“The first time I had cancer, I was 22 years old and the doctors told me I had two years to live. It turns out they were wrong! Suffering does change you. That time, 52 years ago, I remember several months after the surgery and treatment, I realized I had learned more in that short time than in all my years up till then, and it was the stuff that matters: life, truth, faith, meaning. It’s true that the Lord uses these life events in different ways.”

After surviving cancer in his 20s, Father John went on to pursue a career in woodworking, living in Ann Arbor and becoming a daily Mass attendee. It was after one daily Mass that a woman tapped him on the shoulder and asked him if he’d ever considered the priesthood. Not yet ready to discern that call, Father John dismissed the prompting but says she was the first of 20 people to ask him that question before he decided to actively pursue God’s plan. “I finally got the picture. It took me five years to work up my courage, but God was very patient with me.” In a prayer that would set the tone for his discernment, priesthood, and life, Father John asked for a saint’s intercession to help him know what God wanted. “I asked St. Joseph for a sign and he gave it to me. It was then that I realized I was discovering my destiny.” Ordained in 2001 at the age of 51, Father John says he’s “never looked back.”

Now facing what he describes as the worst of his cancer trials, Father John is grateful for the intercession of the saints whom he knows and loves. “I’ve chosen to take on the Blessed Mother’s mantra now: ‘let it be done to me according to your word.’ She knew there was a rocky road ahead. But I tell God the same thing she did: This is your story, I’m your servant, I know I have a part to play, and I’ll play it.”

One key part that Father John has played is the sharing of the lives of the saints and the power of their intercession. “People thank me for introducing them to so many saints. I think they are inspiring because the saints are often taken from among the common people.” Speaking of the saints as close friends, Father John names Blessed Solanus Casey and Saint Joan of Arc as two of his favorites. “I’m a big fan of Joan of Arc. She introduced herself to me and I became acquainted with her first through a book by Mark Twain, who wasn’t a big fan of Christianity, but he wondered if the story of this woman was made up and discovered that it wasn’t. She was an illiterate farm girl. At the end of the book, Twain writes that considering her age, sex, illiteracy and isolation, she was the most fascinating human being the race has ever produced. Wow!” 

In 2016, Father John’s love of the saints inspired what would become a proud accomplishment and a gift to his parish and to the people of the diocese. “We have forty acres of land here at Holy Spirit Parish and I said to this couple as a passing comment, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a trail back here in this woodlot?’” The husband and wife, Gary and Joan Otten, happened to have experience in the tree business and had been praying for more land of their own, a prayer that would be answered differently than they expected. “God is making divine appointments — you’re going to meet this person and that person and something is going to come out of it,” Father John explains. Thus, a seemingly passing comment about a trail became the catalyst for much more. “Next thing I knew, they called me to see the trail and I said, ‘What trail?’ They had cut a trail through the woods, without cutting down any trees, a beautiful serpentine path that only required them to remove shrubs.”

In brainstorming what to do with the trail, the answer came easily. “We decided on shrines and then statues, it’s for the heroes of the faith.” Named the Trinity Trail, statues along the nearly half-mile path particularly honor saintly heroes from Michigan, highlighting Father Jacques Marquette, Bishop Frederic Baraga, Father Gabriel Richard, Father Patrick O’Kelly, and Father Solanus Casey, while also including a statue of St. Kateri Tekakwitha and a shrine for Saint Joan of Arc, among others. An altar on the trail is named for Father Charley Irvin, founding pastor of the parish (and founder of FAITH Magazine). Father John’s hope for the trail is that many of the faithful come to walk, pray, and be reminded of and inspired by the saints, the common people chosen to follow God through suffering, obstacles, and blessings. 

At the end of the trail, there is one final statue of one of Father John’s personal heroes: the Blessed Mother. “The Queen of All Saints!” he boldly proclaims. The saint of all saints, the one whose motto Father John strives to live by despite an unknown road ahead. “Let it be done to me according to your word.”