Passionist Father Michael Brennan had finished saying noon Mass in the chapel of Mercy Medical Center in Redding when a woman exiting a pew whispered to the person next to her, “He’s a saint.”

The 76-year-old chaplain, who will celebrate his 50th year of religious life on Feb. 28, laughs at the notion.

“I came from a very happy and hell-raising family,” he said. “We were not pious.”

But the blue-collar family living in upstate New York was firmly Catholic. Growing up with five rambunctious siblings, Father Brennan felt the firm guidance of his parents whose spiritual lives were shaped in part by Passionist retreats.

Although his mother never told him he should be a priest, there were some vocational choices she quickly squelched. Enamored with cowboy movies at a young age, he informed her he wanted to be an Indian.

“She told me I couldn’t be an Indian,” he said. “She said I had to be born an Indian, and that I’d have to come up with something else.”

But instead of dictating what that “something else” should be, she guided him to a deeper appreciation of spiritual life and helped him learn to recognize the sacred in the midst of daily routine.

“When I was in the seventh or eighth grade she gave me a copy of “The Introduction to the Devout Life” by St. Francis de Sales,” he recalled. “It’s very easy to read. It’s about how to pray and meditate.”

Father Brennan found that the book, which he said is written “to a simple person who wants to grow in the love of God,” was seminal in his early teens and remains a touchstone today.

The book, and his family’s active faith life, created fertile ground for the vocation that began to take root his second year of high school after he met a Passionist priest during a retreat.

He began to learn more about the Passionist community, whose principle ministry is preaching, based on the Gospel of mercy.

“We simply preach the love of God shown in the sufferings of Christ crucified and in the sorrows of Mary,” he said.

Following the norms of the time that encouraged teen-agers to prepare for the priesthood early in life, Father Brennan entered the seminary in New Jersey the next school year. “As a lad of 15 I dreaded leaving and saying goodbye to everything I loved,” he said. “It was like I was saying goodbye to my family for good.”

Like all Passionists, after ordination he spent a year learning to preach. Then he was sent to Rome where he received a doctorate in philosophy.

“Italy was one of the great graces of my life,” he said. “Italians are so very real.”

Next he went to Washington, D.C. to earn his master’s degree in sociology, followed by study for his doctorate at St. John’s University in New York.

He taught at a Passionist monastery in New York for 11 years, then became a superior at monasteries in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. He next served as associate editor of the former Sign magazine, a Passionist publication, then was a retreat director for more than a decade in New York.

Although he mainly led retreats for policemen and firemen in Queens, he also ministered to a group of lawyers and helped establish the Catholic Lawyers Guild.

“Mario Cuomo (former N.Y. governor) was president,” Father Brennan said. “Those lawyers knew that legal norms aren’t enough. The moral norms have to apply, too.”

Following a year’s sabbatical at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, he returned to the Bronx for three years where he was the chaplain of two hospitals until he turned 65.

Then he found out that Mercy Medical Center had an opening for a chaplain.

“When I was told that Redding was the center for outdoor life, I said that I think I hear Jesus calling me,” he said with a laugh.

Prior to becoming a chaplain, Father Brennan underwent heart bypass surgery. His health problems have helped him gain insight into the world of illness and recovery where he now ministers.

“I hope having been a patient has given me sensitivity that I would not have had otherwise,” he said.

Being a chaplain has closely involved him in the physical and mental anguish that some people endure. He feels humbled to be able to share the Gospel message which he calls, “the words of Jesus that are the language of God.”

“We’re in exile in this veil of tears,” he said. “Only faith allows us to see outside the suffering.”

His work as a chaplain is but one aspect of the rich and varied life he has experienced in his 50 years as a Passionist.

“It’s been a great privilege to be a priest. Nothing I could have done would have given me a more fulfilling life,” he said. “The church took a kid out of a blue-collar family, gave me an education, then a chance to serve people in diverse ways.”

One of those ways has been ministering to imprisoned people, such as the young man he visited in Shasta County Jail for three years who was recently convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Father Brennan said that he finds a sense of redemption in those situations, and values the chance to offer spiritual guidance and consolation.

“I don’t denigrate his crimes,” he said. “But I think I’m honored by his friendship.”

He admitted that befriending a convicted killer might seem abhorrent to some people. But he believes God loves each human being, regardless of his or her failings.

“God fell in love with the idea that is you,” he said. “When I know you, I know an aspect of God that I didn’t know before.”

On the eve of his jubilee, he expressed gratitude for the many graces of his priesthood.

“I want to say thank you for my parents and family, for my brother priests, and for all the people I’ve come to know and love, and whose love has touched my heart.”

Sacred Heart Parish in Anderson is hosting a celebration of Fr. Michael Brennan’s 50th anniversary with a Mass beginning at noon on Sunday, March 2, followed by a potluck luncheon in the parish hall. For information call (530) 221-1298.

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