This change in the seasons is a high point for the year in the New York area where our headquarters is located. The rich gold and crimson red colors of the leaves combined with cool breezes gives us a fresh and invigorated appreciation for life. We hope you are blessed with these same feelings and appreciation for God’s gifts of creation during this time of the year. We have been in contact with you while you contemplate the missionary vocation as priest or Brother. May that motivation of service to God’s people through faith and hope in the message of Jesus provide your soul with those same feelings of zest for life!
One of our senior and now deceased missioners, Fr. Dick Clifford, once wrote: “Mission is a human touch, in whatever form, place, person or circumstance it may reach out to express itself. It is often simple, sometimes sad, occasionally humorous but always enlightening. When one has felt this touch and has learned to respond to its tender embrace, in love and understanding, then one has begun to experience a true sense of mission, in all its beauty and charm and incomparable value.”
Service in response to love, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said: “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” I talk with people who admire the missionary vocation but feel they’re not worthy to undertake it. I respond to them saying that we missioners are just ordinary human beings like them trying to contribute to God’s Mission in this world in whatever small way we can. It reminds me of another St. Mother Teresa quote: “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
As always we look forward to hearing from you at (vocation@maryknoll.org): Fr. Rodrigo Ulloa-Chavarry, Fr. Mike Snyder, Fr. Joe Donovan and Mr. Greg Darr.
