Brother Ron Fender said when he “saw Christ eating out of a garbage can,” his life was changed.
At that point more than a decade ago, the sometime teacher, sometime director, sometime actor, who had entered a Massachusetts monastery to discern his future, knew what he should do for the rest of his life.
Fender, now outreach case manager with the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, recently collected into a book a number of pieces he’d written in the year before taking his final vows with the Brotherhood of St. Gregory.
That book, published by Chattanooga’s WonderPress, is called “These Things I Have Seen (One Brother’s Journey Into the American Jungle).”
Fender, 57, who was raised in Asheville, N.C., said the book is “sort of a valentine to my brothers” and to other people he has known.