John Michael Talbot Returns To Evansville On Oct. 9

Grammy Award winner, best-selling author and TV host John Michael Talbot will make his third visit to Evansville on Oct. 9 for a 2 p.m. performance at St. Benedict Cathedral, 1329 Lincoln Ave., Evansville, IN 47714. All are welcome, admission is free and no tickets are required. A freewill offering will be accepted to support Talbot’s ministry and that of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity, which he founded.

Talbot led a 2015 mission at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Daylight, and he returned to Evansville as a presenter at the 2016 Source Summit youth and adult retreats. His Oct. 9 appearance at St. benedict Cathedral will include spoken word and sacred song.

Talbot’s ministry began more than 40 years ago with a vision. “God gave me a vision of itinerant ministry,” he said, “walking on foot from parish to parish in a time of great need in our culture. I believe that our current ministry is fulfilling that vision. We are rebuilding the Church one parish at a time, and renewing hearts one life at a time!”

Born in 1954 into a Methodist family with a musical background in Oklahoma City, Talbot started learning to play the guitar as a youngster. By age 15 he dropped out of school and was performing as a guitarist for Mason Proffit, a country folk-rock band formed with his older brother Terry. After countless tours and the release of several well-received albums on multiple labels (including Warner Brothers), Mason Proffit disbanded and Talbot embarked on a spiritual journey.

“I asked God what I was supposed to do,” he said, “and God said, ‘Play your music and I will open and shut the doors.’”  Staying true to that calling, Talbot started to use his musical talents to express his faith by joining the newly emerging Christian music scene. His spiritual journey continued; and after studying all Christian denominations, Talbot found that Catholicism spoke to his heart. "It wasn't just some vague yearning," he said. "I saw a life in Christ in harmony and in peace."

Inspired by the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, he began studying at a Franciscan center in Indianapolis, and became a Roman Catholic in 1978. He immersed himself in Church history, patristics and monastic/Franciscan sources. He also started a house of prayer called The Little Portion.

Talbot moved The Little Portion to Eureka Springs, Ark., on land he had purchased during his Mason Proffit days. There, with the permission of the Catholic Church, he founded his own community – the Brothers and Sisters of Charity – at Little Portion Hermitage as an "integrated monastic community" with celibate brothers and sisters, singles, and families.

Talbot continues to lead his very active ministry from the Little Portion Hermitage in Arkansas and St. Clare Monastery in Texas, where he is the founder and minister general of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity. His artistic and humanitarian efforts have been recognized with awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Gospel Music Association, Mercy Corps and the Mother Teresa award.

For more information on Talbot, please visit http://www.johnmichaeltalbot.com/; http://www.facebook.com/johnmichaeltalbot; or http://www.youtube.com/johnmichaeltalbot.