Preserving Heritage
De Lourdes Fahy comes from the area of Kiltartan, Co. Galway, where W. B. Yeats was a familiar sight. She shares how she came to develop Genealogy services for the people of South Galway, whereby families can trace their roots to post famine emigration. She loved her long teaching career and had great success with students in the realm of public speaking.

A Doctor in Kenya
Marian Dolan spent the greatest part of her life ministering in Kenya. Starting as a Medical Doctor, and then a Surgeon, her career began in a bush hospital in the isolated area of Mutomo. It continued in the Mater Misericordia Hospital in Nairobi.

I would encourage every person, young and middle aged, to explore their path in life. For the majority it’s finding a partner and raising a family, for others it’s single life and for others, it’s religious life.

Julie Buckley of the Sisters of Marie Reparatrice explains how her order works in 23 countries across 3 continents to help people in various ways such as in the fields of healthcare, education and the poor. She describes her own experiences abroad.

I’m very optimistic that young people in Ireland will find what gives them life and meaning. They are the questions that most human beings are going to come to. The media and secularised culture is not going to bring life and sooner or later they’re going to ask “What’s going to bring deeper meaning to my life?”

Sr Mary Healy of the Carmelite Sisters talks of how religious life can be an attraction for people who have a search for meaning.

It is an adventure and it’s not like anything else you’re ever going to do. It’s totally unique and different and to be channeled and pushed and encouraged in different directions and do things you never thought you’d ever do.

Father Colm O’Mahoney describes in detail his younger life and how he made his journey to become an Augustinian priest.

“My vocation as a Columban Lay Missionary is like a surprise from God”

Originally from the Phillipines, Angie Escarsa describes her life as a Columban Lay Missionary and how she came to join the congregation. She describes working with people in her parish in Ballymun, Dublin and how she manages to balance work and life.

God calls us using our strengths and skills and interests. Replying to a vocation to be a brother or a sister, to be single or married, I believe, is “where in life will I be fulfilled and content?”

Brother Ronan Lennon talks about his youth and attending secondary school run by the Brother’s of the St. John of God where a brother inspired to him to want to work with the sick, poor and marginalised.

Vocations are important because I think we have an essential role in the world. God speaks to people always and He calls people forward always.

Father Colm O’Mahoney talks about his life growing up and how came to join the order of the Augustinians after deciding that he did not want to be a secular diocesan priest. He then describes how the charism of the Augustinians is one of community and what that means in terms of the real world. He also talks about the importance of vocations and how you can best find yours.

Fr. Willie Purcell is diocesan priest in the Diocese of Ossuary located in County Kilkenny and is also the National Coordinator for Vocations in Ireland. In this video he explains the difference between a diocesan and religious priest and why he chose one over the other. He also talks about why it’s a great time to be a priest in Ireland today and how God has a plan for all of us.

The advice I would give to young people is to follow what you know instinctively in yourself is good for you. I wonder if some young people follow each other. Be your best self and keep searching. Keep searching for God and searching for what is right and good because the Lord will help you find it.

Sister Helen O’Sullivan of Our Lady of the Missions talks about how her call to religious life first came to her in school as a teenager and how it persisted until she answered the call in her thirties. She talks about her work with Vocations Ireland and why it’s important that young people are given the right information about the options available in religious life.

My advice to young people would be to trust in Jesus, to believe that He exists, to open yourself to a personal relationship with Jesus and He won’t fail you.

Sr. Clare-Marie is from Monaghan, Poor Clares Order in Nuns’ Island Galway describes her life in a contemplative order and her journey toward joining.

My favourite part of religious life is when I’m doing something for somebody. It gives me fulfillment that I’m sharing out my best with the person who is next to me.

Originally from Uganda, Sr. Susan Aseu is a Franciscan Missionary Sister for Africa. She tells of how her love for Jesus and her family helped her to connect with children doing her work and how she was inspired in her course of life by a missionary priest and at school and meeting a Franciscan Sister in university.

Some people were really upset in college when I said I wanted to join religious life, they said “what a waste” and they saw my joining as an end of something, and yet, for me, it was the opening up of something. It has allowed me to flourish.

Sister Colette Kane, originally from Belfast, now based in Wicklow Town, joined the Cabra Congregation of the Dominican Order. She explains the Dominicans involvement in education and her current efforts in ecology having helped set up in an organic farm in the 1990s. She talks of her interests and how music is part of her religious life.

The main mission for us sisters is trying to be a supportive community for each other and to anyone else we can help.

Sister Bridget Moore, a member of the St. Joseph of Cluny, tells of how she joined the congregation and of her life and love for Irish music. She also tells of her recent expedition to Haiti to help after the earthquake there.

God calls through the people, the events and the experiences of life. All of human life is drenched with divinity in that sense. Grace is everywhere if we have eyes to see it and open our ears to it.

Br. Martin Kenneally talks about his life and how he came to think about religious vocation from a very young age where among other influences, the Presentation Brothers left an impression on him and that he was later attracted to the group.

He also explains how people experience a call to God, in that it can be dramatic like St Paul on the road to Damascus but how it is mostly gradual through the many experiences we all have both good and bad. He also advises that people take time to understand whether they are hearing a call to God and how to respond.

He also goes into about what Brotherhood entails in a Christian sense and the relationship to God and also the meaning of the various vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Knowing that God is very hard to know. There is a move inside of you saying: “Yes, you’re doing the right thing”. But even with the people I was living with and working with I could see the work I was doing was God-inspired as well.

Br. Ray Dwyer explains how he came to join the Presentation Brothers and talks about their Charism or mission which is dedicated to the education of young people and the marginalised. He also talks about the inspiration of the fournder Edmund Rice and his life and how he is continuing his aim to help marginalised youth in Ireland.

He talks about his career and different roles as a missionary, school chaplain and social worker and is current job as a Vocation Director.

He also explains what Community life is like, that is living and praying with other Brothers and having a support system.

He offers advice on how someone can discern their calling and decide whether it is a religious vocation they are seeking or something else and how his job is to help people make that decision by offering guidance and advice.

… Iwould tell him that it’s a very fulfilling way of life, our community life, our togetherness, our prayer life is a great foundation to enable you to go out into ministry and when you go into ministry you can go back to get the support of community; you’re not living in isolation.

Br Richard English, originally from South Tipperary, talks about his first encounters with the Presentation Brothers, the positive experiences he had after joining and the type of social work he was involved in afterwards. He then elaborates a little on what a Presentation Brother’s way of life is like and how it is filled with opportunity.

They have influenced me in many ways… to be a better Catholic and a better person. They are men of service and men of faith and those two attributes I have tried to integrate into my own life.

Michael DaCosta from Toronto, Canada recalls first getting to know the Presentation Brothers as teachers in his school and how he has stayed in contact with them to this day. He talks a bit more about their history mission and how he has emulated it in his life and career as a teacher. He also offers some advice to young men interested in joining the brothers.