PALM BEACH GARDENS | At his inaugural Mass in 1978, Pope John Paul II laid out what would become the central message of his long and fruitful pontificate: “Be not afraid.” For Ashlie O’Brien, who has adopted St. John Paul II as her most powerful intercessor, his words are a driving force as she prepares for a major change in her life.
In August, Ashlie will enter formation in New Jersey as a Salesian sister of St. John Bosco. The first year, as an aspirant, will be at the order’s motherhouse in the Northeast, she said. That will be followed by her postulant year, which will be based at their California motherhouse. Then back to New Jersey for two years of novitiate. “Then I will, God willing, take temporary vows after four years of formation,” Ashlie said.
Many local parishioners may know of Ashlie from her work at the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola, where she has worked in liturgical ministries since September 2020. “I originally was just the coordinator for the altar servers, and then that evolved into director of liturgical ministries. So, I ran all the lectors, the ushers, the servers, the extraordinary ministers of holy Communion and the sacristans,” she said, which evolved into her current position of director of liturgy and communications.
At 29 years old, Ashlie was born and raised in New Hampshire until moving to Tampa to attend the University of South Florida, which she graduated from in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in public health. As a cradle Catholic, Ashlie and her family stopped practicing their faith when she was in the sixth grade, she said. While in college, she returned to the church and was confirmed, taking St. John Paul II as her patron. She also applied to enter the Salesian formation program and was accepted, but the timing wasn’t right, so she withdrew the application.
“It’s all in God’s timing. There was a reason for that. I probably wasn’t ready at that time. I think I was too young. I had a lot more spiritual maturing to do,” said Ashlie, who now lives in Boynton Beach within five miles of her parents, brother and sister.
After USF, Ashlie applied and was accepted to physician assistant school, but then she pivoted her plans and earned a master’s in liturgical theology at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in southern Indiana before earning a doctorate in physical therapy in 2022.
“While I was in PT school, I was working at clinics,” she said. “When I graduated PT, I worked full-time (in PT) and part time at the cathedral, probably for about a year, and then I realized that I didn’t like physical therapy full time, so I switched and did the cathedral full time and physical therapy part-time.
“As I got these degrees and I worked in the secular world, I just wasn’t satisfied. There was always something missing. And I tried to tell myself that I wasn’t called to religious life,” Ashlie said. But on a 30-day silent retreat focusing on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the desire to become a “bride of Christ” returned.
Explaining the mission and charisms of the Salesians, Ashlie said they were established by St. John Bosco and St. Mary Mazzarello and centered around the spirituality of St. Francis de Sales, which emphasizes that the call to holiness is for everyone.
“We all have that universal call to holiness, so Don Bosco really took that to heart and started to reach out to young boys, to orphans who were definitely going down the wrong track, and started schools and orphanages for them and trade schools and oratories,” she said. Mazzarello and Don Bosco formed the Salesian order for women, who are formally called the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
“We focus on youth and education in terms of Don Bosco’s preventive system, using reason, religion and loving kindness to form these men and women onto the path,” Ashlie said. “They’re in schools, anywhere from pre-early childhood education all the way through college. We have several sisters who are in administrative roles, whether they’re in the order or within parishes. So, there’s a wide variety. But it is mostly youth, specifically the poor.”
If she is assigned to teach schoolchildren, it should help that she has taught first- and second-grade children in the cathedral’s religious education program for two years. Ashlie said it was a joy to journey with the children toward first Communion. “That could be my life for the rest of my life,” she added.
“I’m open to wherever the Lord wants to call me. I know that he’ll give me the graces that I need to serve in the vineyard in which he needs me most,” Ashlie said, adding, “I’ve never taught in a school, but I’m open to it. I know that they form us. They’re not going to leave me hanging. They give you the resources and the support that you need.”
That type of support from a wide circle of friends has continued to nurture her call to consecrated life, such as Father Adam Marchese and Father Angel Garcia, both of the Diocese of Orlando, and Father Gavin Badway, cathedral rector and her supervisor.
“I’ve known him for about 10 years, and he has helped me through a lot. He was the one who encouraged me to go on the 30-day retreat, which is kind of where it sparked the new calling,” Ashlie said.
Father Badway said he has known Ashlie for many years and been her director of human formation as well as her pastor. “She is a highly competent woman in so many ways who has given her best and her all for the cathedral. Now she has the opportunity to do the same for the church universal,” he said. “While she will be missed greatly at the cathedral, I am happy for her in her decision and pleased that she is finally taking the next step in discerning God’s will for her and how he is calling her to serve him and others more faithfully.”
Ashlie also pointed to assistance from role models and cathedral parishioners Fred and Jane Topor and Deacon Dave and Beth Zanotelli, along with Sister Elfie Del Rosario, Salesian vocations director.
“The Lord provides always. You just have to be open to receive it. The cathedral community as a whole has been there to fill those temporal needs that do need to be taken care of prior to entering as well as through initial formation,” she said.
In a spiritual sense, St. John Paul II has been a pillar for Ashlie like no other person. She never met the Polish pope or saw him in person during his life, but they have a strong connection. Her mother said that, when the pope died in 2005, Ashlie couldn’t take her eyes off the telecast of funeral events in Rome. Years later, Ashlie wept at his Vatican tomb. She tries to live by his example of no fear and total abandonment to God’s plan.
“To me, despite the fear and the anxieties that overwhelm you as you approach entrance date, that inner stillness I can always find it,” she said. “I have to dig harder on some days than others, but it’s there no matter what, and I think just focusing on that truth is what’s most important. And if it is the Lord’s will, it’s out of my control. I just have to have an open heart and mind to just say yes.”
For information about the Salesian order, visit www.salesiansisters.org.
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