by Mike Snyder | Jun 29, 2022 | Vocations - Blog
Spiritual author, Fr. Richard Rohr OFM once remarked, “Transformed people transform people.” It’s the chemical equation of a spiritual life – when one person encounters another through love, a transforming reaction takes place changing both lives, making each more brilliantly transparent to God’s love. This is the call of the “apostolic life”; it’s the summons of Jesus, “Come, follow me”, through encounter upon encounter with the peoples of our world, especially those who most resemble Christ – the poor, the homeless, the refugee, the despised, the condemned.
Often “apostolic life” is contrasted with “contemplative life”, especially when distinguishing communities of consecrated life in discerning a vocation.
Contemplative communities are commonly characterized by silence, simplicity and prayerful intentionality in work and devotion to God and to one another. In this way of life, the example of Jesus at prayer, draws us away from the world so as to embrace it more deeply and completely in God’s love.
Apostolic communities, on the other hand, are typically characterized by their action or ministry in the world, generally outside of monasteries. Members may teach, serve the homeless or poor, minister in healthcare settings or prisons, accompany migrants and refugees, care for Creation, or advance social justice causes among many other ministries. In this way of life, the teaching and healing ministries of Jesus, and the example of the apostles being sent by Him into the world to do the same, is foremost.
And yet as Jesus demonstrated, both “contemplative” and “apostolic” dimensions are essential for a meaningful Christian life. And both are practiced even among the most “contemplative” or “apostolic” of communities.
Though drawn to prayer and contemplation in our Maryknoll charism, we nonetheless identify most publicly with our apostolic calling and way of life. To paraphrase French writer, Émile Zola, if you ask us what we came to do in this world, we will answer: we are here to “live out loud”. Mission is, for us, prayer lived “out loud” in its subversive actions against the anxieties, animosities and complacencies that fray our bonds with God and one another.
Like other apostolic communities, Maryknollers journey to the margins of societies around the world. It’s there that God calls us to walk with the poor and broken, to bind wounded bodies and souls, and to call into question those social structures that perpetuate such suffering. In doing so, we encounter Christ time and again, often in very surprising ways. And, we are transformed.
Bishop James Edward Walsh, MM, one of Maryknoll’s first missionaries and our second Superior General, wrote movingly of one such encounter with a poor Chinese laborer.
“I saw him in the rice field”, Walsh recalled. “He stopped working as I approached and leaned on his hoe. The sweat of a hot day under the South China sun glistened on his brow.” As Walsh looked closer at the young man, he saw however something more – something that was always there that, but for a moment and Walsh’s prayerful openness to it, could have been forever lost to him. It wasn’t. Instead, a feeling of profound love welled up within, transforming Walsh and empowering him to exclaim his vocation as a missioner anew:
“’I choose you,’ sang in my heart as I looked at my awkward farmer boy, perfect picture of the underprivileged soul. ‘I choose you, and with you the countless million of God’s children like you… souls impoverished and unendowed, I choose you, and dedicate myself to you. I ask no other privilege but to devote the energies of my soul to such as you. For in this sudden revelation shines an incarnation of my life’s ideal. You are my father and mother my sister and my brother; you hold the center of my dreams.’
Jesus sent His apostles out into the world with nothing more than a walking stick (ref: Mark 6:8) so as to realize, for themselves, the truth of God’s dream for humanity – we are all family. A walking stick is meaningful though only if you take time to listen to God and the family you walk among – and if you’re open to wonder.
Touched by wonder in his own apostolic walk among the poor of China, Walsh implored: “Shine on, farmer boy, symbol to me of the thousand million like you who drew the Son of God from heaven to smooth and bless your weary anxieties and your puzzled brows. Come to me often in your barefooted squalor and look at me from out those hopeless and bewildered eyes. Do not let me forget that vision, but stay by me and preside over my dreams. Teach me that souls are people. And remind me everlastingly that they are magnificent people like you.”
by Mike Snyder | Jun 29, 2022 | Vocations - Blog
The Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers had the first mission departure on September 7, 1918. At eight o’clock the ringing of the mission bell announced the departure of our first four men to the Orient. This tradition has been passed down from generation to generation creating the yearning to hear the sound of the bell. It is a 200 pound bell from an old Japanese pagoda that was given as a gift to our co-founder, Bishop James A. Walsh, M.M., by Fr. Deffrennes, a French missionary in Japan.
It is said that during a trip to the Orient, Bishop Walsh heard that this bell was rescued from a Japanese temple which burned to the ground. In the small town near Sendai, he was offered this bell by Fr. Deffrennes. Bishop Walsh arranged the bell to be transported from Yokohama to Maryknoll by ship. As he saw the bell for one last instance, Fr. Deffrennes wrote a letter dated in 1919:
“You can imagine how happy I was to know that my bell had sounded the hour of the first departure! May it sound many, many more times! Its voice is not beautiful but the ears of apostles must get used to unpleasant sounds.”
Being faithful to the tradition, this bell rang again on the first Friday of June 2022 at 3 PM when Fr. John Siyumbu, M.M., received his mission cross and was assigned to his first mission in Latin America. Will a priest or a Brother be the next one to go on mission? When will the bell ring next? These were some of the questions that you could hear after the ceremony.
Looking ahead, I captured a group of our newest seminarians studying the still legible Chinese characters engraved on the bell which narrate the story of its origins. This is a bell that sends people to announce Good News. Be part of this tradition. Be a Brother, be a Priest, be Maryknoll!
by Mike Snyder | Jun 29, 2022 | Vocations - Blog
On June 3, 2022 His Eminence Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples ordained Deacon John Siyumbu to the priesthood. Maryknoll Superior General, Father Lance P. Nadeau, was concelebrant. During his homily, Cardinal Tagle spoke about John’s future ministry and God’s calling him to priesthood saying “We are all humble collaborators.” Father Nadeau shared a greeting and message in Swahili with Father John’s family who were watching via live stream from Kenya.
After the Ordination Mass, Father John received his Mission Cross at the Maryknoll Sending Ceremony, and was commissioned to our mission service in Latin America.
Born in Kenya, East Africa, as a young boy, he attended Mass regularly with his family. He loved celebrating the sacraments and felt the beginnings of a calling at the time of his Confirmation. As a seminarian during his overseas training in Bolivia, Father John has commented on he grew close to many families and learned so much from them. Through the celebration of their faith and simple acts of friendship, his own faith was strengthened.
Father John is the first candidate accepted into Maryknoll as a candidate for the priesthood from Kenya.
by Mike Snyder | Jun 29, 2022 | Vocations - Blog
The first Maryknoll Missioners sent to China in 1918: Newly ordained and future Bishop James Edward Walsh is pictured sitting on the left with Co-Founder Fr. Thomas F. Price in the middle, newly ordained and future Bishop Francis X. Ford on the right and standing Fr. Bernard Meyer
by Mike Snyder | Dec 15, 2021 | Vocations - Blog, Winter Newsletter
Fr. Mike with the present chaplain and students during a reception outside the chapel
Fr. Mike Snyder has spent his missionary career among the people of Tanzania in East Africa. Today he serves in vocations and as Maryknoll’s Director of Admissions. Recently he returned to East Africa where he met several men in Kenya and Tanzania expressing interest in a missionary vocation. While in Dar es Salaam the Catholic student community at the Muhimibili University of Health & Allied Sciences welcomed him for an evening of prayer and to give a talk. Fr. Mike spent 6 years as Catholic chaplain at this institute, the national medical university of Tanzania. He commented that it was like returning home. These students did not know him personally but they knew much about him and the years spent as chaplain to the student body. After the talk they showered Fr. Mike with gifts and a short reception.
A missioner’s life is filled with hellos and goodbyes. Events such as this one demonstrate the impact we can have on other’s lives and the joy we experience in service to God’s Mission living in other countries, experiencing new cultures and learning new languages. As they say in Swahili, the language of Tanzania: Mungu ni mwema – God is good!
Students welcoming Fr. Mike back home at Muhimbili
by Mike Snyder | Dec 15, 2021 | Vocations - Blog, Winter Newsletter
Vocation Director Fr. Rodrigo Ulla (center) with two friends
From November 17 to the 20th, the Vocations Team led by Mr. Greg Darr and Fr. Rodrigo Ulloa traveled to Indianapolis to attend the 2021 National Catholic Youth Conference most known as NCYC. We had a booth representing Maryknoll with multiple brochures describing our charisms. The main attraction was a map oriented to the South which sparked lots of attention upon seeing it from a far. Many students were puzzled as to why did we hang a map upside down. It was not upside down but simply oriented to the South and such position helped us explain that Jesus invites us to see the world differently. We go to mission to serve God’s people and when we return we see the world and its people with eyes of mercy and compassion. From years past, our Maryknoll world mission map has challenged students giving them just 60 seconds to match 6 countries to their proper location on the map. The winner of each challenge receives a mission cross as well as our mission passport and a copy of the map so that they can review it at home. We conducted this game for the entire conference and were able to attract multiple students from different dioceses of the United States. To plant the mission seed, we successfully handed countless copies of our long/short term mission exposure trip brochures and prayer cards, to name a few.
Vocation Minister Mr. Greg Darr with map game participants
by Mike Snyder | Dec 15, 2021 | Vocations - Blog, Winter Newsletter
We understand that not everyone is a Facebook user. However, if you take the time to visit us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mklvocations) you will find several short video testimonies of Maryknoll Missioners speaking about their vocations and experiences in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Here is a sample by Sem. John Siyumbu: https://www.youtube.com/embed/qQI_rFCN4m8
We also have a private Facebook Vocations Group for men expressing greater interest in a missionary vocation. The group meets regularly to watch interviews with Maryknollers and have the opportunity to dialogue with us and with each other about missionary life. Please visit our Vocations Facebook page and if you are interested in joining this group then just contact Fr. Rodrigo at vocation@maryknoll.org or follow the instructions online for membership.
Fr. Larry Radice offers a blessing in Thailand
by Mike Snyder | Dec 15, 2021 | Vocations - Blog, Winter Newsletter
Maryknoll missionary priests and Brothers have been serving in countries throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America for 104 years now. Traditionally, we had only accepted men from the United States to join us and they knew they would be sent outside the U.S. for mission service. In the United States we have only served in special pastoral assignments such as Chinatown in New York City. While our assignments still remain outside the U.S., since 2017 we have started accepting men from the countries where we serve. Originally, we felt it important to strengthen local churches insisting their young men serve the Church in their homelands. But so many of these local churches are now strong and among their young men there are those who wish to become Maryknoll Missioners. So we now welcome these men to join us in Mission.
As missioners when we first arrive in new countries there is both excitement and some trepidation. We all wonder if we have what it takes to learn new languages, adapt to new cultures and establish good healthy relationships with the people. We are required to be patient with ourselves as we become like children again in so many ways. Prayer becomes paramount in our lives as we depend so much upon God and slowly grow and acculturate in these new settings. In the end it is so often the people in our host country who show us the face of Jesus through their hospitality and warm welcome. The transformation that takes place in us is awesome and is best described as grace. And that grace brings us so much happiness!
We hope you recognize how much you and so many others like you are needed today. The message of God’s love for all people is so important. It needs to be preached not only in words but in the actions of our daily lives. Each of you is a messenger wherever you go and in whatever you do. But, you still need to take some steps in the direction that will fulfill the dreams that have brought you in contact with us. So, don’t be stymied by the challenge. Rather, dream on and make the dream a reality!
As always we look forward to hearing from you at (vocation@maryknoll.org): Fr. Rodrigo Ulloa-Chavarry (Vocation Director), Fr. Mike Snyder, Fr. Joe Donovan and Mr. Greg Darr.
