Br. Kevin Menard, SJC, who has been with the Canons Regular for eight years, will be ordained to the Order of the Diaconate on Saturday, May 11th at 10:00am by Cardinal Blase Cupich at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. Although the ordination attendance is limited to family only, you can watch the livestream here.

Br. Kevin grew up in Arlington Heights, IL with his two siblings. His parents are Byron and Mary and he has a brother Jim and a sister Mary Kelly. His brother Jim, and his wife AnaMarie have four children (Philomena, Jude, Gemma and Dominic) to which Dcn. Kevin a wonderfully loving and fun uncle. 

He graduated from Marquette University in 2011 with a business degree in marketing. He worked for a freight company doing data analytics for two and half years and then for a marketing firm designing emails for their clients for about a year and a half.

Br. Kevin was first awestruck by the priesthood when he was in kindergarten while attending daily Mass with his mother in the morning before school. “I saw the priest celebrating Mass everyday and I told my mom one day when I grow up, I want to be a priest.”

He always had a strong feeling that God was calling him to be a priest but he had a hard time figuring out how to make that decision. He still had a desire to go to school, to work, to hang out with his friends and even to get married. After college and spending a few years working in the field of data analytics and email marketing, and after having experienced dating, he realized that nothing left him more fulfilled then when he was serving the Church and Our Lord in some capacity. “I began actively seeking out religious communities in 2015 knowing that I wanted to share this journey of faith and priesthood with other devoted men in the fraternity of the common life.”

“God can use anyone, but especially the lowly and the weak,  and all He needs is your “Yes”. I spent so much time worrying about my vocation and trying to figure out what God was calling me to do. Finally, after consecrating myself to Jesus through Mary, I told our Heavenly Mother that I was going to model my vocation after hers, simply to say yes to whatever path God offers: fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum, “be it done unto me according to your word.” Six Months later, what had been years of stressful discernment, became clear, easy and peaceful with the help and guidance of our Mother Mary.”

In 2016, Br. Kevin joined the Canons after spending a few months discerning with the help of Fr. Frank Philips and Fr. Joshua Caswell.

A piece of advice he gives to those in distress, discernment, trials, etc. is “Give everything to Mary! Give her your struggles, your worries, your doubts, and all that confuses you, and she will make the way straight and easy. She is your Mother.”