Br. Ignatius Schweitzer, O.P.
First Profession: August 15, 2005
Home Town: Anna, Ohio
Alma Mater: University of Dayton, BA in Mechanical Engineering, 2003
I was born and raised with one older brother an hour north of Dayton, Ohio. By the time I went off to college in 1998, for all intents and purposes, I was a fallen-away Catholic. Midway through my first year at Miami University, through the grace of God, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior through the Navigators, an Evangelical Protestant ministry. I began to develop the spiritual practices of Scripture meditation, prayer, pious conversation, and evangelism; gradually my life was transformed.
About a year after my conversion, a looming question surfaced in a way that demanded exploration: Has the Catholic Church substantially polluted the purity of the Gospel and hence broken from the true Vine, Jesus Christ? or is the Catholic Church the sacramental enfleshment of the Gospel, reaching back continuously through two millenniums to Jesus' bestowal of the "keys" on Pope Peter and the Holy Spirit's descent upon the Apostles and blessed Mary? In pursuit of a suitable response, the 7 Letters of St Ignatius of Antioch proved especially decisive for me. About a year later, just before Lent of 2001, I was reconciled to the Catholic Church through the mercy-filled sacrament of Confession.
During this time I had transferred to the University of Dayton, not too far from which I discovered a chapel that had perpetual exposition of the Blessed Sacrament; it became my second home or rather my true abode. For, I received my call to the priesthood from the Eucharist, both in a general and specific sense. Generally, it was through daily Mass and adoration of the Sacrament of the Altar that my desire to become a priest gradually overshadowed other desires concerning my life's purpose. Specifically, it was within the context of adoration that my Marian fiat was elicited and I freely willed to pursue the priesthood.
After discerning various congregations and the diocesan priesthood, I discovered the Order of Preachers. I had taken a course on Aquinas a couple years earlier and was especially impressed by his vision of the world: St Thomas pierces every aspect of existence, exposing God's hidden hand. Furthermore, the Dominican ideal of the contemplative preacher brought together the prayerful strand of my life with the evangelical.
Life as a Dominican has been a joy over the past year and a half. It has been great living among such a large group of Gospel-minded brothers who are looking to transform the world in this blossoming springtime of the Church. May God continue to bless us with the glorious riches of his grace in Christ Jesus our Lord.