Father Gabriel Gillen, O.P., was born and raised in Rockaway
Beach, New York. He attended the State University of New York in Stony Brook,
graduating with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts and a Business Management Bachelor
of Science.
He worked for several years in finance on Wall Street. After
studying at Franciscan University of Steubenville and earning degrees from the
Angelicum in Rome, he was ordained in Italy to the priesthood in 2000.
He served as a hospital chaplain at Sloan Kettering and later as a
college chaplain with the first FOCUS team at New York University. Father
Gabriel founded Blackfriars Media, a film incubator program for Catholic NYU
film students. He still produces documentaries for EWTN including one
with Dr. Peter Kreeft on the spirituality of surfing and a Pro-life video on
Naprotechnology.
Father Gillen currently serves as the Director of the Rosary
Shrine of Saint Jude which has over 80,000 members. He also serves as the
Executive Director of the Dominican Friars Foundation, which provides support
for the record number of friars with the Province of Saint Joseph. He is
an auxiliary chaplain with the Knights of Malta. Father Gillen was recently
asked to serve on one of the boards for the École Biblique, a center of
biblical research and teaching in Jerusalem.
The title for this blog is taken from Acts 1:8, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses... to the end of the earth." This blog is about the witness of faith through the power of the Holy Spirit in the world today. The above photo is of the friars on the Sea of Galilee recording video reflections.
