"It's Contagious!"

Bro. Mark with Bros. Richard and John

Bro. Mark Knightly, CSC the Director of Aging and Health Care for the Holy Cross Brothers of the Eastern Province recently shared his experience of working with his elder brothers in community.  Click the link below to read more.

I've been thinking about the joy I get from my vocation as a Brother. What's really behind that? I want to write about that joy in the times ahead, enumerate all the ways it comes to me. Here's just the first one: As a social worker and Aging and Health Care Director, I try to help our elder Brothers navigate the rough waters of older age. This work puts me in close association with remarkable men, "...men who have made and lived by their vows," our Constitutions say. 

Bro. John at prayer, St. Joseph Center, Valatie, NY

My older Brothers are in the time of their lives when it is important to look back over their years of relationships and service, and gather the richness. I get to listen to the stories, stories about schools in Ohio in the fifties, and classrooms in the bush country of Central Africa, and families that befriended them in Bengal. My elders in community know stories as good or better than any books I used to read as a kid on rainy Saturdays. And behind all of the tales, I hear the clear music of their own vocational joy. It's contagious!