Fr. Joseph Mary Dean, CFR grew up in Laura, Maryland — and by his own account, gave St. Francis a run for his money on the "before" side of the story. Wild, out of control, and chasing pleasure in all the wrong places, he opened his heart to Jesus for the first time on a retreat with his father, half-expecting to end up dead or in prison instead. What started as a joke about the priesthood turned into a "yes" he didn't see coming — and a visit to a Franciscan friary ended with four words on the doorstep that settled everything. Thirty years later, now stationed in Derry, Northern Ireland, he tells the whole story.

Chapters
00:00 "This Is Where You're Going to Die"
00:10 From Laura, Maryland to Derry
00:41 Worse Than St. Francis
01:06 "Dead or in Prison"
01:30 Inviting Jesus In
01:51 The Joke That Wasn't a Joke
02:13 "What About You, Joseph?"
02:34 Discerning Where
02:58 Meeting the Friars in Steubenville
03:24 The Doorstep, Revisited
03:50 30 Years Later

➡️ ABOUT THIS PROJECT
This year marks 800 years since the death of St. Francis of Assisi. To mark the anniversary, we're travelling to friaries across the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal to sit down with the friars and hear, in their own words, what St. Francis means to them — how they first encountered him, what drew them to the Franciscan life, and what the Poverello continues to teach them today.

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