Rich Dahm, Retreat Business Manager at King’s House at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Illinois just celebrated his 49th anniversary of working for the Missionary Oblates. Rich might say, “Co-ministering” with the Oblates, but we will get to that a bit later in the article.
“My first job was working in building maintenance which was a summer job out of high school, primarily doing renovations of the grotto, the amphitheater, pouring concrete, and then general maintenance around the property.”
Rich got to know the Oblates long before he went to work for them. The parish Rich grew up in, St. Henry’s in Belleville was an Oblate parish and Rich’s family, comprised of his parents and thirteen siblings, would’ve caught the attention of any parish priest. In addition, Rich’s father, Norman Dahm, went to work at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows during the 1960s and it was he who first hired and supervised Rich when he began working at the Shrine.
Working maintenance at the 200-acre Shrine meant that Rich did whatever was needed: pouring concrete, re-doing the decking at the grotto, replacing the amphitheater roof,
re-siding buildings, building kitchen cabinets, basic carpentry, masonry, and general maintenance.
Then, in 1986, Fr. James Taylor, OMI, Director of the Oblate’s King’s House Renewal and Retreat Center, which was also in Belleville, a few miles away from the shrine, offered Rich a job there. This was when Rich stopped working for the Oblates and started collaborating with them. “I thought it was a steppingstone to what they refer to as a ‘real job,’ but it became a ministry and I guess you could say a vocation.”
In the beginning, Rich’s focus at King’s House was remodeling the facility, but when the major remodeling was done, Fr. Taylor and Rich discovered he had other talents as well.
“I started overseeing departments, sometimes even cooking and cleaning bedrooms. It became part of my life —hospitality. People who work in retreat houses know that hospitality is the number one thing: when people walk in the door you welcome them, offer a cup of coffee, say a friendly word, and direct them to one of the priests for direction.” Rich credits his upbringing with teaching him the importance of hospitality, he saw the welcoming attitude his parents displayed, and he carried it into his everyday life. Touched by the Oblate’s commitment to “leave nothing un-dared in reaching out to the poor,” he emulated it. He became an Oblate Associate, praying with the Oblates and discussing with fellow Associates how to be of service to others as a group or individually with a neighbor, friend, or even a stranger.
Recently, Rich’s co-ministry with the Oblates moved back to the place of its origin: King’s House Retreat Center has moved and is now King’s House at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The buildings of the original King’s House, required extensive renovations that were simply cost-prohibitive. The shrine, with 200 wooded acres, devotional areas for meditation, had a spacious visitor’s center, and 60-room guest house was a perfect new home for King’s House.
Long-time King’s House visitors want to know how the new facility stacks up and Rich tells them, “In a lot of ways, it’s enhanced the ministry as we have a lot more staff to cover everything going on. The whole visitor’s center has been modified in a very nice way with artwork, personnel, and food service.”
In his position Rich works with many great people from a variety of backgrounds, does he think others feel as he does, that they are involved in a ministry? “I think when they first get here, it’s a paycheck, but it develops over time; after they’ve been here a while, you see how people catch on to the charism of the Oblates.”
Rich feels that the attitude of the employees is a direct result of how the Oblates relate to them. “Everybody engages with each other very well. When we have events where there are Oblates and laity, they mix and engage with each other very well.”
After 49 years which Oblates were particularly special to Rich? “Oh man, there were so many, one that always comes to mind is Fr. Jim Taylor, because he brought me to what I call my true ministry, King’s House. Other ones like Oblate Fathers Tom Singer. Louie Lougen, Dave Kalert, and Allen Maes, all just wonderful people. Brother Bill Johnson, really mentored me at King’s House early on. Now, we’ve got the younger generation of Oblate Fathers: Mark Dean and Sal “Chava” (Gonzalez) who are carrying on that tradition.”
Looking to the future Rich notes some changes in retreat ministry: “At one time, everything was just quiet retreats, now we’ve started reaching out with week-long summer programs, we have mini-series for people who don’t necessarily have a whole weekend but have a few hours during the week, smaller programs that at least get people here. And once they’ve been here it seems like they really want to come back.”
The post For Rich Dahm it’s not just a job, it’s a vocation appeared first on Missionary Association Of Mary Immaculate USA.
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