The evenings encourage young men to actively seek out what God wants of them and then challenge them to be heroically generous in embracing and living out this vocation. In that sense, it’s about discernment, not recruitment. Last night the Province of Meribah hosted its first Operation Fiat in the Kellenberg Memorial Community. Over 40 courageous young men took advantage of the invitation and attended this year's first Operation Fiat.
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| Brother Benjamin Knapp, S.M. |
The vocational talk was presented by Brother Benjamin Knapp from the Chaminade-Mineola Community. Brother Benjamin spoke about his own vocational journey towards religious life. He explored the many service opportunities that led to his discernment of religious life such as visits to Queen of Peace Residence with the Little Sisters of the Poor, hanging up hallway posters in the school and manual labor. Brother Ben also spent time encouraging us to PRAY, SHARE and LISTEN while we discern. Each young man was asked to spend some time praying about their interest in a religious vocation on a regular basis. Sharing your journey with a Marianist is part of the discernment. And finally, listening is an essential aspect for those called. Listening to God in pray and in the Scriptures.
Pope Benedict encouraged the same when he wrote:
“It is not by accident that consecrated life is ‘born from hearing the word of God and embracing the Gospel as its rule of life. A life devoted to following Christ in his chastity, poverty, and obedience becomes a living exegesis of God’s word. . . . Every charism and every rule springs from it and seeks to be an expression of it, thus opening up new pathways of Christian living marked by the radicalism of the Gospel’” (Verbum Domini, 83).
