Priest or Nun who impacted you the most

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Is there a Priest or Nun who had impacted you the most in your walk of faith, or who encouraged you to grow as a Catholic?

For me it was Father Steve in middle school who taught me the necessity of Jesus Christ in my life. Because of his Theology class my entire life was turned right side up, and my heart was opened to God and serving Him.

And I was wondering if anyone else had experiences like this and if so who was this priest or nun and how did they impact your life?
 
for me, it is Father Joel McNew from our parish, he keeps me awake during his homilies - it is always good.
 
Sr. Marie Irene OP, the best teacher, and the best teacher of English literature and writing that I ever had, definitely influenced the course of my life, and the fact that writing has been part of every career I’ve had (and I’ve had several). Also the best influence on what religious life is, what a life can be that combines work as service and spirituality. A genuinely good person, good in the sense of saintly.
 
It would probably have to be Fr. Russell.

I first met him when I was 17 and away from home for the 1st time at college in the early 80’s. He was the chaplain at our Catholic Student Center. I remember him most for his sense of humor and his musical abilities. He was assigned elsewhere after a year or so, and I didn’ run across him again for several years. After I graduated from college, I started to feel like I had outgrown the CSC. I didn’t really want to get my politics from Mass (insulting the military, etc.), so I went church-hunting.

I went to several over several months. Finally in the late 80’s I walked into St. Elizabeth and knew that I was “home”. And there was Fr. Russell, again. I still enjoyed his humor. I loved his homilies which were always very short, but direct and to the point. I liked his humility when he was preaching. He was very much a people person. He was also seemed to embrace things such as girl servers and inclusive language, but that was appealing to me at the time. During the years that I attended there, he celebrated the Sacrament of Matrimony for me and DH and confirmed my stepson during his HS years.

Then he was reassigned in early 1994. Sent away for a year or so to complete a master’s degree and then assigned to some diocesean job. During this time DH and I had 2 children and our attendance at Mass became very sporadic. Sometimes we would run across him at the Cathedral where he was in residence and would say Mass, and that was always a treat.

Eventually he was asssigned to a small country parish about 15 minutes from our house, and when DH and I finally returned to Mass on a regular basis in 2001, it was his parish that we went to. Shortly after that, I went back to confession after a hiatus of several years, it was him that I sought out. I was scared to death, but knew him well enough to know that I would find compassion and mercy. That was a turning point in my life.

Eventually we joined a parish closer to our home, and it’s been a few years since I’ve seen him. I sent him a Christmas card this year, just to let him know we are still alive and well, and that we appreciated all he had done to bring our family closer to the kingdom of God.

I’m in my early 40’s now, and he has stepped into and out of my life several times during the past 25 years. Always with a purpose, it seems. God bless Fr. Russell.
 
The priest who has had the most influence on me is probably an Anglican priest, Fr. Bell. I just today learned that he converted to Orthodoxy and died over the summer.

I was away from the (Catholic) Church when friends invited dh and I to go to their Episcopal Church. Fr. Bell taught us (and re-taught me) more about the richness of my (Catholic) faith than I had learned or experienced in the decades coming out of Vatican II.

After he left that parish, I had a feeling he would convert, probably to Orthodoxy, but we lost touch with him.

I have been feeling sad today to learn that he died in June of cancer before we had been able to track him down again. I feel like he was instrumental in my return to the Catholic Church in the days before I discovered (through the internet) that there were Catholics out there who remembered and practiced some of the spirituality that I thought had disapeared after Vatican II.

May God rest his soul and comfort his family.
 
I had two Brothers who had a profound impact on me. The first was Brother Rene LeBlanc, SC who was my home room teacher in 8th grade at an all boys Catholic high school in New Orleans. He was a disciplinarian but he really cared deeply about his students. Brother Rene followed me throughout high school and encouraged me. When they closed my high school in the French Quarter of New Orleans and consolidated the Brother’s two high schools into one, I would see Brother Rene at the bus stop at my university. It would be late in the afternoon when Brother was riding his bicycle for exercise but he would stop and talk and ask me how I was doing in school. He was still there after I had my three and a half year side trip into Uncle Sam’s Navy.

The second brother was Brother Maurus Bordelon, SC who treated me like a human being - a child of God. I will freely confess that I am a Math Dummy. I have never liked math and it’s got to be some sort of right-brained thing. To get me to do arithmetic when I was in the first grade, when I succeeded I got sent to Sister Mary Magdalene’s RSM office, our principal, and got a holy card. Other kids my age had huge collections of Mickey Mantle etc. baseball cards. I had a collection of holy cards. True story 😃

So, in 8th grade (see Bro. Rene above) I had a coach teaching algebra. His response to kids who weren’t learning was to take his class ring, reverse it, and hit the student upside the head. Yep, I sure learned. I barely made it through freshman Algebra I and then failed Algebra II in my junior year and had to go to summer school. Brother John taught Algebra II in summer school by rote. There was no “understanding the concept” - rote I could do.

Geometry - made perfect sense. Didn’t have to worry. Right brained people manipulate shapes in their sleep. So it was with great fear and trepidation that I approached Trig in my senior year. (Yes, I had to take it as well as chemistry in my junior year…I did good in chemistry, I could visualize the molecules and rotate them). Brother Maurus took me under his wing and for months gave me help after school. He never looked down on me, batted me upside the head, or anything else. He was the very epitome of Our Lord, he stood in persona Christi and patiently explained what I needed to know. That was 38 years ago and Brother is still teaching,

Brother Rene has gone to his eternal rest. The Lord bless and keep Brother Maurus.
 
In my formative years, two stood out. First, there was Sister Mary Bernard, O.P… She was a tough-as-nails nun who taught and guided us altar boys. No nonsense and very strict, she was also very loving and comforting, like a good grandmother would be. She was old when I was a boy, and I believe that she may still be alive (though she’d be around 100 if so!).

The second was Father Raymond Heffernan. Now this man was a priest, through and through. Deeply loved by the people of our parish as well as the community at large, he stood out as a strong and firm Irish Catholic priest who served God without compromise. His standards were absolute and his example inspired me greatly. The day he left our parish for another assignment was a very sad one. I understand that he retired but came back into service to cover a small outlying parish, and is still there even today. That is Fr. Heffernan for you, a true priest to the end.
 
Sr. Colomcille (Sisters of Mercy), my 2nd grade teacher. She was in charge of making sure all the altar cloths, chalices etc were clean before Mass. I remember her telling us how honoured she felt to be able to handle the chalice knowing that Our Lord was so recently in it. She really impressed on us the Real Presence of our Lord in Holy Communion. She died in 2005 aged 96. May the Lord have mercy on her soul.

Gearoidin
 
brotherhrolf said:
I had two Brothers who had a profound impact on me. The first was Brother Rene LeBlanc, SC who was my home room teacher in 8th grade at an all boys Catholic high school in New Orleans. He was a disciplinarian but he really cared deeply about his students. Brother Rene followed me throughout high school and encouraged me. When they closed my high school in the French Quarter of New Orleans and consolidated the Brother’s two high schools into one, I would see Brother Rene at the bus stop at my university. It would be late in the afternoon when Brother was riding his bicycle for exercise but he would stop and talk and ask me how I was doing in school. He was still there after I had my three and a half year side trip into Uncle Sam’s Navy…
That was 38 years ago and Brother is still teaching,

Brother Rene has gone to his eternal rest. The Lord bless and keep Brother Maurus.
Click to expand...
What wonderful memories you have. You were blessed to have had such great teachers.

Gearoidin
 
Gearoidin said:
What wonderful memories you have. You were blessed to have had such great teachers.

Gearoidin
Click to expand...
For me it started back in 1959when our beautiful sister Madaliene taught me she seemed to be 90 then but the love of Jesus was felt by be at all times then equal to the task ere sister Bernadet with those beautiful smiling eyes that I could feel Jesus and there have been many more. I asked Jesus for a person to guide me to Him the way He wanted me and He gave me St Therese, though her body decayed she is so alive and the greatest help for me my little sister.
Our present Priest Fr Joseph Akkara(Indian Camilite)…Every time he lifts the Host up I cry t be engulfed in the love he has for Jesus, and when 3 weeks ago he married my wife and I, I looked for that point and it was there and I have a photo of him. Such love for our Loving savior Jesus.
Such a joy to have them all.
God bless
littleone
 
The Priest who had most effect on my Catholic life was a Fr Andrew O’Toole C.S.Sp He was in charge of training the Altar servers at our Parish in Greenhills, Dublin.

Fr O’Toole, was a wonderful example of faith in action, a wonderful homilest and one who would convince you that black was white.

He had certitude like I never saw before and because he preached the truth in season and out of season we knew we could trust him. He was rock solid.

I went to Fatima with him 3 times on pilgrimage and it was wonderful. It left a lasting impression on my heart just as he did.

Sadly, he died on Oct 13th 1994 and we (the Altar servers he trained) still speak of him with great respect and affection.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.
Amen.
 
Father William Rogers was my pastor growing up. I really respected him, he was a man, a priest, a real person. He told personal stories in my sermon that reminded me that priests were people, had once been little boys, knew what the rest of us were going through. He used to walk the huge church parking lot after dark in his black “skirt” and baretta, and was available to talk to the boys on their way home from sports practice, or people after work, or whatever. He was available!

The most influential nun was Sister Edwardean the dean at my high school. Full floor length habit, honest and tough. She had standards and demanded the best of herself and us. She had humor, knew how to smile, and wasn’t afraid to talk to us directly, and authoritatively.

Both of these, now deceased, people had a big affect on my growth and spirituality.

cheddar
 
Monsignor Kilian Broderick (now deceased) had the most profound effect on my spiritual life of anyone I have ever known. He was a wonderful preacher, and I was lucky enough to listen to him preach for 12 years. He was strong, firm, strict, but at the same time wise and loving. I can definitely say that without him, I would not be nearly as close and in love with God as I am today.
 
Sister Angela Joseph, a cool young Italian nun from Philly, was the best sister St. John’s ever had, in my opinion. I was a shy, unattractive looking thing in 8th grade, who kids ignored and I had even been humiliated by another nun a couple of years before sending me even further into my shell. “Ang”, as we called her, praised my writing of a religious nature, once said I was “magnanimous”, and I even was the May Queen (ugliest one they ever had!) because of her speech telling the classmates the type of person they should vote for (it was close and I barely squeaked by…and wished I hadn’t gotten it, I was such a social phobic). She was full of life and fun. She could throw a football to thrill the boys and she could throw a piece of chalk at the raised desk tops of classroom miscreants. We would sing the children’s song “Oh, little playmate, come out and play with me” outside the convent and sometimes she’d come out and throw a ball. I remember in 8th grade when an in-the-dark boy asked how babies happened, she decided to tell us after much thought. She did a diagram of a uterus and something else…no real details…and was really serious with the chalk between her prayerful hands, contemplating how to enlighten us without saying too much. She also taught us latin prefixes & suffixes after final exams to help us in high school…it really did. She was tough, but we once accidentally drove her out of the classroom when we wanted to sing more “Mary” songs at the May procession, instead of the “Peace” songs so popular in the early 70’s. Sister Gertrude, the principle, had to come in and get us to let up. I’ve googled her but couldn’t find anything on her. I heard she either had to leave or take time off for an ill parent. Also, so many of the sisters changed their names back to family names once they got more modern. Are there any websites for Sister’s of St. Joseph (this was in PA) that updates you on teachers you may have had? That would be a great idea for all teaching orders to put on their websites.
 
You might be able to contact your old school and ask. That would probably work.
 
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