Deacon Brian Flowers feels at home in Grouard-McLennan

An American deacon has found a new home in the Canadian north.

Brian Flowers was born far away from the acreage just outside of High Prairie where he resides today. At the start of 2025, he and his family left behind a life in Idaho and came to Canada – out of love of its wildlife, its peace and quiet and the communal bonds of its people. He brings to his new home a background as a plumber and tradesman, and is also an ordained permanent deacon of the Catholic Church.

Both Brian’s journey to the diaconate and to his new life in the Lesser Slave Lake region came about in unexpected ways.

He came from a strong Polish Catholic family, and the Faith has remained a continual and pivotal part of his life. When Brian moved from his hometown of South Bend, Indiana to Idaho for college, he made his final stop in South Bend the Marian grotto at Notre Dame Catholic University.

“I knelt down before Mary at the grotto and prayed, asking for the guidance of Our Lady,” Dcn. Brian recalled. “And when I moved to Idaho, I kept my faith going and always went to church.

“When I met my wife she was not Catholic, and it was established right from the beginning that this was a non-negotiable: I’m going to be Catholic no matter what. And by the grace of God, she too became Catholic.”

When Brian’s wife Rachael joined the RCIA program to learn more about the Faith, he tagged along as her sponsor. Unexpectedly, this experience would turn out to be just as formative for him. When Rachael began to ask him questions on the ‘whys’ and ‘what fors’ of the Church’s teachings and practices, Brian suddenly realized that, despite being Catholic all his life, he didn’t know how to answer many of these questions.

“My wife would ask me, ‘Why do you believe this? Why do you believe that?’ and it angered me – because I didn’t know what to say. So the program encouraged me to learn more,” he said.

Through these experiences of growing together in the Catholic faith, Brian and Rachael then attended an evangelization retreat in their diocese. It was there that they met a permanent deacon and his wife. The couples became good friends, and out of curiosity, Brian started asking the man about his life as a deacon. This led the man’s wife to say to Brian point blank – “You’re going to be a deacon”.

Such a sudden remark caught Brian off guard, and he immediately laughed it off. However, those words stayed with him over the coming days and weeks, and they were not easy to shake off.

“When she said I would become a deacon, I literally laughed. I said ‘No way, not me. With the things I’ve done, the life I’ve lived – there’s no way.’ But she persisted – ‘You’re going to be a deacon’,” Brian recalled.

“And it stuck with me. I was driving down the highway one day, going to work, and I was praying and thinking, ‘Is that what You want, Lord?’ And out of nowhere, the most profound voice I have ever heard – it wasn’t from my conscience or anything – it just said, ‘Respond.’ And… I still get teary-eyed thinking about it now. I heard that voice and I just completely broke down.”

After his tears and this intense moment of grace, Brian began to realize that, indeed, God was calling him to the permanent diaconate. Shortly afterwards he contacted his diocese, and was able to fill out the proper forms and enter the diaconate program just before that year’s deadline.

His formation took place over four years, including lessons from Catholic professors throughout the United States. Looking back on this period now, Brian says it was the pinnacle of his spiritual life, as it brought both his understanding of the Catholic faith and his closeness to God to unsurpassed heights.

He was ordained in 2013, first assigned to a parish in Boise, Idaho. He helped with Mass, the sacraments, teaching youth about his vocation at the local Catholic school, and more.

When asked what is most rewarding in being a deacon, with now 13 years of experience, Flowers summarizes it with one word – “service.”

“That’s ultimately what we’re called to – to be of service. We’re called to help the priest in his parish, to administer sacraments like baptism, to help at funerals, at weddings, and ultimately at the altar. It’s so powerful to be right there, and witness the priest lift up the Body and Blood,” he said. “Above all, I really think that being behind the altar, with those duties I have as deacon, that is the greatest part.”

Today, Dcn. Brian and his family of four have marked a new chapter in their lives. He now resides in Salt Prairie, Alberta, and serves as a deacon at the nearby St. Paul Catholic Church in High Prairie.

He first came to Canada 20 years ago, taking part in a bear hunting trip in the High Level area. Over that trip, he began a friendship with their guide Brent Reil. This friendship grew over several return hunting trips to Alberta, and with this also came an increasing desire to move to the Canadian west, where wildlife and the great outdoors were available in such abundance.

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This is only an excerpt. Read the full story in the April 2026 edition of Northern Light