Brother Pio first met the Franciscan Brothers of Peace at a charismatic Catholic conference in New Orleans in the Superdome in 1987. Brother Paschal said his journey to the brothers began with a song in his heart.
For a “Practicing Catholic” episode set to air at 9 p.m. Oct. 2 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, Brothers Pio and Paschal talk with co-hosts Leah Heselton and Father Tom Margevicius about St. Francis and the Franciscan Brothers of Peace’s ministry in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
“A number of brothers were there handing out literature, then I saw another ad in a magazine I had gotten, and well, a couple years of discernment and I took the plunge and it’s been a very good, happy life since then,” Brother Pio said of his experience at the Superdome.
Brother Paschal is from Texas. God has a sense of humor to call him to Minnesota, he said.
“God had a song that he was writing on my heart for years, and I didn’t know what it was,” Brother Paschal said. “It was like I had to learn it, and you know I never foresaw (being a) brother at all as a vocation when I was growing up. But the little verses that I kind of discovered over the years were like a hunger for brothers, a passion for the dignity of human life, compassion for the poor and suffering as I would meet them, especially in the streets as a young adult, and certainly for a life of prayer, adoration, increasing in adoration. One of the reasons I got the name Paschal is because St. Paschal is a Eucharistic saint.”
To hear more from Brothers Pio and Paschal, listen to this episode of “Practicing Catholic,” which also repeats at 1 p.m. Oct. 3 and 2 p.m. Oct. 4.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also features two biological sisters, Maria Hamilton and Mona Wolney, in an interview about the Secular Franciscan Order and what St. Francis means to them.
Listen to interviews after they have aired at practicingcatholicshow.com or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
