When we look at members of the clergy, we often forget that while they tend to God’s family on earth, they may also have biological loved ones in their lives.
This is just the case for the Dominican friar Fr. Simon Teller. However, Fr. Simon happens to have a biological older brother who is also a member of the Dominican order, Fr. Jonah. And in a recent reel on Instagram, Fr. Simon shared that he was meeting his “brother-brother” in New York City.
The friar then shared the meeting, with the message “POV: When your brother is also a priest and you visit him in NYC.” (POV means “point of view” and is used to share a story on social media with a particular perspective.)
We then get to see the very cool meet-up, but we remain unaware as to how the two address each other. Is it “brother-brother” or do they just use their Christian names?
Brotherly love
While it obviously doesn’t matter what the religious brothers call each other, it’s lovely to see the discussion that ensues in the comments section. Some people thought “father brother” would be apt, whereas others shared how Dominicans often like the appellation “brother.”
Yet something that united all those who commented was how wonderful they thought it was for the pair of siblings to both be in the same order.
The Teller brothers are actually from a family of seven children who hail from Cincinnati. While Simon is number three in the family, Jonah is number two. Considering the number of siblings, the two brother-brothers no doubt grew up with a myriad of names, but “father” seems to suit them both quite perfectly!
And today we celebrate...