Category: Salesian

3/11/2016

Encountering God in the Ordinary

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Ever struggle with attempting to find God in your daily life? Do you ever feel that you are just so busy that engaging in a personal relationship with the Lord seems out of the question? Do you struggle in attempting to recognize how God is acting in your life, at work, or in the classroom? I promise, you are not alone. Many of us struggle with finding God not only in the ordinary, but also in our busy lives. Different saints, such as St. Francis de Sales, even recognized how at times it can be challenging to find God’s presence in the ordinary. Surprising right?! Sometimes, it seems so difficult to find God in the mundane or in the office. Yet, this is exactly where we can find God’s presence—in the ordinary!

St. Francis De Sales, a Doctor of the Church and inspiration of the ever popular Salesian Spirituality, wrote in his famed Introduction to the Devout Life that “It is an error, or rather a heresy, to wish to banish the devout life from the regiment of soldiers, the mechanic’s shop, the court of princes, or the home of married people… Wherever we may be, we can and should aspire to a perfect life.” St. Francis De Sales advocates the notion that everyone is called to be in relationship with God no matter their specific state in life. For St. Francis De Sales, the soldier, the mechanic, the government officials, and the married couple—any lay person—can find God in the ordinary. God meets each of us were we are; his presence is not restricted to a building. Nevertheless, what are some practical ways in which we can find God in the ordinary?

Again, St. Francis de Sales has more wisdom for us from his Introduction to the Devout Life, writing that “occasions do not often present themselves for the exercise of fortitude, magnanimity, and great generosity, but meekness, temperance, integrity, and humility are virtues that must mark all our actions in life.” When we refrain from boasting about our accomplishments in the office or when we refrain from lying to our professor regarding a string of absences from class, we are encountering God in the ordinary. When we simply take a minute in the beginning of the morning and offer our day to God, we are encountering God in the ordinary. When we take a moment to recognize a coworker’s kindness to a stranger or a fellow student’s concern for a student falling behind in class, we are encountering God in the ordinary. Encountering God is not solely done on in the pews or on the mountaintop. Instead, we can encounter God in the ordinary, in our everyday life.

To learn more about seeing God in the ordinary, please visit our Prayer Resources page by clicking here.

Conor Boland is an undergraduate and Student Minister at The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C.

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9/25/2014

Discernment Story: How one volunteer came to hear her life calling through service

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I believe that my two years of service had a 100% direct impact on my discernment process and decision to enter the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, more commonly known as the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco or just the Salesian Sisters.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that God sent me to volunteer at this particular High School to reveal my vocation.

I wanted to do a year of volunteer service right out of high school, but did not have the opportunity to do so.  I learned that I found great joy in serving others through my social outreach group in high school and had a strong desire to give more time, energy, and direct focus to volunteering.

Come April of my senior year in college, I found myself without a plan for the following year and the idea of doing a year of service re-entered my mind.  I visited theCatholic Volunteer Network website and found the online RESPONSE directory,which helped me to narrow down my search to the type of program I was interested in with the type of support that I needed.

This is where I learned about the Cristo Rey Network of schools and truly the next chapter of my life began.

The Cristo Rey Network is a high school model that offers low income families the opportunity to send their students to Catholic college prep high schools.  How is this possible when most Catholic high schools are quite expensive, you might ask.  The school partners with local corporate businesses, organizations, universities, hospitals, law firms etc where the students will work five days out of the month to offset their tuition cost.  (Click here to learn more and see me in my classroom at minute 4:37.)

It took a leap of faith to go to Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School (DBCR) in Washington, D.C. because I would be joining the Salesian Domestic Volunteers (now called Salesian Home Missioners) in their first year as a volunteer program and I would also be the only volunteer placed at DBCR.  I was going to be a pioneer both in my volunteer program and placement in the school. DBCR was also only in its fourth year of existence and still responding to the challenges of being in the “start up” period.  It would be two years of learning and growing for all of us.

During my first year of service at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School I worked in the Youth Ministry and Faith Formation Department while also teaching two sections of junior theology.  In my second year I taught a full course load, five sections, split between freshmen and junior theology as well as assisting the youth ministry team.

Within those classrooms and the small youth ministry office God called me to be a Salesian Sister.  I learned a lot from working side by side with Fr. Abraham Feliciano, SDB (Salesians of Don Bosco).  In him, I witnessed the everyday charism of the Salesians and joyful service to the young who are most in need.  Fr. Abe loved those students with his whole heart and they knew it.  They knew that they could rely on him to crack a joke and brighten their day or that they could come to him with serious problems and he would lead them to Jesus.

I learned that the heart of the Salesian charism is a daily encounter with Christ in and through our students and hopefully reciprocated as we open ourselves to be an image of Christ for them.  I spent countless afternoons in that youth ministry office, surrounded by young people, laughing so hard I thought I would burst! I also learned how to be with them in and through the struggles they encountered in their daily lives.  (Click here to see the class of 2014 reading excepts from MLK Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.  These are some of the many students who have overcome great challenges in their live and that I had the privilege to see Christ in everyday. )

While working with these students, I lived in community with volunteers from several different programs.  We were a mixed bag of Franciscans, Salesians (that’s me!), Columbans, and volunteers from the Catholic Volunteer Network.  Over the course of my two years there we ranged from a community as small as four to as large as nine.

The Franciscan style of living in community is simplicity.  On an economic level, we made do with all second hand furniture and shopped frugally for our needs.  We usually did not buy Ziploc bags, for instance, because we could reuse Tupperware containers instead. As a part of my volunteer program, I did not have a car but I received a stipend each month for food and transportation.

On the community level, simplicity meant that we relied on each other.  Sometimes that took the form of practical matters, such as grocery shopping or mopping up a flood in the basement.  Other times it took a more personal form as we relied on one another for support and friendship.  Now that I am living in community with the Salesian Sisters, I look back on my time in community as a formative period.  In learning how to live with different people of various personalities, I learned how to recognize the gifts that all members can bring to community and I was able to learn more about myself as well.

As my two years of volunteering came to a close, I decided to stay and accepted a full time paid teaching position at DBCR.  But I had an inclination, even then, that God was calling me to something more, something deeper.  God had gifted me with two wonderful and difficult years at the service of a school and students truly in need.  But His ultimate goal was not for me to stay at one school and with one group of students, He wanted to expand my horizons of service and the dimensions of my heart.  I had the opportunity, while Fr. Abe was at DBCR, to attend daily Mass in our school chapel.  This daily encounter with Christ in the Eucharist helped me to see Christ every day in the young people and opened my heart for the possibility of deeper relationship with Him.

When the Salesian Sisters came for our vocations assembly I heard God’s voice speaking directly to me saying, “This is it!”  I must be honest, my first reaction was irritation.  “Oh very funny God! Here I am sitting through the same vocation talk presented to all five of my Theology classes. Aren’t you supposed to be speaking to the students right now?!  Leave me alone!”  But because our God is good and patient, He didn’t leave me alone.  After three years in Washington, D.C., He called me to move to New Jersey where the formation house of the Salesian Sisters is located.

It took some convincing on God’s part to show me that it was not just DBCR where He wanted me to serve, but anywhere the Salesians are and with all young people tho whom He might send to me.  The Salesian Sisters dedicate their whole selves to God in the service of young people through education, parish catechism, youth centers, and anywhere young people may be found. St. John Bosco and St. Mary Mazzarello (our founders) shared the joy of Christ with every young person they met providing for them a home to feel welcome, a school to prepare them for life, a Church to evangelize, and a playground for them to make friends and have fun!

For me, what started as just a year of service post college opened the doors of my heart for Christ to call me to my life’s vocation. I am now half way through my first year of formation and if I had to identify one overriding emotion, it would be deep a sense of peace.

For more information on vocations, be sure to check out the Catholic Apostolate Center's Vocational Discernment Resources

Kelly Schuster is a former Salesian Home Missioner and is currently an Aspirant with the Salesian Sisters

This post was originally written and posted on the Catholic Volunteer Network Blog.
For more Catholic Volunteer Blog Posts please visit the CVN Blog Page.

The Catholic Apostolate Center is proud to partner with the Catholic Volunteer Network by developing faith formation resources for volunteers and alumni, assisting in its efforts to provide and advocate for faith-based volunteerism and collaborate in many additional ways.

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1/24/2013

Everything I Ever Learned, I Learned from Francis de Sales (and his friends)

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I’m convinced that God has added to the hosts of angels a new rank: Facebook-aphim. Facebook seems to be the messenger of all things surprising in our time. From births to shocking engagement announcements, I learn most things I know through Facebook. A few days ago, I learned that a wonderful woman who I once worked with died after a very long battle with cancer. She was the receptionist in the front office of the Catholic high school where I was employed after I graduated from college. She was usually the first person who greeted me when I entered the building each morning. Her chipper, “Good morning, David!” was as unrepeatable as she. To say that she was a character and full of life would be an understatement. I look forward to her greeting the next time we meet face-to-face.

While the school in which she and I worked was founded to educate young people, I often found that I was the one being educated. The school was run by the Oblates of St Francis de Sales, and it was there that I met Francis de Sales in the men and women who live his charism of incarnational love, gentleness, and authenticity. They invited me into their lives of faith, which, at that point, fit none of the conventional rules of faith I was used to. In fact, the things they taught me about the Christian life didn’t have any rules to play by at all. They taught me about what a very human life of faith was all about. They invited me on their journey of life, a very Salesian thing to do.

My former coworkers, and those who follow Francis’ way of life, embrace the humanity of our existence (read: the messiness, uncertainty, and hurt) that God came to redeem. They live authentic lives, in all their brokenness, because they live with an awareness of God in the present moment. My coworkers were aware of God’s presence as they dealt with the death of their spouses or parents or our coworkers, students, and friends. They were aware of God’s presence during their divorces or terminal illnesses or their children’s poor decision making, failure in school or struggles with drugs. They were aware of God’s presence when they celebrated their children’s weddings, the birth of their grandchildren, and when that student who had struggled for four years graduated. And when I came to them in my times of need, unsure of God’s presence in my life, they somehow knew enough to speak to me in love, and they made themselves understandable because hearts speak to hearts, lips speak only to ears. It was then that I understood what God’s listening might be like.

In sharing their lives with me, both the successes and failures, they illustrated that the call to discipleship is the call to be who you are and be that perfectly well. For us, we were teachers and staff and administrators, but we were also mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and mentors. Francis reminded us that our vocation was only to be the best of what and where we found ourselves. To be the best child or the best educator was our call. They showed me that the best way to live the Christian life was not necessarily as a monk or religious, but as a person who lived the life that God called him to in the present moment, as well and with as much love as he could. To be who you are and be that perfectly well is much harder than it seems, but attempted in full humility brings the liberation that we enjoy as beloved children of God. How often do we claim that authentic identity and make it our own?

I am forever grateful for having learned of Francis de Sales and his charism of Gospel living. I am indebted to the men and women, those who I now count as friends and those who I wait to see again in eternal life, who showed me how to Live Jesus. I am confident that the friendships taken up in this world will be taken up again, never to be broken off. In the Christian life, we are together on a journey to heaven. But it takes a lifetime of patience, generosity, and authenticity with and for each other to get it right.

David Pennington is the Associate Campus Minister for Liturgy and Worship at The Catholic University of America.

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Encountering God in the Ordinary

Discernment Story: How one volunteer came to hear her life calling through service

Everything I Ever Learned, I Learned from Francis de Sales (and his friends)

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Encountering God in the Ordinary

Discernment Story: How one volunteer came to hear her life calling through service

Everything I Ever Learned, I Learned from Francis de Sales (and his friends)

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