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Congregation of the Sacred Hearts
of Jesus and Mary
September
2007
Dear Friends of Sacred Hearts Missions,
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Blessed Fr. Damien
of Molokai, ss.cc. |
 Fr.
Stan Kolasa, ss.cc., Director of Development
It is said that “no one is entering the priesthood any more.” That
is just not so. In the past couple of months, we have had the
opportunity to welcome three of our seminarians and one of our new
priests. They are from India and they have a truly beautiful spirit!
What is even more delightful is that there are more...many more.
There are about forty young men who have already started their
training for religious life and the priesthood and more who are very
interested. But, we don’t have enough room to accommodate them, and
our finances and personnel are already strained.
Recently, Fr. Sudhir, ss.cc. celebrated the weekend Masses at the
church where I minister. While I was away, the wonderful people of
my parish had the opportunity to get to know yet another of our
SS.CC. brothers. They loved him and wished he could stay. I met
Sudhir for the first time in 2000 on a planning session in the
Philippines. He and three others were in their theology class at our
House of Studies there. I was so struck by their wonderful spirit
and dedication. Three of the four, who are now ordained, have come
here at different times to work with us. All who have met them are
so moved by their deep love for the Congregation of the Sacred
Hearts and for the Church. They are religious and priests both to be
proud of and to take delight in. The three brothers, who are
spending their pastoral year with us in Massachusetts, Texas and
Maryland, are also of the same spirit; they are inspiring and
uplifting.
 Through
our brothers who work with and guide our new members in training,
not only in India and the Philippines, but also in this country, we
have been blessed with men and women (remember our Congregation has
Sisters AND Brothers) of great devotion, who have searched in life
for the ways God is calling them. But, we need your support to
continue this effort. We need the structures and the personnel to
nourish these vocations to religious life and the priesthood. It is
all so exciting for us who love our religious and priestly vocation,
but as in all we do, we cannot accomplish everything alone. We need
the help of strong lay people, dedicated to their own Baptism. We
need sisters and brothers in Faith to do what their one pair of
hands can do to sustain the works that our too few pairs of hands
are trying to do. We need those who will walk with us and help us
with the work that has been given to us by God. There is so much to
do, but together we can do so much more. “The harvest is plentiful,
but the workers are few.” (Mt 9.37) Be WORKERS according to your
ability and YOUR vocation as Baptized.
God bless and love,
Fr. Stan Kolasa, ss.cc. Director of Development
“The harvest is plentiful but the
workers are few”
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“ There is so much to do, but together
we can
do so much more .” |
God bless and love,
Fr. Stan Kolasa, ss.cc.
A memory from Fr. Stan... |
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In 1961, after
one year of college, I told my widowed mother that I was going
to leave everything and enter the seminary. I was 18 - my only
brother was 21 - no sisters. Mom was always a religious woman
and a great example, but she cried so hard. I expected that, but
not her response to my question, “Mom, I thought you’d be
happy?” She said she was, but she would miss the grandchildren I
would give her.
Almost 40 years later, while I was “missioned” on the island of
Abaco in the Bahamas, Mom was already 85. My only brother had
died years before. Her last remaining sister was in a nursing
home. Not knowing what was best to do, but loving her dearly, I
asked HER to leave everything familiar to her, all that was
left, and come and live with me on the mission. Not the
ordinary...not the usual... but, at the time, I thought it the
most loving thing I could do.
I was on a very poor mission, but I shared with her what I had.
She celebrated all five Masses with me each weekend. She knitted
“booties” for the babies for the cool Bahamian winters, played
with the hundreds of Bahamian and Haitian children, and
basically loved them all. They, in return, loved my Mom..
.especially the children. They called her, “Nana Anna”! After a
couple of years with me, and not too long before she died, she
said to me one day. “Honey, I am so happy. I feel as if all
these children are yours, and therefore my grandchildren. I
never thought I’d have so many, and it is so wonderful!”
And, it was. God makes us ALL His missionaries when we do what
we can, even when we think we cannot. God so often gives us
better than we can dream or imagine. Naturally, when Mom was
buried, her memorial stone read,
Anna Kolasa
“Nana Anna”
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