The Rev. Ron Kreul has lived next to Blessed Sacrament Church on Hollister Avenue in Madison not once, not twice – but four times. 

Kreul first lived in a home owned by the parish on the East side of the church after finishing his studies at Holy Name Seminary. In a reflection in the parish bulletin, Kreul said he and five other ex-seminarians moved in under the agreement that they would teach Sunday Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD). 

He said he entered the Dominican novitiate after receiving a degree in pre-counseling from Edgewood College. Kreul spent two months at Blessed Sacrament that year to live with Dominicans and attend the University of Wisconsin to study philosophy.  

The Rev. Ron Kreul | SaintRitas.org

He took simple vows but at the end of the three years, Kreul didn't go forward with the solemn vows because he had never preached and did not want to commit to an Order of Preachers. Kreul said he was sent to the Denver Preaching Team to gain some experience before he joined his first preaching mission at Blessed Sacrament 43 years ago. 

"I loved preaching and the next year I made solemn vows and was ordained," he wrote.

His third time at Blessed Sacrament came after serving a number of assignments in a number of states including New Mexico, New York, Colorado, California and Michigan. Kreul came back to Edgewood College to be the school's chaplain for a year. 

He was then sent to Missouri to build up a new community before moving to Minnesota, where he became a Parochial Administrator at the Church of Saint Rita. It was next to the parish he had wanted to go to before he was assigned to the church in Missouri.

"Strange how the Spirit works," Kreul wrote in the bulletin.