A Q&A with the Marianist brothers at St. Mary’s University by Adrianna Mirabel
Br. Delmar Jorn
What is your favorite memory about being a Marianist at St. Mary’s?
“I don’t know if it’s my favorite or not, but when I graduated and got my diploma, it was blank! I had not turned in a library book, but I dropped it off on the weekend, so I had to go to the library and prove that I turned it in. The other thing was the long photo of our graduating class in 1960, one woman is in sitting in the front row and she was the only woman in our class”
Br. Earl Leistikow
What is your favorite part of the charism?
“I think what attracts most people to us is what we call ‘family spirit,’ that’s a characteristic of our communities, schools, and the archives. We work together. It is very much like family.”
Br. Brian Zampier
Why did you choose to be a Marianist out of all the different orders?
“After college… I was at home living with my parents going through our diocesan newspaper and came across an ad for the Marianists.
[It] was a very nicely designed ad that had a provocative headline that said, ‘Try Selling It All’ and it had a Volkswagen and skis and said ‘you have these things, what do you think about selling these for the pearl of great price and Christian community.’ I thought it was cool… and from there I continued on.”
Br. Lester Kaehler
What do you wish students knew about the Marianists?
” That we are here for them. We would like to offer to them the gift of that we have been given. The other thing is, I would like to get to know the students better, but we’re not all attached to the university. I try to say hi to everyone who’s not listening to their headphones, some are shy, but I don’t want to interfere with what they might be doing. I guess I would hope that the students feel at home enough and get to know the Marianists.”
Fr. John Thompson
Did you know that you wanted to go into the priesthood?
“The Marianists are a little different in many ways… you join to be a member of the community, then after that, the community in dialogue with the individual says whether or not the person should go be ordained. That was one of my apprehensions about joining the Marianists because I really felt called to be a priest. I knew how I felt about the Marianists.
Then kind of came to the conclusion that I feel like I’m called to be a priest.”