Man for Others

Fr David, a Sacred Heart father in the Irish province, describes how working at a retreat centre during his GAP year with the Sacred Heart Fathers, changed the direction of his life: "I believe that God's plan will continue to unfold, a plan that He's had from the beginning of time and He is drawing me along a very exciting, life-giving adventure and I'm really looking forward to that with great hope. I thank God every day for my life and I seek now to help people to understand that God has a plan for each of them, it's not necessarily priesthood but it's a very clear plan, and so I hope and pray that they find that, anyone listening will find their plan, God's plan for them, and seek to respond with generosity and with joy." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Fr Bert, a member of The Spiritual Family the Work, talks of his road to the priesthood, which included a pilgrimage to Medjugorje in 1989 where, aged 35, he went to confession for the first time in many years: "A profession you choose yourself, a vocation is something that comes from God. I did not make the decision to be a priest, God did. I wanted to be an engineer but God wanted me as a priest. And I only had to say 'Yes. Yes God, I will do your will, I follow your way' and then He gives the strength for it; Day by day, not in advance, years before. No. He gives His light, His graces, His strength at the moment you need it. And we have to go day by day His way, to hear His voice, to go His ways, work with the graces you're given at the moment, and in that you can far, far overcome yourself, because He wants it. And He doesn't want us to make borders, 'I can't get over that'. When God wants it, He asks only to jump over that border and go further in Him, with Him, and that is special for the priesthood, something great for religious. It is not something we can, we do, we live, but it is only every day, again and again, 'Yes God. I will go with you. I will follow your way, your vocation you have given to me.' And that is a great fulfilment that gives us a strength and makes us stand hold in all the difficulties life gives. It gives a hold for the 3 vows, virginity, poverty and obedience, That gives you the power to stand hold. And when you trust in God, when go on your knees and ask Him to be with Him, you can fulfil what He has asked you to do. It is not your own strength, your own powers, but it is God's will, God's powers." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Fr Philip, the diocesan youth chaplain for Lancaster in the UK, has chose Blessed JPII as his Man for Others: "John Paul II really, really inspired me at World Youth Day in Rome and I suppose in my journey to be a priest, he helped me to understand how actually priesthood isn't just something we do for God, or that we've got to sacrifice my life for the Lord, it's a gift. When I came to understand it as a gift, it transformed everything; when you realise something is a gift, you learn how to receive and this changes your whole attitude. It's not something you do for God, it's something God is doing for you; He chose us; we didn't choose Him, He chose us and we respond. John Paul II helped me to understand how it's a real mystery we're entering into and a really amazing privilege to participate in Jesus' life today and to make His life present, and to continue to receive this as a gift." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Doug, from the United States, talks of the witness given by his parish priest who 'raditated the joy of Christ', and of how the Sacrament of Confession was central to his vocation story: "When the priest was giving me absolution, I just felt the really intense call to the priesthood. It was the most powerful I had ever felt God in my life, and I just knew it was from Him, and I had to answer the call even though I had a lot of fears about celibacy and loneliness. I just knew I had to follow His call because He's God and He really cares for me. So, after answering the call, I've come to realise a lot more joy in the priesthood in following the Lord's will." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Fr Charles, from England, who has been a Benedictine monk for over 60 years: "I've always wanted to be a priest, ever since I can remember as a boy, quite young, and probably due to my uncle, who was a Benedictine priest who was good friends with his sister, my mother. But of course I owe a great deal also to many other Benedictine monks ... Well of course I've learnt a great deal since those very early childhood days, when I clearly hadn't taken on board, in fact not until fairly recently really, that the vocation of a priest is to be another Christ, alter Christus, to act 'in persona Christi', in the person of Christ, offering the sacrifice of the Mass. So it should involve and must involve sacrifice and one should welcome suffering. But I'm afraid I don't welcome suffering - I hope I accept it when it comes. It's the same as the will of God. The rule of St Benedict can be summed up I think in the word obedience, or listen, if you like. The first word of the rule of St Benedict is listen, in other words listen and then carry out what the Master tells you to do. Obedience. And that took me a long time for me to understand really what that means, doing the Will of God. It is the same for everybody, everybody. We're only here to do the will of God but of course we need His help for that." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Fr Austin, a Dominican priest from the USA: "I started thinking about being a priest when I was 10 years old, because in my home parish there was a young priest who came and I started serving Mass, and the witness of his life, the way that he said Mass, the reverance with which he said Mass, the way that he dealt with people just really struck me and I just had this very deep sense that that's what I wanted to do when I grew up, that I wanted to be just like him. It took me almost 20 years later, when I was actually ordained a priest, to actually understand what that meant. On the day I was ordained I had about 80 people ask me 'Do you feel any different?' And, to be quite honest, the answer was no, I didn't feel different. But I knew that something was different because everyone from my mum and dad to complete strangers I met that day, treated me differently because I was a priest, because they knew that I'd been ordained for them, that I'd been set aside by God, to serve God and to serve his Church and to serve his people. It was no longer my personality or my gifts in particular, but because I was the priest, i was the one through whom God was working and they knew that I lived for them." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Fr Tom, from England, on Canon Liam O'Driscoll: "I think for me being with someone who'd been a priest for so long (he celebrated while I was therehis 50 years of priesthood), just still had this incredible energy and this incredible joy in his ministry and just a real vibrancy about him, really encouraged me, who was just on my way to priesthood. I think it really encouraged me to see the heart of priesthood, to see that heart founded in Jesus. As St Jean-Marie Vianney says, the priest is the heart of Jesus for the world, open to the world. I think that was something I saw very real, in a very simple way, in Canon Liam and something that really inspired me in my own journey to priesthood." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Br Reginald, from the USA and a Dominican brother studying for the priesthood in Washington, talks about his own patron in religious life, Blessed Reginald of Orleans, and the function of Marian devotion in the mission and life of the Order of Friar Preachers: "Blessed Reginald was one of the first Dominicans, a companion of St Dominic, and received a special grace from the Blessed Mother - he actually received what we call the scapular of our habit from the Blessed Mother herself (which is the large rectangular white piece which hangs on the front and the back of the Dominican habit), as a sign of protection and motherly affection from the Blessed Mother. Blessed Reginald received this grace on what would have been his deathbed; he was about to enter the Order and fell deathly ill, but instead of dying St Dominic prayed for him and he received a special grace and was healed, by the intercession of Mary. At this instance Mary showed him the full habit which included the scapular .. So when Dominicans wear the habit, which is the sign of our life and our mission, you see integral even within the habit itself a sign of Mary's protection for us. And it's integral to Dominican prayer and to Dominican preaching so that when we think about the role of Mary in our life, we see her as deeply integrated in our own consecration to Christ, so that her motherhood of the Word of God becomes the motherhood of us as well. ... So when we live the Dominican vocation, in contemplation of the Word of God and in preaching, I like to remember this in particular, it helps me to remember the protection of Mary and her role in my own life, as a religious and a Dominican." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Fr Neil, a parish priest from England: "One day my spiritual director asked me a question and that was: "Have you ever thought of being a priest?"Well the answer was, "Yes, I had", but no-one had ever asked me, until then. And of course it was as if the flood gates opened and I said yes, and from then on the rest is my own history because I began to follow God more closely in the way of a vocation to the priesthood... Here was God calling me through one man, a priest." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Fr José Alberto, a parish priest from Spain: "From this parish have come 10 priests. It has also been an experience of brotherhood among us; I can rely on them on my 10 friends. In the life of a priest it is a very important thing to have other priests as your brothers. .. I think we are not supermen, we are very ordinary people. That is what amazes me is that God has chosen us to be priests. I have discovered along the years that God knows me better than I know myself, he knows me very well and even though he knows how I am, God has chosen me." Music by Mike Mangione. For much more, visit Totus2us.com which is inspired by Blessed John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus (All Yours) was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.