The ongoing care and support of Senior and Retired Marists 

Eighty-five year old Marist Fr. Thomas Dubay never planned to become a world-renowned retreat master, author of more than 20 books, and an authority on the spiritual life and prayer. He has just been following his call to be a priest. After ordination he expected to serve in a parish, but was assigned to graduate school and then to teach at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans . But he soon found out that God had a different plan for him.

After about 14 years of this, his Provincial suggested that he go on the road full-time. He has been traveling the world sharing the Gospel message for the past 35 years. Through his retreats and books he has impacted many people of many religions in many nations. The thirst of the human spirit, he says, can only be quenched by God and by divine revelation, in its Catholic fullness. His writings and teaching shows us how we all have the capability to understand beauty and live a Christ-like life, through deep prayer and understanding of the Gospel.

Fr. Dubay's Fire Within (Ignatius Press, 1989) is still selling briskly and has been an invaluable aid to many Christians and other religious groups seeking to learn how to have a deeper prayer life with God. Published in 2006, his book Deep Conversion/Deeper Prayer offers clear and understandable direction to the layperson and the religious alike. Likewise, many are attracted to his 1999 book The Evidential Power of Beauty: Science and Theology Meet . He is soft-spoken but passionate in his belief that all of us need to share this message with as many as possible.

Fr. James Hudgins from Arlington, Virginia who met Fr. Dubay in a class that Fr. Dubay was teaching on St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross says, "He has a keen sense of the centrality of the Gospel message and of the call we all have to a deep personal relationship with, and a love for, God. Fr. Dubay presents this information in a plain but well-documented way, appealing to both scholars and 'people in the pew.'"

This is why Fr. Dubay, one of our 30 Senior Marists with no desire to retire, keeps going and is excited about being able to be "a voice for the Lord" in many venues around the world.

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