“I like everything I have done over the years!” Brother Dennis Craig shared this sentiment recently as he reflected on his 40 years in Glenmary. He also shared his love for and dedication to the people and the small rural towns where Glenmary ministers.

Brother Dennis has a natural affinity for “small town living,” which he credits to growing up in a small Iowa town of 700 people. As a youngster he remembers having lots of fun playing with family and friends, doing household chores, going to school, playing sports and being an active member of the local Catholic Church. His childhood was “small town living at its best,” he says. “We created our own fun.…It was a wholesome life growing up….We grew up simply as a close family.”

His exposure to Glenmary came when he was in grade school. Although Brother Dennis doesn’t remember which Glenmary priest came to his school, the message of that missioner stayed with him: how Glenmary ministered in rural areas and that vocations were needed. A seed was planted that grew slowly over the years.

During his junior-high years he thought about joining religious life. In his senior year of high school, his father took him to meet the local diocesan vocation director and, after graduating from high school, he entered the diocesan junior seminary.

“I went for one semester and discerned not to be a priest,” Brother Dennis says. As luck would have it, he had a friend who was familiar with Glenmary and who gave him some information which renewed his interest in the home missions—and opened up the possibility of brotherhood.

In 1965 Brother Dennis contacted Glenmary. He was soon visited by a vocation recruiter. Shortly after that visit, Brother Dennis applied and was accepted. A major reason for joining Glenmary, he says, was his attraction to small towns. “I grew up in a small town and wanted to continue in that atmosphere,” he says. “I wanted to be in religious life—but as a brother not as a priest.”

Upon entering Glenmary, Brother Dennis went through a formation program in which he took classes in building construction technology along with classes in scripture and religious studies. Upon completion of his studies, he become part of a the Brothers Building Crew, which traveled the missions building churches and parish centers and repairing people’s homes.

 “When I joined, ministry in Appalachia was big.” Brother Dennis says. “I wanted to go to the mountains and work with the poor. My dream early on was to use my skills in building as a way to evangelize—I could get into peoples’ homes doing repair jobs and ask about their lives and tell them about why I do what I do.”

Although Brother Dennis started out as a builder, he was soon given another assignment—as a parish brother in West Union, Ohio. He was unsure about taking such an assignment since his first love was building, but his building partner, Brother Larry Jochim, encouraged him go to West Union. “So I went as a favor to Larry,” Brother Dennis says, “and it ended up being a great experience!”

During his assignment in West Union, he helped with religious education, visited parishioners and people in town, worked around the parish, and still found time to do some building as outreach and evangelization.

Over the years Brother Dennis has ministered in many ways. In addition to building projects and parish ministry in Ohio and Georgia, he has worked in Glenmary’s Mission Office promoting the work of Glenmary. Along the way he has gone back to college for degrees that enable him to work with students in Glenmary’s formation programs. Since 1998, he has been House Director at Glenmary Headquarters in Cincinnati and has taken on increasing responsibilities for the care of Glenmary’s senior members.

Looking back over his years of ministry, Brother Dennis says, “I have always seen my ministries as a ministry of presence to people….of being present in any situation.” Reflecting on Glenmary, he says, “Glenmarians are so personable….We go out of our way to make people comfortable….We are part of their lives, and they become part of ours….I am proud of the fact that I am part of it.”      

Brother Dennis looks forward to a future where Glenmary will continue to grow as others respond to the call to serve the church in the rural areas of America as Glenmary missioners. He also looks forward to continuing his ministry of being present for “the little people and their needs.”

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