A Priest Reflects: From Squeaky Wooden Pews to the Church Universal

This post is being given over to Fr. Daniel Bowen, Vocation Director of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy.

As I stepped into the pulpit to begin my sermon, I gazed at the expectant congregation.

I was visiting one of three small rural parishes just southwest of Chicago as part of a mission that the pastor had invited our Order to give.

My mind was taken back to the generations of parishioners who had sat in these squeaky old pews for more than a hundred years.

I thought about the grandparents, children and grandchildren who had been nourished with the Word of God, and with his Body and Blood in this simple frame structure with its old-wood smell at the edge of the cornfields.

I was now at Sacred Heart Church in the rural town of Goodrich, Illinois, where you can see rows of corn and soybeans stretching all the way to the horizon in the golden evening sun.

And, although I was miles away from my home in Ohio, I was part of a continuing faith tradition here in the heartland of Illinois.

Forming a Link

As I preached on my mission theme of heaven, hell, death and judgment, I knew that I was forming a link between these parishioners and other Catholics in all parts of the world, and even beyond.

Being a Christian is more than an individual, isolated experience, even one within one’s own family or parish. It stretches beyond geographical boundaries, and into the past as well as the future. We are all joined to the Church Militant, Church Triumphant, and Church Glorious. I’m referring of course to Christians here on earth, in purgatory, and in heaven.

I could sense that my coming there was reinforcing the knowledge of those who sat in front of me – that this was the same Catholic faith, the same prayers, and the same sacraments that Catholics partake of everywhere, and from all time since our savior Jesus Christ walked the earth.

If you grow up as a teenager in a rural community like this, your summer job might be walking up and down rows of corn, detasseling the pollen-producing top part of the corn. Or raising the biggest hog possible for the county’s 4-H competition.

Way different from my life growing up in the city.

And yet, these rural folks and I share a common faith, surrounded by statues in the church, our sacred liturgy, and our following of Jesus Christ and participating in his life, “the way, the truth, and the life.”

I help people grow in this faith walk, and this makes me glad that God has called me as a Mercedarian priest.

Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy

Have you thought that God may be calling you to become a Mercedarian friar?

The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, also known as the Order of Mercy, was founded in 1218 in Spain. We have friars who are priests and brothers.

In the United States, Mercedarian friars serve in parishes, prisons, hospitals, schools and other institutions in Ohio, Pennsylvania New York, and Florida. As part of their charism of redemptive love, they have a sincere devotion to Mary and to the Eucharist.

Single Catholic men age 18 – 40 who think they may have a Mercedarian vocation are invited to visit the website of the Mercedarian Friars USA at OrderofMercy.org. Contact me, Fr. Daniel Bowen, vocation director, at vocations@orderofmercy.org.

Or test your call to the Mercedarian Friars, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdXItmgIvapDCKh1VnBzXAXGDCaifxASxsgCAUfEwrvKq6DjQ/viewform

Learn more about the friars at these sites as well:

Facebook: MercedarianFriarsUSA, https://www.facebook.com/MercedarianFriarsUSA

Twitter: 4thvow, https://twitter.com/4thvow

Instagram: mercedarianfriarsusa, https://www.instagram.com/mercedarianfriarsusa/

YouTube: Mercedarian Friars USA, https://www.youtube.com/c/MercedarianFriarsUSA