marianist.com/donate • 21 teacher and administrator and living happily in large Marianist communities in Pittsburgh and Day- ton over the next 15 years. By the mid-1970s, Vatican II-inspired renewal had led to new perspectives on religious life. The chance to become part of “a collaborative and consensus-based” Marianist community in East Dayton represented “the most radical change in my life,” he recalls. Vowed Marianists, aspirants and temporary professed all lived together there, working to make faith-based decisions about how and where to serve. While there, Brother Bob served a term as vocation director, before returning to Chaminade Julienne High School for a 10-year stint as founding director of its computer science department. Then in the early 1990s and another retreat experience, this time an urban immersion in Cincinnati, proved transformative, opening his heart to ministering with the poor. The most challenging call of all By the late 1990s, Brother Bob rolled up his sleeves to work alongside other vowed religious and lay people to launch the DeSales Crossing Project, a collaborative of 10 Catholic educational, religious and social outreach programs for the poor in Cincinnati. The project was based at St. Francis de Sales, a Marianist parish. For the next 15 years, he served as an IT administrator and a tutor for clients who wanted to learn computer skills or earn GEDs at Mercy Neighborhood Ministries, part of the DeSales Crossing Project. Then, in 2012, came the most challenging call of all — to become director of the Siena Woods Marianist Community. In this role, Brother Bob acted as support person for the elderly brothers and priests who reside at an assisted-living facility in Dayton. It was an often-humbling experience: “I was dealing with people in their end-of-life situations,” he says. “Many were severely handicapped, so it was tough finding ways to be helpful. Instead, I had to accept my limitations, my own brokenness.” At the same time, curiously, there was joy: “I especially appreciated their thankfulness, for the littlest things, like helping a brother use a cell phone to call a loved one,” he says. “It was a special, faith-filled time, walking with my brothers through the door to their next life with God and Mary, even if I couldn’t do much more than just be present as they struggled.” It might seem like the simplest of tasks, showing up as a caring presence for his infirmed brothers, but it’s how God’s work often is done, notes Brother Bob, and how great cathedrals are built — brick-by-brick, each brick building on the work of others seeking to do “all things in Christ.” ■ John Schroeder is a freelance writer from St. Louis. Please help the Marianists in caring for their senior priests and brothers by joining the St. Joseph Legacy Club. To donate, use the enclosed envelope or go to marianist.com/donate. For more information, contact Brother Alex Tuss, SM, at 937.222.4641, ext. 3003, or [email protected]. Brother Bob Wiethorn, SM