Newberg Graphic Online

A new face at St. Peter fills a unique role

Church ministry — Pastoral assistant settles in at Newberg Catholic church

• By: Laurent Bonczijk  
• Published: 12/4/2009 2:13:22 PM

Photo By: Laurent BonczijkMusical ministry —
Denise Bernt, who describes herself as ‘guitar rich,’ said she prefers to play her 12-string Taylor when given a chance. She tries to practice daily and plays during the 5 p.m. Saturday Mass as well as at funerals.

  Flying solo since his arrival in July 2008, Father Don Gutmann has hired a part-time pastoral assistant at St. Peter Catholic Church.
   Denise Bernt, 56, who hails from McMinnville, is a member of the order of Brothers and Sisters of Charity Domestic. A relatively new order, it was founded by John Michael Talbot, a Catholic musician and one of the figures of the 1970s Jesus Movement. She became involved when asked to help with the music ministry at the congregation she attended while living in Alaska shortly after her marriage.
   The order is opened to both monastic and domestic members and is aimed at Christians who want to be more serious about their faith without necessarily joining a monastery. Bernt said she was drawn to the order by Talbot. “I started following some of his music, being a musician myself,” she said.
   It’s a unique type of community, she said, because members are spread across the country and overseas and that they allow singles and family members. The Northwest regional minister and a member for 11 years, Bernt said there is historical evidence of monastic communities in 300 and 400 A.D. that had several layers. There would be monks who had taken vows of celibacy and around their monastery villagers who would be domestic members of the order, meaning that they belonged but married and had children.
   A mother of six, she said this arrangement is working well for her. All members of the community take the same vows, she said, which is another distinctive trait about the order. Brothers and sisters meet regularly with members of their cell group, the basic unit of the order made of members who live in proximity to one another and once a year attend a retreat at the order’s “motherhouse” in Arkansas.
   “I’m in charge of adult faith formation,” she said of her job at St. Peter, and as such “I try to encourage people to try and go where God calls you.” She held a similar position in McMinnville for awhile, so when she heard that Gutmann, whom she had met during his previous assignment in Florence, had been called to Newberg she came to see him and ask if he needed help with Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Last year she provided Gutmann with help when he needed it and since her hiring in September the situation has been reversed, giving Gutmann more time to concentrate on other aspects of the growing congregation.
   Being an adult convert to Catholicism herself (Bernt grew up Presbyterian and married a Roman Catholic), helps her when welcoming into the fold adults from other denominations, she said. “Those of us who are new to it are gleaning and seeking,” she said of converting to Catholicism and posited that it gives a deeper understanding of the faith and sacrament than for people who growing up in it may just take it for granted.
   Bernt, who plays the guitar, also takes part in the church’s music ministry and plans to organize the library so that parishioners can use it.
   Being part of a domestic order she wears the order’s simple brown habit when pursuing her duties at the church. Back at the farm — she raises dogs and miniature horses with her husband — she wears jeans and work clothes.
   “Physical appearance helps you be who you are, but it doesn’t make who you are,” Bernt said, “that comes from the heart.”

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