This month, two of our Glenmary seminarians, Charles Aketch and Richard Toboso, will renew their Glenmary Oath for a second time. Charles will renew his oath at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 7, at Holy Family Catholic Mission in Blakely, Ga. Richard will renew at noon on Tuesday, May 16, at Glenmary’s Our Lady of the Fields Chapel in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The “temporary oath” that they will profess recommits them — as members of Glenmary, to serve the Glenmary missionary apostolate and to live the Glenmary way of life for one year. Our Glenmary way of life includes a practice of poverty, chastity, obedience and prayer. For Charles and Richard, this will be their last temporary oath, as they prepare to profess their final oath next year, dedicating themselves for their entire life.
Glenmary’s vocation office has produced a book called “The Glenmary Way of Life” that explains the significance of our promises of poverty, chastity, obedience and prayer in the Glenmary Oath. In this book, various Glenmary priests and brothers describe what their oath means to them as a Glenmary missioner and how they live it out in a practical manner. As a community, we share in these promises and pledge to support each other in faithfully living them out. Contact us if you would like to receive a copy.
Additionally, Glenmary’s three novices, Jose Carlos Miguel Lopez, Samuel Mungai and Kenneth Wandera are preparing to profess their Glenmary Oath for the first time. They will profess at Glenmary’s annual community gathering at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 8, in Charleston, W.Va. I am extremely grateful to have walked with them on their journey and to now witness them making the next step in responding to God’s call. I am excited to see them affirming their call to join the Glenmary community and hopeful for the people living in the missions who they will soon be serving.
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Luke 10:2). At Glenmary’s Our Lady of the Fields Chapel, we pray daily for an increase of vocations to join our community and to serve with us in the mission field. Glenmary needs more missioners to be able to send them out to serve the rural and neglected mission areas of the United States. We pray that more men, who feel called to religious life, respond affirmatively to their missionary call.
Additionally, we pray in thanksgiving for the men who have attended our Come & See events and we pray for those who have begun the application process. Their “yes” to God’s call gives hope to the people living in the mission areas that some day they too might have a Catholic church in their rural county and that they may be able to fully participate in the sacraments with their own Catholic community.
If you would like to join with us in celebrating these men’s oath, we would love to have your presence with us. You can RSVP on the Glenmary Vocation Facebook page or by contacting us directly. If you are unable to attend in person, please join with us in spirit.
Most importantly, the men preparing for their oath need your prayers. On my blog is a prayer for these men that you can pray with us. This prayer is an adaption from the actual prayers that are used during the Glenmary Oath ceremony. We pray for the courage that they may profess their oath with Glenmary and that in their ministry as Glenmary missioners, they are truly witnesses of hope, joy and love, among the unchurched and the poor in Mission Land, USA.