conversion – The Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy

From Agnostic to Friar on Fire with the Love of Jesus Christ!!!

Br. Daniel Bowen, O. de M. has been with the Order since entering as a postulant in August 2006. Recently, he completed his studies in Sacred Theology at St Charles Borromeo Seminary. Here is his inspiring vocation story:

Growing up I attended my mother’s Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. When I was 13 I quit attending. My father approved since he himself did not practice a faith, he himself having an orthodox Jewish father who married a Methodist.

Throughout high school and university I debunked what little faith I had until I was unwittingly a secular humanist, going to God in prayer only when I was in trouble. I started dating a Catholic girl and went to mass and adoration with her. We broke up, yet something felt right about the Church and I entered RCIA in the fall of 1993.

Easter 1994 I was baptized, confirmed. Circa 1997 I fell away. Easter 2003 attended an Assembly of God Church and had a powerful experience of God. The summer 2003 attended a Teens Encounter Christ Catholic retreat and returned to the practicing the faith.

Around 2004, I started discerning a call to the priesthood and religious life. August 2006 quit my job, sold or gave away my possessions and entered the Order of Mercy as a postulant and began studies at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. May 2013 completed my MDiv and MA at Saint Charles and now am awaiting to profess solemn vows and ordination to the transitional diaconate, and God willing priestly ordination after that.I currently am a Director of Religious Education at a Mercedarian parish in Le Roy, NY.

God is good – all the time!

Br Daniel Bowen, O. de M.

A friend’s invitation leads one young man to change his life and discern his vocation

Mercedarian postulant, Scott McLeod tells his journey from living in the world for himself to striving for holiness as a seminarian:

I was raised in a suburb north of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My family was only modestly Catholic, so when I got to college the practice of the Faith was not something immediately pressing on my conscience. This changed sophomore year, when a friend challenged me on my living the faith and started what would turn into a conversion.

While this wasn’t something that took place all at once or without a significant fight, it was a deep change in both lifestyle and outlook. Now, I struggled not to live my own life, but to live the life of Christ in me. This is a challenge, of course, but with the eyes of Faith, it is the only rewarding way for a Christian to live. I started serving Masses and volunteering with the Pittsburgh Oratory and the Pitt Campus Ministry around this time.

By serving Masses, I grew closer to the liturgy and the worship of the Church and fed an already growing desire to for more complete consecration to God and a life focused and centered around the Sacraments and the example of the Saints. By the end of college, I had also begun to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, which became an important part of my dailyprayer life and also my discernment.

I visited several mendicant orders, even volunteering with onefor a summer, but eventually found that the combination of community life, Marian devotion, liturgical life, and (most importantly) redeeming charism of the Mercedarians attracted me in a unique way. If Christ came among usin order to redeem us, what greater imitation of Christ can a religious offer than the imitation of His redeeming mission?

Son of Fundamentalist Family Becomes Mercedarian Priest

He calls himself the least likely of men to become a priest. Rev. Justin A. Freeman, O. de M., was ordained for the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy on Nov. 13, 2010. Here is his account of how he found his way to the priesthood.

Q. How did you become a priest?

God’s ways are loving, but often inexplicable. I am probably one of the least likely of men to become a Catholic priest.

I was born in a small Virginian town—Warrenton—in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. My family members were of the Church of Christ, a fundamentalist group that was founded to “restore” the primitive Church. My family lived on a small farm in Catlett, a village of a couple hundred people. We lived on a gravel road. Our closet neighbor (my grandmother!) lived a half mile away. I occupied my time by fishing, reading, and playing with my sister and our pets, which were dogs, cats, and even a couple of ducks.

When I was in the ninth grade, my family moved to northern Virginia. The D.C. suburbs were quite a culture shock to a boy from Catlett. It was there that I discovered the Catholic faith through a friend.

Q. What was your family like?

I am the oldest of two brothers and one sister. My sister Jennifer, only twenty months younger than me, is a social worker in Washington State. My brother Clayton is 26 and is in diving school. Samuel, the youngest, just turned 18. He is a senior in high school. My dad is a retired firefighter. He now works as a fire inspector in Rockville, Maryland. My mother is a nurse.

Q. At what age did you become a Catholic?

I was received into full communion with the Catholic Church at age 17 at St. Mary of Sorrows Church in Fairfax, VA. Like many “converts,” I felt at home in the Church.

After graduating from George Mason High School in Falls Church, I attended a small liberal arts college in south central Virginia. I majored in political science. In college, I worked for the Social Security Administration as a “student-clerk.” Living so close to D.C. gave me the opportunity to intern for Preston Gates, a major lobbying firm specializing in energy issues and insular affairs and for a major political party.

Q. What made you think about becoming a priest?

I started thinking of the priesthood even before I was formally received into the Church. The Rev. Daniel Mode, the priest who received me into the Church, even hinted once that I might one day become a priest.

Q. How did your family react to your becoming a Catholic, and wanting to become a priest?

Initially they were not very supportive. But now they are proud.

Q. What attracted you to the priesthood?

The example of many good and dedicated priests that I witnessed early on in my journey to the Faith. They were men who were completely dedicated to the Truth and to helping others.

I joined the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy in 2003 at the age of 24. I professed vows in 2005 and was ordained a priest on Nov. 13, 2010. It has been a long, and at times difficult, journey to the altar. May He give me the grace to be a good and faithful Mercedarian priest.