Today we’re going to be talking to Fr. Chris Kulig O.Carm., who was just recently assigned here at the National Shrine of St. Thérèse in Darien, Illinois on the Carmelite campus. So, Fr. Chris, could you tell us a little bit about yourself, just some of the ministries you’ve served a quick run through up to this point?

Be happy to.

I first began as a novice teaching at our school in Arizona at Salpointe Catholic where I taught math which was my earlier training in undergraduate school and religion as well as working in campus ministry. After I was ordained, I served at St. Bernadette’s parish in Clear Lake City in Houston, Texas for three years, a very large active parish that was a wonderful experience for a newly ordained priest.

And then I went into academic ministry and went to Boston College with the hopes of gaining a doctorate. But I left that program with a terminal masters and went back to parish ministry at Immaculate Conception St. Joseph in Leavenworth, Kansas. After that, I went to a parish in Niagara Falls, Ontario, St. Patrick’s. And from there I went to the Monastery of Mount Carmel where I did retreat ministry and shrine ministry in Canada for 10 years before my sabbatical. So my largest time in ministry has been in shrine ministry. So it was a good fit for me to take on this assignment as assistant coordinator here at the National Shrine of St. Thérèse here in Darien, Illinois post-sabbatical. And I’ve been here for six months.

Excellent. Well, thank you for talking to us today. Wondering if you could just give us a little bit of background on what is here, what you do here, how you minister here. I’m assuming the shrine and the museum and tours and kind of a typical week, so to speak.

Sure. I have an office over at the Society of the Little Flower, which is my home base where I review materials and will begin writing for our newsletter, Between Friends, but my normal day begins here at the Shrine. After some time in the office, I open up here and set up for Mass, make sure that there are presiders here, I make out the monthly schedule, and with a team we coordinate the museum here and the Shrine Church. I’ve been asked to do a few tours. I am on the list of several people who give tours of the museum, but I’m here most every day, except for my day off, usually on Mondays and the weekends when we don’t have Mass. Offering confession, guiding our visitors. Many see this structure and come here immediately and they’re looking for the relics and the artifacts we have on Thérèse, so I direct them back over to the museum across the parking lot and I answer any questions they have about the property and basically I’m available here for spiritual direction as well. And then we have another part of our team closes down our shrine and museum at four o’clock in the afternoon. We’re open from 10 to four every day of the week.

Prayer, community and ministry… How do you bring those three pillars to serving your ministry here at the shrine?

Yeah, the shrine ministry I discovered in Niagara Falls really lent itself to having a more structured personal prayer life. My experiences in parishes were, as with all parishes, a very, how do I put it… fluid situation where you could have large amounts of time where you don’t see the people of God and other times when you’re doing sick calls or funerals that come in during the week and preparing homilies for the weekend. Whereas here and at our retreat house ministry in Niagara Falls, I discovered that there were times I could set aside for personal prayer. And here it’s rather similar. It’s my times of prayer in the morning in my community, which is at the Retreat House Retirement Wing, just across the waterway here.

That is kind of the linchpin of my day in the beginning and at the end because once the day begins with our community mass, then I am at the office and then here and back into the office until I return to my community in the evening where we have evening prayer and dinner. And then the evening one can have time for personal prayer. And so interwoven with that is the common life where we share about our day and or I serve as prior for our men who are retired to make sure that they have the things that they need in their retirement and that things are going well at the base there.

And so the ministry flows from that and I think if Carmelite trusts in his community to be there for him and participates there and devotes his time to God in personal prayer, then the ministry will be fruitful. That’s been my experience.

Is there anything here on campus, people from the street can see the shrine, they can see the museum, but any details about the shrine, the museum, the property that you’d kind of like to share with people that maybe you find when they arrive they go, oh, I didn’t know that.

Yeah, I think people are interested in the White House because it’s an old property, but it is a private community house. Although if people walk by, they’ll see a wonderful image of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Simon Stock there in the sunroom on one side.

The statuary outside, I encourage people to walk around and find themselves on the other side of the retreat center by our meditation garden and stations of the cross, but really most people have no problem finding that because they see the wide-open space.

The attraction that they see is first of all this new shrine building that has a unique shape and a wonderful image of Therese as you can see behind me. But they’re very interested in the relics that we have from Lisieux, all those second-class relics in the museum, plus the woodcut that served as the background for the Shrine Chapel before it was moved over here in 2018.

If there’s one thing I discovered which I think is fascinating, and I think there’s a little bit more to be discovered about it, is that there’s a statue of Thérèse that’s hidden behind the billboard on the frontage road as you make your way here. And so as I went out there, I noticed it said, “Thérèse, Messenger of Mary,” which I thought was a strange title. But I, through the Almighty Google as I like to call it, I discovered that Albert Dolan I think was the Carmelite wrote a book called Messenger of Mary on Therese I can buy it on Amazon but I wonder if there’s a copy here or in the Carmelitana in Washington DC so to see his reflections because he appears to be one of the first Carmelites who promoted the museum and the Society of the Little Flower when it was first established here in the ’20s in Chicago and then moved out here.

All right. Speaking of the campus and the amenities here and things that people can visit, we’re coming into Thanksgiving season and then of course we’re rolling into Advent and then Christmas. Special events, activities coming up that maybe people should be aware of?

Oh yes, there’s an activity here on December 5th. It will be in the museum. It’s called Christmas at the Crib where there’ll be a creche display and Christmas seasonal music for those who wish to come with, I think, hot chocolate and extended hours for the gift shop with gift wrapping for people who buy a certain amount of religious articles from the gift shop. So that’s our next big event.

After that there’s one I do believe on Good Friday. We’ve already had our main event which was Thérèse’s feast day on October 1st. The truth be told I’m only six months in so I don’t know exactly what else we have coming up but those are the ones I know about.

Excellent. Well, we’re glad to have you here. Glad to have you on the campus. Welcome back to the United States.

Thank you very much. It’s nice to be back here in the Chicago area. I find the Chicago area to be quite beautiful and wonderful… The Morton Arboretum and downtown.

As beautiful as Niagara Falls was… and I’d encourage people to also go see our shrine there in Niagara Falls, Ontario, close to the falls itself. Strangely, it’s so wonderful here I don’t miss that beauty as much as I thought I would.

And you will get to enjoy similar winters.

The climates are fine, but you also have the Cubs, which I have to add as a man who grew up in Cleveland, I hold nothing against the Cubs for beating us in the World Series. I’m over all these sports rivalries. I just love Wrigley Field, and I hope to attend many more games in the future, and hopefully maybe even celebrate a World Series here in Chicago.

Well, excellent. Well, thank you, Father Chris. Appreciate your time and hope everything goes well here on the campus and in your new ministry for you.

Thank you very much, Ken. And it’s been a pleasure talking to you.