Bishop Paul Dudley and the School of Work and Prayer

Dear School of Work and Prayer friends:

 

As many of you know, we met a number of weeks ago for a lively and challenging discussion of chapter 10, The Transforming Summit.  You should also know that we will next meet in January (at date later to be determined - you'll get an email about it) and we will discuss chapter 11, The Universal Call.

 

As many of you don't know, the recently deceased Bishop Paul Dudley had a seemingly insignificant impact on all of our lives.  My battered and underlined copy of Fire Within was originally owned by Father Francis(?) Dudley (the underlinings are Fr. Dudley's, not mine).  Fr. Dudley, a diocesan priest, died in the late 90s and all of his books went to his family's farm in Northfield, MN.  The only family members still living at the farm were his two elderly sisters and brother, the retired Bishop Paul Dudley.  Shortly before this time Christelle and I had joined the Catholic Church at St. Dominic's parish in Northfield.  Our RCIA sponsors, David and Ginger Larson, had introduced us to Bishop Dudley during that time and he quickly became a warm and encouraging friend and supporter for us as we started teaching NFP and ministering to college students there.  Anyway, Bishop Dudley invited us and our friend (soon to be Emilie-Rose's godfather), Eric Johnston, to his farm to have the pick of the lot from Fr. Dudley's books.  Mind you, I was not working for Loome Booksellers yet and had never even heard of the place.  Therefore, I was not picking books with the eye of a professional bookseller.  I simply picked what looked helpful.  One of the books I picked was Fire Within.  I read it once the next year, and changed my life because of it.  Now I am reading it with all of you and am changing my life again.  Thanks to Bishop Paul Dudley.

 

And with this note I join the multitudes in telling the wonderful stories and memories of Bishop Paul Dudley.  May he rest in peace and glory.

 

your brother in Christ,

 

Chris

 

PS - Bishop Dudley baptised Emilie-Rose in a private ceremony and let my father-in-law, a Lutheran pastor, explain the scripture passage.  What a guy!

PPS - Bishop Dudley had a small hand in landing me a job at Loome Booksellers.  What a guy again!

PPS - I have many more stories about Bishop Dudley I could tell too!  What a guy that I would love to tell you about!