Fr Ben Garren

Dear Siblings in Christ,

As we go about our lives as Christians it is easy to make it a regular pattern in our life that has meaning but not depth.

There are many a story of clergy and other ministers who go about all the right trainings, habits, and duties that are required of them but for whom the Christian life is just that… one of meaningful trainings, habits, and duties not a calling with depth.

One such priest, by his own admission at the start of his work, was a priest named Joseph Cottolengo.

After several years of ministry, he was called one night to a small room in the poorest section of his town. There he found a woman very ill and pregnant. She had sought help from many but was rejected because she had no funds to pay for care.

That night Joseph prayed with her as she went into labor only to provide her and her infant last rights before the dawn of the next day. She had been too sick and malnourished to survive bringing her child into the world and her child was not born with the stamina to thrive.

Joseph, whose ministry had been a simple thing, suddenly found himself in the depths of doubt about his faith, his calling, and the meaning of it all.

What arose from that depth was a calling to bring safety to others caught where this ill mother has been, to ensure that those who were impoverished and sick could find care before they were on the edge of death.

The trainings, habits, and duties he had taken up before helped him better handle this process of moving out of the depths, but it was only when he confronted them that his vocation arose.

In this Eastertide we are called to face the depths, the reality of death, and see where with the Risen Christ we are being called to ministry in the world.

Pax,

—Ben