The Year of Faith begins!

The Year of Faith begins today, Thursday October 11th 2012.

The logo of the Year of Faith (above) is striking. The Church is depicted as a boat traveling on the sea. For those of us who live in the "Western World", the last few years have been particularly stormy. The sail of the boat is based around the cross. That's a reminder to all of us that no matter how choppy the waters are, we are traveling in Christ's boat - he is with us. The sails of the boat are composed of the familiar IHS. These are the first three letters of Jesus' name in Greek (iota (I), eta (H), sigma (S or Σ).






Let's all make a real effort this year to renew and to deepen our faith. You're going to hear a lot about this Year of Faith on this blog in the coming weeks and months - the Presentation Brothers are getting behind it in a big way. I'll be telling you more about what we're doing later. 


If you've been thinking about a religious vocation, now's a good time to go deeper and discern what the Lord is calling you to do.

New Novices!

Left to right: Br Barry (our novice master in Killarney), Br Theiva, Br Raj and Br Martin (our Congregation Leader) pictured after the ceremony of reception on the grounds of our novitiate in Kerry.

We had a great celebration at our novitiate in Killarney in County Kerry this week. Two young men, Raj and Theiva who are both from Sri Lanka, took the next step of their vocation journey with the Presentation Brothers.

Raj and Theiva have been doing their postulancy programme over the last few months in Killarney. Postulancy is the first stage of formation and it is a period of about one year in which the man interested in this way of life (known as a "postulant") gets to know religious life a bit better. It also gives the Brothers a chance to get to know the postulant and to judge if he has what it takes to cope with the challenged ahead.

Raj and Theiva both sought to proceed to the next step which is novitiate. This will be a two year programme of prayer and study. It's akin to going out to the desert - away from noise and distraction - and engaging in the serious business of discerning what the Lord is calling one to.

At the end of that step comes First Profession of Vows. You might recall that Callistus and Augustine from Ghana made their First Professions recently in Killarney.

Working with men at this stage of their vocation journey is exciting and enjoyable! For the men who come to us, it's a wonderful experience of self-discovery and of coming to know God more deeply.

I highly recommend it! If it is of interest to you, please let me know! Contact vocation@PresentationBrothers.org