Dcn Tom Rowlands

As the president of a company, father of four and grandfather of 12, Deacon Tom Rowlands has discovered the best way to recharge is to participate in monastic retreats. “This stems from a calling in my personal faith that is seeking an interior truth,” Deacon Rowlands said. “This is a calling that exists in everyone and in the quiet of silent retreats at many monasteries it is possible to approach, in an undistracted way, the silence of God’s loving hand as my life is being formed around the Christian faith that I follow through the teaching of the Catholic Church. In this quiet it is possible to find the interconnectedness between what I enjoy in working with others and my personal journey with its own failings and findings.” Deacon Rowlands applies his monastic discoveries at his job at R.S. Hanline & Co., Inc., where he has been President for 20 years as well as in his family life with Cindi, his wife of 38 years, and the families of their four children. They have 12 grandchildren. He belongs to St. Margaret of Cortona Parish in Columbus, where he has been actively involved with taking communion to the homebound. “I want to help the situations where faith is challenged and is not easy to find or claim as being present right now in a person’s life,” said Deacon Rowlands. These types of situations were present when after completing his B.A. in Business Administration at Ohio University, Deacon Rowlands spent time as a teacher and coached wrestling and football at Fisher Catholic High School before landing in his present job. “Teenagers have a youthful faith, where life is full of so many potential paths,” said Deacon Rowlands. “Faith is always new to those who continue to seek relationship and truth in their faith life. Growth at all stages in a person’s relationship with God, while exciting and fruitful, is not always comfortable. Part of Deacon Rowlands’ own faith journey has brought him to ordination. “My vocation was a quiet and persistent call that I began to discern was God’s call to the diaconate.”