The blogger, LeRoy Friesen, OCDS, was born in 1940 into an evangelical Mennonite Brethren family and community in SW Minnesota where he would spend his first eighteen years. His early formation was shaped by the rural, counter-cultural, and pietistic dimensions of this environment. He married in 1962, a union blessed with three children one of whom died in 2013. This marriage ended in 1988.
The blogger attended Tabor College (Hillsboro, KS), the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (Fresno, CA), the University of Southern California, and the University of Iowa (Ph.D. in Theological Ethics). His early vocational life was both challenging and deeply rewarding: administrator/justice worker in occupied Palestine with Mennonite Central Committee (1971-76); Mennonite pastorate in Clovis, CA (1976-80); professor of Peace Studies & Christian Ethics at (now) Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, IN (1980-89).
In 1990 the blogger married Sharryl Lindberg. The two worked in hospitality for the American Friends Service Committee in Washington, D.C. for seven years. They entered the Roman Catholic Church together at the 1991 Easter Vigil at Holy Trinity (Jesuit) Parish in Georgetown. He became a Secular in the Order of Discalced Carmelites (OCDS) in 1996 taking the name “LeRoy of the Wine of God.” The two established and then operated the Inn of Silent Music in the village of Tylerton on Smith Island, MD in the Chesapeake Bay for a decade (1997-2006). His book entitled Listening to the Silent Music: The Memoir of a Journey in Place (2009) grew out of the latter experience.
In late 2006 the blogger and spouse retired in South Bend, IN near where son Chad was living in a group home for otherwise-abled adults. The two became members of the Sacred Heart Parish worshipping primarily in the Basilica at the University of Notre Dame. For many years he sang in the Basilica’s community choir in addition to serving as lector and eucharistic minister. The blogger’s late-blooming passions include the medieval and renaissance Christian mystics whom he views as part of Christianity’s “minority report.” Between 2009 and 2022 he taught courses in Christian mysticism at Forever Learning, a robust program for seniors. Describing the mystics’ impact on him as hard to exaggerate, he laments their neglect in the Roman Catholic Church. He finds his life-long engagement in theological thinking to be both preparation for and barrier to living unencumberedly vis-à-vis The One.
The blogger’s love affair with classical music, whether in the sanctuary or concert hall, flowered as he approached mid-life. He leans toward the Romantic period and the great choral/orchestral compositions, whether “sacred” or otherwise, of the 19th and 20th centuries. He delights in the South Bend Symphony Orchestra, the Met Opera in HD, and the choral music in the Basilica liturgies. Beginning in 2010 he served for a decade as a host at the WSND-FM (88.9) classical station on the Notre Dame campus. His signature sign-off: “The programming of the Friday Afternoon Concert is nurtured by the suspicion that classical music is the greatest expression of beauty we humans have been gifted to craft.” In his season of ripening this music, more than a little of it bleeding into prayer, remains a part of every day.
Now in his anecdotage, the blogger finds deep satisfaction in the flourishing of Sharryl and each of their four adult children. The four generations of the Friesen/Lindberg family, splendidly and multifacetedly blended, are one of the joys of his life.
It now being December, the blogger longs to respond with all that he is to The One whom he has long addressed as “Lover.” Since 2013 one expression of this hunger has been a blog of prayers. His mentors including Hadewijch of Brabant, Meister Eckhart, and Juan de la Cruz playing variations on the theme of the Christ, he seeks to open himself to what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor imagination depicted (Is 64:4; I Cor 2:9). Accordingly, he approaches his impending transition both profoundly grateful to the Lover for the beautiful life given him and leaning hopefully, occasionally eagerly, into the further unfolding of the Mystérium preceding, during, and beyond.