Lenten mission by visiting priest will celebrate the experience of God's love and mercy

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Holy Cross Father Patrick Hannon

DRAPER — Holy Cross Father Patrick Hannon will lead a Lenten mission at Saint John the Baptist Parish March 21-23 on the theme "Searching, discovering and celebrating the God Who Loves Us." He also will be the celebrant and homilist at the weekend Masses at St. John the Baptist Parish March 19 and 20.

Fr. Hannon is an author and an adjunct instructor in the theology department at the University of Portland in Oregon, where he graduated and majored in political science and education. He joined the order of the Holy Cross after college and earned a Master of Divinity degree from the University of Notre Dame before his ordination in 1989.

"Fr. Hannon has worked in pastoral roles and in education, and through these experiences he has a gift of telling beautiful stories recognizing our faith in ordinary places and in ordinary people," said Deacon Dale Dillon from Saint John the Baptist Parish. "I’ve found his stories to be very captivating and I was drawn into a deeper spirituality with Christ after reading his first book, "Running into the Arms of God," which won first-place in the first-time author category at the 2006 Catholic Press Association. He will draw from this book during the mission."

"Each evening of the mission there will be a Liturgy of the Word and I will discuss the God who loves us, and that is the profound experience of God’s mercy," Fr. Hannon said. "I will use the parable of the Prodigal Son as the anchor for my preaching. There also will be time for prayer, music and silence to allow people to enter into this Lenten experience of compassion and mercy. I anchor my preaching through storytelling, which I think is a powerful way of communicating truth that allows people to enter into the experience as well."

Fr. Hannon’s narratives are of his experiences growing up with nine brothers and sisters in an Irish Catholic family, and from people he has met in his life. He answered the call to the priesthood while attending the University of Portland. "I was educated by Holy Cross brothers in high school and Holy Cross priests at the university," he said. "It was a very formative time for me in terms of my vocation that I got to meet remarkable, smart, interesting, funny Holy Cross men who were great models of faith for me."

Fr. Hannon also worked in a high school in Chicago and parishes in Colorado Springs and downtown Portland, Ore. While working at the high school in Chicago and providing assistance at a parish, one of the parishioners was the publisher/editor of ACTA Publishing. He approached Fr. Hannon and asked if he had ever considered writing a book. Fr. Hannon had considered writing about the experiences of prayer. The editor had him write the introduction and the first chapter.

"I wrote the book and modeled it after the monastic experience of prayer," Fr. Hannon said. "We pray more than we realize. Every moment of the day offers us an opportunity to enter into the experience of God through prayer.

"Many people think that God’s mercy has limits," he added. "There are some things that people think we can do that are beyond God’s forgiveness and we have to get over that. There is no place that God will not go to find us. That is the story of the Prodigal Son. Every time we gather at the Eucharist, it is the celebration of the resurrection, which is the victory of love that has no libel. The greatest expression of that love is compassion and mercy."