The gift of presence … For 35 years, Father Louis McCormick, ofm, has quietly extended not only the gifts of wisdom, humor and hospitality, but also the more abiding and abundant gift of presence, to his brothers and sisters in residence at Mt. Irenaeus. Fr. Lou’s presence extends to all who come to the Mountain, whether for Sunday Mass, an intercollegiate retreat weekend, or an afternoon spent quietly in the House of Peace or wandering on The Land.
This self-described introvert came to live at the Mountain in 1990 after spending two summers as a Mountain Summer Companion and he intends to remain as long as he can serve the community. At 89 years of age, Fr. Lou maintains a schedule that would challenge the energy of a person half his age.
Born in Corning, on July 29, 1935, Fr. Lou is the oldest of four boys, three of whom still are alive. When he was six months old, the family moved to Waverly, N.Y., where he was raised and attended Waverly public schools, graduating in 1953 from Waverly High School.
“We belonged to the Catholic Church, and, during Lent, my brothers and I would get up early and serve the 7 a.m. daily Mass,” he recalled. “We would walk about a mile to the church, and as it got closer to Easter, it would get lighter and lighter in the mornings.”
The imagery of the light of the approaching Resurrection is not lost on Fr. Lou, although at that point in his journey, the priesthood was not part of the plan.
“I was shy and bashful as a child,” Fr. Lou says, “but I played tenor sax and clarinet in the high school band,” noting he was more of a technician than a musician. “My social network was with my bandmates in Waverly, Sayre and Athens, all country towns.”
St. Bonaventure, Detroit and the Friars
At that time, there was little to no vocational guidance, but, since Fr. Lou liked mathematics and the sciences, he decided to go into engineering; because a neighbor had gone there, he applied and was accepted at the University of Notre Dame. About that same time, Fr. Lou’s Dad was transferred to a new sales territory in Olean, and the recent high school graduate learned that the nearby St. Bonaventure University had a pre-engineering program.
“The two years of pre-engineering at St. Bonaventure, followed by three years at the University of Detroit, felt right,” Fr. Lou noted. “I had never heard of St. Bonaventure or Franciscans, but we did not have much money, and I ended up doing alright in my studies there.”
The transition to Detroit was not a smooth one academically, but the University of Detroit, as a Jesuit school, had Sodality, which Fr. Lou recalls as life changing: “We were young college kids going to daily Mass. It was 1955-1956, and this early Christian action and being with those kids was changing my life. I wanted to be something other than an engineer; I wanted to be a Jesuit.”
Fr. Lou read The Autobiography of Thérèse of Lisieux: The Story of a Soul, a spiritual classic, which reveals St. Thérèse’s deep love of God and the beautiful workings of grace within her soul. One of St. Therese’s most quoted passages is: “Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be – and becoming that person.”
About that same time at the University of Detroit, Fr. Lou heard Gregorian Chant for the first time, in a room off of the lobby of one of the halls: “I was transfixed and wanted the rest of my life to be like that chant; I felt drawn to the God that was inside of me.”
Leaving Detroit to return to St. Bonaventure after a year, Fr. Lou started to consider the Franciscans. “I lived at home while taking classes in Classics and Latin,” he remembers, “and my Dad almost threw me out of the house—I was so mixed up but I knew I had a call.” Lou applied and was accepted to the Franciscans, and the journey to ordination began with one year at the minor seminary in Callicoon, N.Y.; followed by a novitiate year in Lafayette, N.J.; two years in Rye Beach, N.H., studying philosophy; and four years in Washington, D.C., studying theology.
“Each year got better, better and better,” Fr. Lou noted. He was ordained to the priesthood in March 1965, six months before Vatican II ended, and stayed in Washington, D.C. for another year to earn his master’s degree in religious education from The Catholic University of America.
In 1966, Fr. Lou began a 24-year career as a math teacher at Bishop Timon High School in Buffalo, garnering a reputation of being very tough, but fair. “I was a good disciplinarian in the classroom but was running out of steam being in charge of discipline for the entire school,” noting it was a time when rival schools came together at Timon, and discipline became much more challenging. “It was the best job I ever got out of,” Fr. Lou reflected.
Going to the Mountain
“I knew I wanted to work with young people in the area of spirituality, so I lived and worked as a Summer Companion at Mt. Irenaeus the last two summers I was teaching, in 1988 and 1989,” Fr. Lou said. “I experienced a transformation of Franciscan life: A desire to pray more and differently. I always had been a pray-er, but prayer was something I’d become.”
Fr. Lou joined Fr. Dan Riley, ofm; Fr. Dan Hurley, ofm; and Br. Joe Kotula, ofm at a time when there was only one building at the Mountain—what is known now as The Other House. For four years afterward, he lived in St. Clare’s Cabin, which was much more rustic, with no toilet or kitchen, before moving into his current room in the House of Peace, where he has lived for the past 30 years.
“We made a good team,” Fr. Lou said. “I am good at detail, so was a good back-room guy.” That detail orientation served Fr. Lou well in overseeing hospitality for the Mountain community for many of his 35 years—shopping for groceries, making his favorite meat loaf for dinner, handling accounting and financial reporting. On any given Sunday, Mountain visitors still will see Fr. Lou washing dishes after brunch, sharing a story with students and listening to who they are, and catching up with friends, old and new. He exercises three times a week at the Olean YMCA pool and inevitably picks up groceries afterwards.
The intergenerational aspect of Mt. Irenaeus still brings joy to Fr. Lou, even as he is keenly aware of the aging process. “The hardest part is that you do get close to the students and then they are gone,” he noted.
“Dan (the late Fr. Dan Riley, ofm) used to say, ‘You are a wisdom figure,’ but I don’t consider myself that. I share a story, I share my life, I share a joke, but it’s not what I do, it’s who I am. I bring a presence.”
On any given Sunday, that presence resonates nowhere more than in Holy Peace Chapel, where Fr. Lou proclaims, “Become what you see, and receive what you are, the Body of Christ.”
“Telling what they receive and who they are, is powerful,” he explained. “When we get excited about something, that’s the spirit working. It’s like a river flowing, and we never step in the same river twice. The hunger for God is the work of the spirit, and that’s what gives us love and understanding.”
For Fr. Lou, the fire of the Holy Spirit is reflected in his every word and action. Perhaps the lyrics of one of Fr. Lou’s favorite hymns, “The Song of St. Patrick,” capsulize Fr. Lou’s charism best: “May the spirit of Christ be our hope through the day, be our guard through the night, our companion on the way.”
LISTEN: Fr. Lou and Be Still
