Pictured here (L to R) are Rev. Bro. Ignatius Schweitzer, O.P. and Bro. Joseph Fussner, O.P., who are here on their summer ministry assignment from our Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.
Since St. Thomas Aquinas Parish is such an active parish, it is a place where our Dominican brothers in training for the priesthood are often assigned for a summer volunteer ministry. They often help with summer youth ministry events, help to set up for parish Masses, bring the Eucharist to patients at U.Va. Hospital, and sometimes give faith formation presentations such as our Sunday morning Theology and Donuts series. If the student brother is already ordained a transitional deacon (like Bro. Ignatius), he can also help with parish baptisms and can preach the homily at Mass. When I was a transitional deacon in 2000, St. Thomas Aquinas was my summer assignment, and it was here that I officiated at my first wedding and celebrated my first baptisms. Now that I am assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas as a priest, it has been wonderful to meet two of the young people I baptized (they are now 10 years old) and the bride of the couple that I married when she was here in town to visit her family.
– Fr. Stephen, O.P.
