Faith journey of newly professed brother fostered at Catholic Center

Brother Logan Murray, a native of Chicago, was drawn to the Brotherhood of Hope through his time at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Growing up in Chicago, Brother Logan attended Catholic school until the eighth grade and received the sacraments, but rarely worshiped at Mass. He always believed in God, and witnessed his grandparents’ faithful Mass attendance, but did not have a relationship with God until he encountered the Brothers of Hope at the Catholic Center at Rutgers.

“Only when I went to Rutgers did I get more into my faith,” Brother Logan said. Rutgers was the last college he decided to apply to, attracted by its engineering school.

“I look back, and it was totally the Holy Spirit working in my life,” he said.

While he was a freshman, he decided to accompany a friend to a fall semester retreat being run by the Brotherhood of Hope, who minister at the Catholic Center. The event, he noted, was “my first Catholic experience where people are worshipping God, raising their hands, singing and praying.”

During prayer at the retreat, he looked over and saw another young man with an expression of joy and peace on his face as he worshipped in adoration.

Brother Logan remembers deciding in that moment: “You know what, Lord, I want that relationship with you.”

From that point on, he became more involved with the Catholic Center, and as a junior, received the sacrament of reconciliation for the first time in years.

“From that moment, I really experienced that freedom, the weight of my sins being taken off, and I was all in from that point,” he said.

As a senior, Brother Logan was president of the student group at the Catholic Center, and went on a mission trip to Tanzania, Africa. The trip “really just stirred this desire to serve,” he recalled.

In 2012, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering.

He prayed for clarity about what to do with his life — should he become a missionary? Earn a doctorate at Rutgers? Look for a job?

He felt attracted to the Brothers’ life of service, but another service trip shortly after graduation truly opened him to the vocation.

He served with the Brothers in a Mexican border town south of Douglas, Ariz., the summer after graduation. While helping to build an addition to a home for a family of seven, he and the other men on the mission trip lived as a family, praying and eating together.

“It just kind of dawned on me that this was what the Brothers do,” he recalled.

Not long after, he attended a retreat where he was prompted to meditate on Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. During a 2 a.m. vigil, he made up his mind to give his life to God as a religious brother, in gratitude for Christ giving him everything.

“What can I give other than my whole life?” he remembers asking himself.

He applied to join the Brotherhood of Hope in 2014 and began working as a missionary at Northeastern University, Boston, while he made one-year vows for five consecutive years. In June 2020, he started a new job as campus minister at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

On Jan. 2, Brother Logan professed his perpetual vows along with Brother Ray Morris at the Church of the Annunciation, Orlando, Fla.

“I’m just very grateful for the Brothers, for their ministry at Rutgers, because my life was just totally changed,” Brother Logan said. “I don’t know where my life would be if I hadn’t encountered the Lord during my time in college.”

Living at a distance from his family, who now live in South Carolina, has been the biggest challenge in his life as a religious brother. But he loves his outreach to students as a campus minister.

Having personally experienced self-doubt and lack of confidence, Brother Logan said that helps him relate to students and enjoy encouraging them.

“I love being able to help people thrive,” he said. “I love when I see conversions happen … I love when people share what’s really going on in their heart and what the Lord is doing in their life.

“The Lord is working in our midst, whether it’s directly or indirectly through me.”