Have sermon, will travel: The traveling preacher's busy life
Author: Eli Pacheco
Date Published: May 02, 2025
Be on the lookout: The traveling preacher might just visit your neighborhood soon.
Wherever you are, whatever retreat you have on your calendar, there is a chance Br. Albert Haase, OFM, an itinerant preacher, has been called to lead you.
He lives in San Antonio, Texas, but good luck finding him there. For 40 weeks a year, Br. Albert takes his show on the road, delivering parish missions, days of recollection, spirituality workshops and more.
“I think of my ministry as having three prongs,” he said. “I have the preaching. I do a lot of spiritual direction via Zoom, and I’m a writer. I do a little bit of everything.”
His books – his 19th due for publication next year by Paulist Press – are an homage to Franciscan theology and practice, from 90-second Gospel meditations to deep dives into living a spiritual life. It’s a collection to test the limits of your bookends and broaden your spirituality. Among them:
“Swimming in the Sun: Discovering the Lord’s Prayer with Francis of Assisi and Thomas Merton” – Br. Albert’s debut book, awarded the recognition “Best Book by a First-Time Author” by the Catholic Media Association
“Touching the Bones of Elisha” – written during the COVID-19 pandemic with Protestant pastor Phil Vestal about the nine spiritual practices of the ancient Hebrew prophet. They are writing a new book now about how God uses feelings to communicate.
“I’ve been busy!” the friar said.
.png?sfvrsn=2285414b_1)
Br. Albert Haase, OFM, with two of his students in Beijing. He keeps in touch with both, after all these years. (Photo courtesy of Br. Albert Haase, OFM)
Dream ministry in China
It’s little wonder he’s a friar chosen to lead a retreat – for friars. In January, he’ll guide his brothers in “The Franciscan Spiritual Journey: A Process of Transformation,” in Malibu, California, and Winter Park, Florida.
He preached retreats to the Conventual Franciscans of Our Lady of Consolation Province last year.
“I was deeply humbled and honored to be asked to preach the friars' retreats next year,” he said. “I found the experience last year to be both challenging and validating. I suspect I'll have the same experience with the friars of my province.”
And to think – preaching is the second act in his Franciscan voyage. Young Br. Albert dreamed of missionary work in China.
In the early 1990s, he and another friar helped establish a Franciscan presence in China. After learning the language and culture in Taiwan, he taught and preached in Wuhan and Beijing. He was also an HR director of a global audit and consulting firm.
He intended this to be his lifelong assignment.
“I had planned on dying in China,” Br. Albert said. But service there became unsafe for various reasons, and it was time to come home after 11 years in his dream ministry.
Ordained in 1983, Br. Albert holds an English degree from Quincy, Illinois, University, a Master of Divinity from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a doctorate in philosophy in historical theology from Fordham University in New York.
After returning from China, he became an assistant professor of theology at Quincy and continued to write. In the United States, he received numerous preaching requests, sufficient for full-time work.
“I could make this a full-time job again,” Br. Albert said. “With people continuing to ask for me, it’s clear this is what God wants me to do.”
.png?sfvrsn=d161e49d_1)
Br. Albert Haase, OFM, autographs copies of his book during a lunch break at a day of recollection at a United Methodist church in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2023. (Photo courtesy of Br. Albert Haase, OFM)
'The one sermon’
While preaching, Br. Albert stresses living in the present, a theme that runs throughout his books and into workshops for clergy and lay folks alike.
“Your life is the megaphone through which God speaks,” Br. Albert said. “That’s the one sermon. For me, everything else is a corollary to that one idea. We get it every day, through people, events, our deep-seeded feelings, to our most creative thoughts.”
Br. Albert Haase, OFM, gave the keynote address at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the biggest annual meeting of Roman Catholics in the United States. His talk, “Harboring Hope Before High Hurdles,” was his response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo courtesy of Br. Albert Haase, OFM)
A retreat from retreats
So, what is next for the traveling preacher? Beyond his next flight, Br. Albert, who just turned 70, has no idea.
“I would love to get a break sometime,” he said with a smile. What does the retreat preacher do when he needs a retreat?
Br. Albert escapes to a Trappist monastery in South Carolina with his ordination classmate between Christmas and New Year’s, a respite that offers him restorative time.
“The monks all know us,” he said. “We’ve been going there for a good 12 years.” Of course, his presence led to – you guessed it – a request to preach at one of their events. “I got to know the monks in a different way than I do when I’m on retreat.”
He’s come a long way – not only in the 1.4 million frequent flier miles currently in his America Airlines account – in his journey of preaching, teaching and learning. Br. Albert notes that in his first book, he felt he backed every claim with quotes from Francis of Assisi or Thomas Merton.
Today, his words are a culmination of feedback from his audiences.
“I’ve come to realize that I have a message, and people who read my books and listen to me tend to validate things that I say,” he said. “I find that extraordinarily gratifying.”