by Mike Snyder | Sep 6, 2019 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
Recently we read a letter from Br. Bill Firman SFC, the Executive Director of Solidarity with South Sudan. Since gaining independence in 2011 as Africa’s newest country this nation has been plagued with violence that has left hundreds of thousands harbored in refugee camps seeking safety. Some ask if missionaries are still needed in the world today. We’ll let you answer that question.
As you may be aware, conflict returned to South Sudan in late 2013 testing the resolve of the Catholic Church to continue the mission. As the South Sudanese Bishop Erkolano expressed so succinctly at a Solidarity With South Sudan Board meeting,
“If the missionaries leave, the people lose hope.”
This organization, Solidarity With South Sudan, is a collaborative effort by many religious congregations to send missionaries to live and work among a suffering people and identify even more with the Passion of Christ, and his challenge, ‘Could you not watch one hour with me.’
Father Mike Bassano celebrating Mass in the camp
The facts are that, although they have only been able to maintain a presence in Malakal through Maryknoll priest, Fr Mike Bassano, working as chaplain in the UN Protection of Civilians Camp, their other enterprises are thriving: they have 123 students in residence following three-year programs to become registered nurses or midwives in their Catholic Health Training Institute (CHTI) in Wau where Maryknoll Fr. Tom Tiscornia serves; and they have 121 resident students in their Solidarity Teacher Training College (STTC) in Yambio where Maryknoll Lay Missioner Gabe Hurrish is serving. The quality graduates from these well-resourced institutes are highly regarded throughout South Sudan and are now helping their own people significantly.
Their Pastoral teams continue to offer many programs training local pastoral workers, including trauma healing facilitators, and provide two of the four permanent staff at the new Good Shepherd Peace Centre just out of Juba. Further, they have a thriving 50 hectare ‘model farm’ providing training in best self-subsistence agricultural techniques, and employing up to 80 workers daily, while providing food in support of their STTC and the 6000 Internally displaced people clustered around the Church in Riimenze.
In spite of the setbacks, Maryknoll has served with this organization, Solidarity With South Sudan, through these ten very productive years since the organization was founded.
by Mike Snyder | Sep 6, 2019 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
Former Superior General, Fr. John Sivalon, once described Mission this way:
A tangle of twigs lies drying in the sun,
and then a spark catches one, and she,
Astonished by divinity, topples and tumbles and ignites
Another and another and another and
Soon the whole tangle is aflame
Gibber jabbering in many tongues!
Chattering and blabbering until babbling comes
Singing – in so many harmonious parts even the twigs can’t count them!
These words reminded me of the Apostles at Pentecost: “Suddenly, from up on the sky there came a noise like a strong, driving wind which was heard throughout the house where they were seated. Tongues as of fire appeared, which parted and came to rest on each of them. All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to express themselves in foreign tongues and make bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them.” (Acts 2:2-4)
As the Apostles boldly went forth proclaiming the saving message of Jesus so too have generations of men and women who have followed in their footsteps. They have been like twigs filled with the fire, the passion for God’s Mission as lived in the Paschal Mystery that is Jesus. For the past 108 years Maryknollers have been among those twigs generating sparks that have ignited others and others and others. We continue to go forth and invite you to join us for the short term as volunteers, the long term as lay missioners, and the life term as Priests, Brothers, and Sisters. We welcome you to Maryknoll!
by Mike Snyder | Sep 6, 2019 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
For several years now we have been broadcasting podcasts about the transformational experience of a life of mission overseas, answering God’s call to serve the least among us.
Entitled Among The People, with each episode we bring you the voices of our missioners, authors and the people we serve, who share their impactful stories of life long mission, serving the poor, sick and marginalized in the most needed parts of the world.
So please join us at https://maryknollsociety.org/podcast
by Mike Snyder | Sep 6, 2019 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
There is a beautiful line in the film, “Of Gods and Men” – “Let God set the table here. For everyone. Friends and enemies.” This particular line is spoken in the story by the superior of a Trappist monastery in the mountains of Algeria. Based upon the true story of the monks of Atlas Abbey in Tibhirine, the film depicts the community’s final months before seven of its members, including their superior, were kidnapped and killed by an armed militia. Their deaths, and those of thousands of others in Algeria, were the bitter fruit of a society polarized by extreme rhetoric, religious intolerance and violent prejudice.
I think often of these monks in my own ministry of vocational accompaniment. I suppose it’s reasonable to ask, “Why?” After all, their deaths took place in a predominantly Muslim country some 23 years ago. What do they have to do with the lives of young men discerning God’s call today? Well, it was a Muslim woman who showed me how.
Then, I was serving as a Maryknoll missionary in East Africa the same year as the monks of Tibhirine were slain thousands of miles away in northern Africa. I worked in partnership with a small legal project that assisted poor Kenyans in securing their basic human and legal rights, especially land rights. One day, I stopped by their office and noticed one of their administrative assistants, an attractive and sophisticated young Kenyan woman, wearing a hijab, a dark scarf she wore loosely over her head. Since I had not seen her wear it before, I asked her in a friendly but respectful way, “What gives?” She smiled and replied, “I’m wearing this as a sign of my hope that I can overcome my own selfishness and pride. These are things that keep me from experiencing God’s love. And, if I cannot accept God’s love, how can I share it with others? This struggle against selfishness and pride is what we Muslims call ‘jihad’.”
In becoming better acquainted with this Muslim woman, she took it upon herself to share with me how her own “jihad” against personal pride led her to reach out to Christians and to others so that she could recognize the surprising ways that God’s love was present in each person she met. The film, “Of Gods and Men”, depicts beautifully – and painfully – these same experiences in the discipline of selfless love embraced by the monks of Tibhirine.
by Mike Snyder | Sep 6, 2019 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
Join us for a weekend retreat at the Maryknoll Initial Formation Residence in Chicago. Located in the Hyde Park area just opposite Lake Michigan it’s a great location with parks everywhere that allow you to get out and enjoy the Windy City! This fall retreat will take place over Columbus Day weekend beginning on Friday evening October11th and ending on Sunday at noon October 13th. Joining us will give you a good opportunity to get to know Maryknoll while meeting our candidates and formation team, seeing where they live and visiting the Catholic Theological Union where they study.
Consider becoming a missionary priest or Brother and come join us for this weekend event! Contact Fr. Mike Snyder at vocation@maryknoll.org for further information!
by Mike Snyder | Sep 6, 2019 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
Fr. Rodrigo Ulloa-Chavarry will soon join us in vocation ministries. Born in Guatemala his family immigrated to the United States when he was quite young. Rodrigo served in the U.S. Air Force and later joined Maryknoll in 2004 to study for the priesthood. He was ordained in 2011 and has served Mission in Cambodia, Nepal, Taiwan and China. We proudly welcome Fr. Rodrigo to our Vocations Team.
by Mike Snyder | Sep 6, 2019 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
Maryknoll recently accepted four new seminarians and one Brother’s candidate
to our Initial Formation Program and it is with pleasure that we welcome them to Maryknoll!
YOHANA MASWIZILO
Yohana is 28 years old and comes from Buhangija (Shinyanga), Tanzania.
LEONARD KABAKA
Leonard is 22 years old and comes from the Kisii area in Kenya.
LAWRENCE MUTISO
Lawrence is 25 years old and comes from the Mchakos area in Kenya.
PAUL SHULTZ
Paul Shultz is 23 years old and comes from Forsyth, Illinois.
BARRACK ODEKA
Barrack is 27 years old and comes from the Homa Bay area in Kenya.
by Mike Snyder | Oct 10, 2018 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
With the autumn months comes another change of seasons and the start of a new academic and formation year. Our candidates began with a retreat led by Superior General, Fr. Raymond Finch. Some are completing their undergraduate studies at St. Xavier University while others are pursuing Master of Divinity degrees at the Catholic Theological Union. Five of these men are participating in the Spirituality Year, which is very similar to a novitiate program.
These men and others who are studying in our Overseas Training Program wish to become Maryknoll Missioners. They hail from all over the United States and from countries where we serve in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They share in common the desire to be servants of the Gospel. 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. Perhaps a visit to one of our mission stations may be a step along the way. It can change your life!
As always we look forward to hearing from you: Fr. Mike (msnyder@maryknoll.org), Fr. Joe Donovan (jjdonovan@maryknoll.org) and Mr. Greg Darr (gdarr@maryknoll.org)
by Mike Snyder | Oct 10, 2018 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
Finding God
What if God was beyond my constrained Imagination
Not limited by lofty words of mindful expression
Nor kept in a guarded box of theological debate
But free to roam amongst the slightest doubts and strongest fears
That come from the hearts and minds of all
Across the expanse of a multitiered Multiverse
What if God whispered to children and prophets alike
And found expression in the butterfly as well as the pen
Would not the butterfly express the divine best
By Dancing about in its three-dimensional and holy form
Far clearer than a pen which can only illuminate
A dimension or two at best before stopping where the paper ends
What if God was found in that pen as well
Enlightening far more than acid-free paper with lead
But supple minds that can transcend our three-dimensional prison
Into the far-off limits of our cosmic creation
What if God was found beyond our limitations
Hiding not only in the fields of what is known
But in the trenches of guesses and shadows
Of what we think we comprehend
Is God then to be found in our rigid ideologies
Surrounded by deep moats and mossy walls of unyielding belief
That keep God tame to our mind’s imagination
And protects our Orthodoxy from severance or breach
Perhaps God is Only found beyond my rocky walls and muddy moats
Out in the vast and forbidden fields of the Unknown
Where pilgrims stop for fear of life and death
And the sea monsters and dragons of our past still roam
+Jonathan Hill, M.M.
by Mike Snyder | Oct 10, 2018 | Vocations - Blog, Vocations - Events
Seminarian Matthew Sim reports: the Spirituality Year candidates started their Inter-Community Novitiate (ICN) program at Techny Towers, home of the SVD novices.
Maryknoll joins 12 other communities of novices at ICN to share and exchange the spirituality and charisms of the various groups. The communities of novices are made up of various religious congregations of sisters, brothers and priesthood candidates.
At ICN, we pray and worship together and have workshops, run by various experts around the United States, on topics ranging from human formation to spirituality development. It is an enriching experience brought about because of the great diversity of participants in this program.
