Team Spiritual Care: Vital Life No. 1

Vital Life: A Friar’s Experience

Fellow Residents and Staff,

I have been ministering at Saint Leonard in one capacity or another for five years. Two years ago I moved into an apartment in Chaminade Hall. Now I am in the unique position of experiencing Saint Leonard both as a resident and as a staff member. I am blessed to get to meet so many wonderful people here. Who am I?

I was born sixty-eight years ago in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of a German-American mother and an Irish-American father. My parents grew up in southwestern Wayne County in east central Indiana, Mother in the little town of Milton, Dad on a farm a mile south. Mother’s family moved away in the 1920s, but parts of Dad’s family remained there until my last uncle died five years ago. I spent the happiest days of my childhood on the farm; and though the buildings are gone and the deed has changed hands, I still make the occasional pilgrimage to Wayne County and draw strength at my roots.

Both Dad and Mother were Catholic, and I grew up in the Catholic Church. During college I entered the Order of Friars Minor (in contemporary English, Community of Little Brothers), otherwise known as the Franciscans. At that time candidates for the Order had to choose to become either lay brothers or ordained brothers. It appeared as though the latter had more opportunities, and so I chose to become a priest, studying for the priesthood at right here at Saint Leonard College. As a friar and priest, I have ministered to high school students in Cincinnati and Fort Wayne; to hospital patients in Lafayette, Columbus, and Houma; to the gay and lesbian community in Columbus and Houston; and to the sales force of Saint Anthony Messenger across the country. I am now back in Centerville, where I first lived forty-some years ago.

In the words of Saint Francis, Peace and every Blessing!

Loren Connell, OFM,

sacramental minister

August 1, 2011