Hallow Mass

On this Solemnity of All Saints, the Universal Church remembers all those Saints and Martyrs of the Lord who rest from their labors at the feet of the Lord. For me, it gets me thinking about the many people along the road of my life who have had a deep spiritual impact upon it, and now that I am in a state of Aspirancy to the Diaconate, I especially think about those people-and there are several who I will talk of on this blog from time to time. Today, on All Saints Day, I want to remember one in particular.

  Father Chris

Father Christian Rohmiller had many parish and school assignments over the years in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and he even flirted with religious life over the years-discerning whether he had a vocation as a Jesuit, then whether he had a vocation as a Benedictine, before deciding that life as a diocesan priest was really the life for him. It's a good thing for my sake that Father Chris made that determination with the help of the Holy Spirit. Among his former parishes were St. Albert the Great (where his parents would later attend, and where I met them), and St. Mary's, both in Dayton. Father Chris seemed to know everyone-literally. I once witnessed an encounter between Father Chris and a student from India one day after Mass, wherein the student introduced himself, and in the course of conversation it was discovered that Father Chris had a personal connection with members of that young man's family-and the student did not initially know Father Chris. Stories like that where Father Chris is concerned are not uncommon.

In the fall of 1997-it was early October-a 21 year-old kid in a wheelchair came to Mass on a Sunday while Father Chris was Campus Minister at Wright State University in Fairborn, Ohio. Father Chris made a habit of distributing Holy Communion to anyone at Mass in a wheelchair first, and so that young man got communion along with everyone else-except that he wasn't baptized and shouldn't have received it, and he didn't have an opportunity to tell the priest no...

After Mass, I approached Father Chris and told him that he should not have given me Communion because I had not been baptized. Father did not ask me if I would be interested in RCIA, nor did he ask (yet) if I would be interested in the process. He looked me straight in the eye with a real sense of spiritual understanding and simply said "well then...we need to get you baptized." He then promptly told me to come back to the little A-frame building the next day at 5:00pm, and as for receiving communion he said "I know this much, it is certainly not going to hurt you, but you won't be receiving it again unless you are baptized."

I began RCIA the next day under Father Chris' formation...

I did, in fact, have an interest in the Church-thanks in part to my developing friendship with University of Dayton Political Science professor Father John Putka, SM-and Father Chris probably sensed that, which is why he didn't ask many questions that day or give much further direction. Father Chris seemed to see something in me that I did not yet see in myself at that age and during that time in my life. He took me under his wing and began, while I was still a catechumen, to introduce me to things that would inform my entire spiritual life as a Catholic. He saw a zeal for the pro-life cause in me, so he encouraged myself and another student, Joe Morris, to start a pro-life group on campus, which we did. I attended the March for Life-the March for Life-in Washington D.C. because Father Chris thought I should have that experience. I was baptized, received my First Communion, and was Confirmed on Pentecost Sunday, 1998.

Father Chris also introduced me to Benedictine spirituality, and to the Liturgy of the Hours. I became a novice, and eventually a full Oblate of St. Meinrad Archabbey after Father Chris invited me to come to Mass and to the annual Oblate picnic on the Feast of St. Benedict in the summer of 1998. Father Chris introduced me to the Liturgy of the Hours and encouraged me to develop a deeper interior life. He also introduced me to the Knights of Columbus-when I first joined the Knights in 2000, Father Chris was my sponsor. It was Father Chris who first introduced me to the monks of St. Meinrad, and Father Chris who took me to the Archabbey for the first time.

One of Father Chris' last personal ministries was to prepare Nicole and I for our marriage in 2003. Over the years, Father Chris and I and another friend, Mark Regeic, had developed the habit of going to Giovanni's Restaurant for pasta after Mass on Sunday evenings. Shortly after I had asked Nicole to marry me, Father, Mark and I were preparing for our weekly Sunday night trip into Italian culinary bliss when Nicole called me. I can't even remember what the fight was over, but Nicole and I had just seen one another that day and were having quite a disagreement all within earshot of Father Chris. Hearing it all, Father Chris jumped over and said "give me the phone." He then laid it on thick and heavy: "It's not too late Nicole! Run while you still can, I told you he was crazy to begin with...see, I was right!" He had us both rolling over with laughter.

When I received word that Father Chris had died suddenly of a heart attack in 2006, I literally dropped everything-both Nicole and I did-to drive all the way to Ohio to his funeral. I told Nicole that we needed to go because Father Chris would have done the same for me.

If by God's grace I am ordained to the Deaconate, perhaps the only tinge of sadness I might feel that day is that Father Chris will not be there-but then again, I'm sure he will be there all the same.