|
 My
name is Fr. Richard Lifrak, ss.cc.
As the vocation director
for the
Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, I
would like to welcome
you into a process of discernment concerning your
vocation.
What is a vocation?
A vocation is a life-path of service, chosen with
the guidance of the Holy Spirit as well as others in the Church,
in order to receive and share in the
abundance of life promised by Jesus, when He said, "I
came that they might have life and have it more abundantly." (John
10:10).
In
our Congregation, that abundant life is closely connected with the
amazing and life-changing love of God, which we symbolize by the Hearts
of Jesus and Mary -
joined together, consumed by Love.
Theirs is a threefold love, encompassing
love for each other,
love for the infinite Creator God
(called Abba by Jesus),
and a loving compassion for others.
This three-fold love is what led our founders, Pierre Coudrin and
Henriette Aymer, affectionately called the Good Father and the Good
Mother, to establish a spiritual family in 1800.
Approved and given a structure
of organization and life by Rome, we became a
religious congregation.
Now over 200 years old, we have retained our
original virtues of Family Spirit, Eucharistic Adoration and Courageous
Compassion, as we continue to develop new pathways such as international
solidarity and peacemaking.
As a young man, Blessed Damien DeVeuster was called by
the same love of God that has always permeated our Congregation and he
responded
with a unique zeal.
Thus, despite the fact that his parents were
counting on him to carry
on the family business,
he asked them to give their consent for his
religious vocation.
While in
formation, our congregation grew in Damien, giving him inner strength,
practical wisdom, and tender compassion.
As a young missionary priest, when he
encountered the enormous deprivation and
suffering of the leprosy (Hansen's Disease) patients exiled to the
Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, he was ready to freely offer his life to
serve them.
For sixteen years, Blessed Damien
became their caretaker, priest, nurse, and
laborer until he himself lost his health and
contracted Hansen's Disease.
Before dying, he said, "How sweet it is to
die as a child of the Sacred Hearts."
Even in his suffering, he wanted the world
to know that that he had found the abundant life promised by Christ!
By all that he said and did, Blessed Damien
made it possible for humanity to know more fully the tender mercy and
solidarity that comes from
the Heart of Christ!
That is the reason he is called a “servant
of humanity”!
|
I
believe, based on my own experience, that given a call from God,
many of you reading this can find the same abundant life by joining the
religious congregation of Blessed Damien.
hat
abundant life will be the gift of knowing human love as well as divine
love, and the grace of sharing that love with others. This is the
wonderful gift that God gave me, after I had passed through many
different stages of my life: first, as a young Jewish man, then, as an
agnostic scientist, and then, as a practicing Zen Buddhist.
At the age of 35, I finally discovered the
wonderful reality of God
as a catechumen of the Catholic Church.
Great as that discovery was, the gift expanded still more as I answered
God's call, submitted to the formation process of our religious order,
and finally became a consecrated religious
and Catholic priest in the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus
and Mary.
After
twelve years of challenging and fulfilling experiences as a priest, it
is now my newest challenge and my great privilege to invite others to
share the abundance of life that has been given to me in
prayer, community, and ministry.
I know those of you reading this
invitation may be called in different ways, perhaps to marriage and
family, or
a secular profession of self-sacrificing service; possibly to Diocesan
priesthood, or to another religious congregation with a different
charism or spirit of life. No matter what the nature of your call might
be, God loves you.
However, if the Heart of Christ and your own
heart are telling
you to take a chance on the vocation
we
are offering, please say, "Yes!" either by
telephone, by E-mail, or by a personal visit to our
Damien Vocation office.
Contact
me to see what your future could
be. I would love to help you
know
your own heart and the Heart that blesses and empowers this beloved
Congregation of mine with so much Love and Spirit!
With Affection and Hope,
Fr. Richard Lifrak , ss.cc.
|
