The Lake County Journal (Illinois) recently had a feature story about Fr. Stephen Grunow, the associate director of the Word on Fire apostolate:
LIBERTYVILLE – Several years ago, the Rev. Steve Grunow gave a homily about vocations and encouraged young Catholic men to enter the priesthood.
It was a difficult time for the Catholic church, which was under fire for several sexual abuse scandals involving clergymen, Grunow said. He expected that any arguments he heard from families about supporting their sons entering the ministry would be relevant to those scandals.
Instead, the objection he heard from one prominent Catholic family in his congregation – a husband and wife with multiple children – was that they didn’t consider the priesthood to be a physically healthy vocation, and they did not wish their sons to pursue such a career.
“[They told me], ‘I want my children to be happy … and to be happy, they also have to be healthy,’” Grunow said.
It was a comment that stuck with Grunow, and ultimately made him decide to be an open advocate for a healthier image of clergymen – even though he himself had never been terribly out of shape.
“It was so unique, I thought it must be a message directly from God,” Grunow said. “If that’s something people see in the priesthood, it’s something I can work on. I can do something about that.”
Enter Ben Wellenbach, owner of Be Well Fitness in Libertyville. Grunow contacted Wellenbach to inquire about personal training sessions to begin his mission of presenting a healthier clergy to the lay people.
The story details how Fr. Grunow took on a demanding training schedule, and how he discovered connections between his physical and spiritual health. It also recounts how his trainer ended up becoming Catholic! Fr. Grunow offers some further thoughts over on the Word on Fire blog:
I have written several times on this blog about the correlation of the concerns of the spiritual life to practices that enhance physical fitness. ("Lifting the Weight of the Priesthood," "Fit For Mission," and "What has Sparta to do with Jerusalem?") I won’t belabor the point in this post except to say that the mission of the Church can only be helped by insisting that the Church’s ministers are physically fit and healthy enough to get what needs to be done accomplished. What I would like to highlight is that this article represents something that is sorely needed today- a positive story about a priest. Basically, the story featured in the Lake County Herald is not simply about how much I can deadlift, but it is a story about how the Lord placed his priest into circumstances where a spiritual seeker could finally find a home in his Church.
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