     “It enlivens your faith and gives you new tools to grow in your faith.”
     Ripp loved the experience so much that she decided to join the Camp Gray staff. She was a member of the retreat team and served as the head cook for one summer.
     Her favorite role was guiding the Leaders in Training program, which is made up of high school seniors who want to be counselors at Camp Gray. 
     After graduating from Middleton High School, she attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison and finished with a bachelor’s degree in religious studies in 2008. She also has a master’s degree in pastoral theology from Ave Maria University.
     She was a peer minister at the St. Paul University Catholic Center during her junior year at Madison.
     “I also found it as a time of growth in my faith,” she said.
     Ripp said the biggest influences on her faith life were her mother and grandmother.
     “My grandmother was a very faithful woman,” she said. “She had 12 kids and never missed Mass. She would listen to the Mass or the rosary on the radio and always made sure that faith was at the forefront of her life.
     “She was just very generous in how she lived her life. She was caring and loving for anyone who came to her.”
     In 2010, Ripp became the youth minister at St. John the Baptist parish in Waunakee. 
     Four years later, Fr. Doug Dushack handed her the keys to the parish office here at St. Bernard.
     “I thought I was just here for an interview,” Ripp said. (Several staff members have similar stories about Fr. Dushack’s hiring process.)
     It also helped that Ripp was familiar with the parish and the parish staff, including Joy Bauman, who was the youth minister here when Ripp was in school.
     “She has such an energy,” said Ripp. “She really took the time to get to know (our family). We felt welcomed and loved.”
     Now that she has her own family, Ripp said she appreciates the “busy-ness” of life and all the joys and challenges of parenthood.
     “And just the love in general. You can’t describe the love that you have for your children.”
     For her own son, Ripp hopes that he grows up to be a good and faith-filled man.
     “I want him to be a good man, who approaches things in a way that upholds the dignity of people and that he can find that example in Jesus and the saints,” she said.    “The faith can be something that he can lean on … and to have a strong faith.”
     Ripp said she also hopes that he will seek   answers when he has questions.
     “That is the beauty of the Catholic Church. If you dig enough, you are going to find an answer to the question that you have. There is always a reason for why the church teaches or does something, which makes it a great learning experience.
     “Sometimes we may not like the answers, but the answer is always there if we are willing to look for them.
     “Whether it is in the liturgy or the teachings of the church, the answers are there.”