The Community of the Mother of Jesus

The Rev. Brian Bechtel, CMJ
 

Ministries:  Fr. Brian is a priest in the Diocese of Northern Ohio. His ministries include preaching the Gospel, teaching the faith, celebrating the Mass, visiting the sick and homebound, and many other things.  He participates in the parish's feeding program, Soup's On, which prepares meals and groceries for our neighbors in need.  He also visits nursing homes in the city to say Mass and pray with those who can no longer attend their home churches but long for communion with God and neighbor.

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Patron Saint: St John of the Cross

Marian Title: Comforter of the Afflicted

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I was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition and graduated from a Catholic high school.  At the time I had a lot of questions about the faith, and I had my doubts about some Church teachings.  I particularly struggled with the notion of papal infallibility.  For about eight years after high school I put the question of religion behind me and pursued my own interests, which involved moving to Japan and studying the Japanese language and culture.  I eventually became aware of the hollowness of my secular worldview, and spent a few years practicing Zen Buddhism.  It was in Zen where I first learned of religion as a "practice" and not only a set of doctrines to be taken in "blind faith."  With this understanding of religion as a "path," I found that there were many writers and theologians who expressed my home faith of Christianity in these terms as well.  Indeed, our Lord doesn't say "Think all the right concepts about God," but rather, "Pick up your cross, and follow me."  Ultimately, it was not only the theologians, but also our Lady's Holy Rosary that led me back to the Church.  I was given a cheap plastic rosary by a group progressive break away Catholics at a PRIDE event I was attending one summer; and I prayed to the Mother of Jesus for the first time in many years.  This course of events, and my sense of God's call, ultimately led me to the Episcopal Church, for it is the one place that maintains the historic Episcopate, the seven sacraments, devotion to the Mother of God, and is also open and affirming of women's leadership and of our friends in the LGBT community.  People often say that the Episcopal Church is "the best kept secret," and if that is so, then perhaps the CMJ is the secret within the secret.  I look forward walking this "path" together with my religious brothers and sisters here in the CMJ.