Abigail Beck (Submitted photo)
A former FOCUS missionary and medical student, Abigail Beck joined the Chancery staff in January, where she serves as the Diocese of Superior’s human resources assistant. She’s also the diocesan contact for campus ministry and women’s discernment.
Women who are considering a religious vocation can reach her at or 515-571-0844.
Please tell us a little about yourself.
I was born and raised in Fort Dodge, Iowa, with my two younger siblings and loving parents. We spent loads of time as a family exploring the outdoors, reading, playing sports, vacationing to new places and playing family games. I went to Catholic school kindergarten through graduate school, but it wasn’t until my freshman year of college when my identity as a runner was ripped away from me in a season of injury that I truly began to develop a personal relationship with the Lord. Since I began praying daily, the Lord has taken my life and transformed it. In following the Lord’s will for my life, I became a FOCUS missionary after college and now continue to do mission in Superior with my husband, Tyler. Now, I love to trail run, host parties, cross-country ski, read, travel, listen to health podcasts and do anything that involves competition.
What has brought you to work for the Diocese of Superior?
After serving for two years at the University of Minnesota Duluth, the Lord called me to medical school at St. Louis University. However, it was in my time there that the Lord gradually worked on my heart, giving me a different dream for my future than the one I’d held fast to for so many years. Spiritually, I was well. I maintained my habits of daily Mass, prayer, and rosary as well as surrounding myself with the Catholic community at SLU and my Bible study. However, there was this tug on my heart that I was constantly pushing away because if the Lord had called me to medical school, doggonit, I was going to do it! I enjoyed what I was learning, and sure, the rigor of my schedule was demanding, but I thrive off of doing hard things. So I continued on. All until Nov. 11, 2025.
I began my day as usual, but something felt off. As I entered into an activity with med students of all ages, I was hearing the chatter, “Yeah, I worked 70 hours this week on rotations”; “I haven’t slept eight hours in ages”; “I just don’t have time to work out anymore with this exam coming up”; “Bible study? Not this week for me.” My spirit was slowly sinking. For the first time, I realized, I don’t actually want this anymore. Yes, there are women I want to serve who need help with their fertility, but is this how God wants me to do it? What about my family? What about my future husband and kids? What about my mission field in the parish? What about my freedom to be “crazy Abby”?
Then came the quiet, gentle whisper:
Jesus: “What if you dropped out?”
Me: “No, no, no, this is your will for me!”
Jesus: “But what if you dropped out?”
Me: “But what the heck else would I do with my life?”
Jesus: “I’ve got you. What if you dropped out?”
And so began the journey. Within 48 hours, after calls to my spiritual director Fr. Vu, my family and my closest friends, and a holy hour with the Lord, I knew with great certainty: I had to leave.
Where would I go? The Lord had not opened that door yet.
In the next two months, the Lord spread wide the doors for my life of mission once more.
One of my friends had recently left her position at the Diocese of Superior to stay at home with her new baby girl. I got connected with the diocese staff and a short month after leaving medical school, I was hitting the ground running with mission again.
Now, I am blessed to do campus ministry on the UW-Superior campus and coordinate women’s discernment in the diocese. In an ever-evolving, mission-focused diocese, I’m excited to see what the future holds for how I can be the Lord’s hands and feet in the realm of evangelization and ministry.
What inspires you in your spiritual life?
“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than
falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will get you out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.”
-Fr. Pedro Arupe SJ
What are your professional goals and interests?
My professional goals include starting my business, 10:10 Hormones & Health, focusing on understanding the female body through the language of symptoms in order to reclaim wellness and love the genius with which God created women. I am also working to have adoration available in Superior every day and to develop a thriving young adult group so that Superior may be transformed by the Lord’s Real Presence and community of his disciples.
Favorite quote?
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”
from “The Confessions of Saint Augustine”
