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 Fr.
Michael Stephen Fones, OP
I am a native of Washington, Illinois, a small town at the crossroads of two relatively
insignificant county roads – not even an exit off an interstate highway. Yet what a blessing to
grow up there! My childhood and adolescent memories are filled with images of sandlot football,
baseball and basketball games, king-of-the-mountain marathons, piano and bassoon lessons, and
dreaming of living somewhere – anywhere – else. My closest childhood friends have grown up to be
medical researchers, engineers and computer scientists, and now as I look back from middle age I
can now appreciate the exceptional nature of those experiences and people.
My older brother
and sister are both teachers, and I followed them to Illinois State University, where I majored in
music performance (bassoon) for two years before I decided to play it safe and get a degree that
offered more job opportunities. I changed majors to Geophysics and transferred to Michigan
Technological University in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where I learned after arriving on campus
that the average snowfall topped 250 inches. I graduated from Tech in 1983 and continued my
education at Stanford University. While there I began discerning a vocation to religious life and
priesthood, and after my first year, took a leave of absence to investigate the Dominicans, and
ended up staying! The friars eventually sent me back to Stanford to finish my M.S. in Geophysics
in 1988.
I was ordained in
1992 and have served in campus ministry at Arizona State University, and the Universities of Utah,
Oregon and Arizona. Currently I am the co-Director of the Catherine of Siena Institute, a program
of the Western Province dedicated to the transformation of parishes into centers of formation for
lay apostles. I am privileged to work with Sherry Weddell, who co-founded the Institute with Fr.
Michael Sweeney, O.P. I invite you to visit our website at
www.siena.org and
our blog, Intentional
Disciples.
After three shoulder surgeries in nine months over the end of 2006
and beginning of 2007, I am finally recovered and back in the gym almost every day. I am also once
again able to play racquetball. I travel almost constantly in my work with the Institute, and I
find daily exercise really helps me keep my head clear and my stamina up.
Dominican life challenges me with its ideal of a life balanced
between prayer, study, ministry and community. The opportunities for growth and personal
development that the Order has given me are gifts I can’t fully appreciate yet, much as I was
unable to appreciate my childhood while living it. And while there are challenges in this life,
the blessing of meeting incredibly gifted and generous lay people and living with friars who
inspire me with their dedication to the Gospel completely overshadow them. I am grateful to God
for the wonderful people He keeps placing in my life – people who inspire me with their goodness
and their love for the Lord Jesus.
God is good!
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