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On pilgrimage to Italy
during the Jubilee Year of 2000, the many sites of Eucharistic
miracles we visited renewed within my heart the call to religious
life. I had previously studied for a religious order in 1989-1992 but
left for personal reasons and began work as a 401K administrator for a
large investment firm.
I knew that
Christ has always been there for me no matter my circumstances. It was
my fear that kept me from feeling confident that I would be accepted.
Upon my return home from the pilgrimage, I made a discernment retreat,
addressing my fear and offering it to Jesus. I soon felt at peace and
began my journey again towards a vowed religious life.
I
discerned that I was called to the religious life, in particular to be
a religious with the Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and
Mary. My time as a Postulant and Novice was a special opportunity to
discern what vocation means and where I was being called. My call to
be a religious comes first,
Bro.
Peter's profession of vows.
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Bro. Peter DiTomasso and his parents, Mary and Peter DiTomasso.
and how I live
this life as a priest comes
second. With this vocation comes a commitment and on January 5, 2003,
I committed myself in a profession of first vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience and the additional vow of perseverance.
Why did I
take this first step on the road to completing the journey to
perpetual profession in three years? I took these vows to the
Lord under the mantle of His Sacred Heart and
and His Mother's Immaculate and
Sorrowful Heart because of my love for Jesus and Mary. Secondly, my
conviction to serve the poor and most wanting is done with a community
dedicated to this ministry. Our Founder, Blessed Gaetano Errico, had
similar feelings when he began our congregation. Thirdly, community
life, united to my fellow members in our mission and vows, will help
to strengthen me every day in my giving of myself to God and in so
doing, giving Him to those I serve.
God has blessed
my life with many graces and now I pray He may grant me the gifts that
my vows proclaim, as I place myself in God's hands, following His will
for me.
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