Our Life: Brother Profiles

"One family lived in a camper trailer. An extension cord ran from the refrigerator to their neighbor's, and they had no bathroom. I got $500 to buy land and with volunteers helped them to build a house. Today he's owrking two jobs and doing terrific."

Brother Paul Bray

Brother Paul Bray sits with a family in an unfinished house “I was hoping I could get into a rural area where it was very poor and where there wasn’t much of a Catholic presence,” Brother Paul said, describing the origin of his ministry. Lancing, Tennessee fit the bill. A place where the land is rough and can’t support much farming, this area in northeastern Tennessee also lost its few big industries in 2001. When Brother Paul came to the Cumberland Plateau in 1978 with four other Holy Cross Brothers, housing was an acute need.

“So many homes didn’t have bathrooms or running water,” he recalled. “They also didn’t have much use for Catholics. I saw a great challenge, to show them that Catholics weren’t as bad as they thought they were, and we broke down a tremendous amount of prejudice. Your example and the life that you live are more important than going out and preaching. It means more to people.”

Initially Brother Paul joined the Morgan-Scott Project, an ecumenical group that reached out to help people across the county. The Project began the second affiliate of Habitat for Humanity in the United States. (Over 1,000 exist today.) He worked with Habitat for three years but eventually saw a need that organization couldn’t fill.

Woman smiles with thanks “Because of the policy that people had to have a little income, Habitat wasn’t able to help the really down-and-out people. So I organized Cumberland Building Ministry as an outreach program of St. Ann’s Church and the Brothers of Holy Cross. I depended on small donations and used the talent and skills I’ve acquired working on a farm to help as many as ten families a year.”

Brother Paul’s ministry sprang from a yearning that grew over the years. As part of his faith journey, he went from St. Joseph’s Farm at Notre Dame, Indiana to Santarém, Brazil.

“In 1969 I spent four months helping Brother Norbert at the novitiate farm in Santarém. That really inspired me to work with less fortunate people, and over the next eight years the desire got greater and greater.”

The hope he gives is catching — for the people who gain the first home they have ever had, and to the volunteers who come for a summer and make return pilgrimages year after year.

Students gather together “We need to get more involved in this type of ministry,” said Brother Paul. “This is where the Church really needs to go. I have worked with volunteers that come from all over the country and who are of different faiths, and it is inspiring how those young kids get so enthused about it.”

His fellow Brothers have been called to other ministries, but Paul continues to feel a special calling to this work, supported by his Brothers.

“The big thing right now for me, I’ve been here for 24 years. I’m still in good health, but as you get older you lose some of your zip,” he chuckled. “I really want to get more people involved.”

To learn how you can contribute your talents, time, or money to Cumberland Building Ministry, contact cumberland@holycross-sw.org, write to Brothers of Holy Cross, 1101 St. Edward’s Drive, Austin, TX 78704-6512, or call us at 512-442-7856.