Father Brian Johnson, C.SS.R. celebrates 36 years

By Mary Lim

Father Brian Johnson, C.SS.R., is a missionary religious priest with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, or more commonly known as the Redemptorists. He is currently assigned as the Pastor at Our Lady of the Desert Redemptorist Renewal Retreat Center. 

Father Johnson has been serving at his assignment in Picture Rocks for the last year and a half, and so is relatively new to the Diocese of Tucson. Prior to being sent to the Redemptorist Renewal Retreat Center in Tucson, Father Johnson had been sent all across the Midwest to Nebraska, Washington, California, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, and Illinois. 

Father Brian Johnson was ordained a priest in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer on November 8, 1986. Today marks his 36th ordination anniversary – 36 years of serving the Lord through being present with parishioners as they walk through their lives, guiding them to walk with Jesus. Father Johnson says that, in his vocation as a priest, the thing that brings him joy is “preaching, sharing faith insights with others, and joining others in worship.” 

Father Johnson comes from a family of eleven kids, and his parents happened to bring them up in a Redemptorist parish in Davenport, Iowa. So when he signed up for the High School Seminary, he received formation through the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in Esopus, NY, and Chicago, IL. Throughout his discernment of his vocation, he says that it was most helpful for him to continually pray to Mary and to speak with other priests about their vocational journeys. 

"When discerning your vocation, follow your heart, pray, and think about what God wants to do with your life. Let God bring you where he wants you to be." - Father Brian Johnson

Father Johnson said that he first considered the priesthood when he was in the first grade. “Growing up, the priest in my parish was active and present to all of us school kids, and that inspired me to want to be like him.”  

Vocations were a normal part of the day-to-day conversations happening in his community. The parish and diocesan priests were all very involved, and vocations directors regularly gave talks at the schools. The calling of the priesthood was always something that Father Johnson had in the periphery throughout his upbringing. 

Father Johnson chuckles about how God often uses His sense of humor to draw us closer to Him, saying that although the priesthood was often on his mind growing up, he didn’t actively pursue it at first. He was the eighth child in a lineup of eleven children in his family, a quiet-natured boy, not likely to put himself out there, and the thought of the Seminary was intimidating and scary to him. One day, a few of his middle school friends had declared to him that they were all thinking of joining the High School Seminary. That night, he went home to his parents and voiced that he would like to join the High School Seminary with his friends, and they helped him get all signed up that very night. The next day, when he saw his friends, they all told him that they had changed their minds! But it was too late for Father Johnson; he, the quiet kid, ended up being the only one of his school friends who took that leap of faith and joined the Seminary. But God surely knew what he was doing!

Father Johnson loves that in his vocation, he has had the privilege of walking with so many other people on their individual journeys in life, and this, he says, is his favorite part about being a priest. Administering the Sacraments means that he is always present and taking an active role in the most significant parts of people’s lives. Father Johnson explains that to be able to enter into someone’s life and bear witness to the miracles that Christ is working for them as an individual and in their family and relationships is one of the most beautiful things about the Sacraments and serving as a priest. 

Next to celebrating the Sacraments and walking with parishioners in their life journeys, Father Johnson says that he experiences God the most through nature. "God shows his love for us through the beauty of nature and in the joy that we experience when we encounter God's beautiful creation with awe and wonder."

One of Father Johnson's favorite ways to understand and preach the Good News and the teachings of the Church is through storytelling. The following is one of the stories that he uses to help teach about how to find God in nature and in the day-to-day:

"There was a four-year-old girl who was asleep in her bedroom when a thunderstorm rolled in abruptly in the night. The vivid flashes of lightening dancing across her window were frightening, and the thunder roared threateningly. Afraid, the girl called out for her mother. The mother came and comforted her daughter saying, 'Darling, you don't need to be scared, God is always with you.' To which the girl quickly replied, 'But I don't want God! I want someone with skin!'

It is natural to want physical comfort when we are scared. But this is part of the human condition: we are not comfortable with ideas and concepts that are seemingly intangable. We need to experience the world through our senses – to touch and feel.

God is present in our everyday experiences of life. The love and comfort that we desire and seek out is available to us in God's love for us. We often just don't know what to look for when we are looking for him." 

There are many ways to practice recognizing God in our daily experiences. One of the ways that Father Johnson recommends doing this is asking the question "Why?" 

"When you are in the midst of an experience – be it in nature or indoors, a positive experience or otherwise – note how that experience makes you feel, and then get curious and ask, 'why do I feel this way?' Often, it is God showing his love for you in the way that you need it expressed at that moment in your life." - Father Brian Johnson

Please take a moment today to say a prayer in thanksgiving for the gift of Father Johnson's priesthood to our Church and to the Diocese of Tucson. If you happen to be in the neighborhood of Our Lady of the Desert Redemptorist Renewal Center, stop by and join us in congratulating him today on his anniversary, as well!

National Vocations Awareness Week
 
Vocations in the Diocese of Tucson
 
Discerning your vocation