St. John Neumann Residence, Timonium, MD
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December 30, 2022Time once more for the healthcare sector to give a shout-out to our confreres. This month, I’d like to concentrate on three individuals of the St. John Neumann Residence who go a long way to make our liturgical celebrations particularly beautiful and inspirational.
Two of them work together in tandem with each other. Fr. Gerry Brinkmann seems to be the go getter as far as coming up with the hymns appropriate to the day’s liturgy. Gerry will make sure that he’s in the Chapel area early so that he can canvass the crowd for any suggestions. If no one has anything to offer, he’ll rely on the list of “oldies but goodies.”
Fr. Gerry’s partner is an accomplished musician that is hindered by a recent stroke. Fr. Arthur Wendel used to tickle the ivories and bellow out the hymns himself. Now, he cannot coordinate his hands to play the piano/organ, though he certainly can read the music and lead the community in singing.
Between the two of them, Fr. Gerry and Fr. Arthur, they are the basis of singing the hymns. The rest of the community will follow their lead and the finished product gives God great glory. St. Augustine said, “The one who sings, prays twice.”
My other choice for good liturgy is Fr. John Murray. Due to his unfortunate accident at a West End boardwalk, Fr. John is effectively paralyzed from the waist down. So, he doubly utilizes all from the waist above.
Fr. John loves Holy Scripture and reads voraciously any article that brings out the meaning of the day’s scripture readings. Not only that, but he will also volunteer many times a week to present the Homily at Mass. His exposition of the readings is very clear. He’ll give the background to the scripture reading; he’ll then indicate possible avenues of approach to our community’s application of those readings.
Fr. John will delve deeply into his computer to find the best stories and the best applications for our confreres. Though there be more than two of our community that tend to “zone out” during our liturgies, when Fr. John is presenting, all are awake and attentive. I am particularly impressed with Fr. John’s zeal as a missionary to prepare weekly sessions of Bible Studies, which he will then use Zoom to host a group of interested parishioners in Brooklyn, NY.
The zeal of these three confreres is admirable. Their motive is to be the best Redemptorist Missionary as possible given their situation.
