North Texas Catholic

Love of God drives Alexian brother in daily ministry to people in need

By Joseph Austin

Catholic News Service

February 21, 2013

Alexian Brother Andrew Dinegar visits with resident Linda Hinkle at Ahepa senior apartments in south St. Louis Feb. 16. Brother Andrew delivers food for several meal programs and ministers to people in need on the street. (CNS photo/Lisa Johnston, St. Louis Review)

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After a long day of feeding and clothing the poorest of the poor, Brother Andrew Dinegar lays his head on his pillow and realizes, "I did a good job today, God."

"For me I found my love," he said about his ministry. "What drives me out every morning is the love (of God). ... My life is changed every time I go out."

An Alexian brother originally from Queens, N.Y., Brother Andrew spent 23 years away from the Catholic Church before coming back to his faith and feeling the calling to serve Christ on a deeper level.

For "23 years my heart was closed. When I came back to the church it was opened," he told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from St. Louis.

He found his path to a religious vocation while ministering to the poor at a hospice for people with AIDS that was founded in 1986 by Mother Teresa in the northeast section of Washington.

"The greatest disease today is being unwanted, unloved," she said about the center.

Ministering to people there on such a tactile level helped Brother Andrew to discern his vocation to join the Congregation of Alexian Brothers. "I always thought God was calling me to be a priest," he said, because he "always knew (about) priests, (but) never knew what a brother was like."

Among the vows religious brothers take are poverty, chastity, and obedience, and because they are not ordained, they do not have the sacramental duties of priests. This allows more freedom for a brother "to go out and do what God's calling (him) to do," said Brother Andrew.

It is a "gift that he gave us," he added.

An 800-year-old congregation, it was formed out of the work of heroic lay volunteers who served the sick and the dying during the Black Plague. The community does not have a known founder.

Rather, those who served the poor during the plague were united by their mission to do everything that was needed to be done to serve the poor, even if it meant dying from contracted illnesses.

Today an international congregation, its brothers are involved in health care, operating many nursing homes, hospice and hospitals in the Midwest.

About a year and a half ago, several brothers including Brother Andrew started a new ministry. About twice a week, a few brothers load vehicles with bread, desserts, pastries, fruits, vegetables, and clothing from a nearby Baptist church, and then distribute the items to about 14 different ministries and also people on the streets in south St. Louis.

Since "we're mobile, we tend to go toward the population who (for whatever reason) don't have money to go on the bus to the soup kitchen, or it is too far to walk so they can't have access to whatever they need," he explained.

There is a "shortage of vocations because no one's listening" to God's call, he said. People need to find that silence in their hearts, and ask "God what do you want me to do?" he said. That way they can hear God calling them to go out there and serve the poor, he said.

"It's not easy" to do the work they do, but "the love of Christ compels us," he explained.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- After a long day of feeding and clothing the poorest of the poor, Brother Andrew Dinegar lays his head on his pillow and realizes, "I did a good job today, God."