Fr. John receives Frater Justin's vow renewal — Fr. John receives Frater Justin’s vow renewal

Frater Justin Krenke renews his vows

Frater Justin Krenke, SCJ, renewed his vows this morning (August 12) during Mass at Sacred Heart at Monastery Lake. Fr. John Czyzynski, SCJ, his former novice master, received the vows. Prior to his renewal, Frater Justin shared the following with those gathered:

We, as Priests of the Sacred Heart, are active contemplatives.

Fr. Leo John Dehon wanted us to be that voice in the world, to be the voice that goes out. But in order for us to do that we have to first take a moment in silence before the Lord. That’s where we hear the voice of God.

In the first reading [from 1 Kings], when the Lord came to Elijah, first there was a great wind that crushed rocks, brought down mountains, caused an earthquake, a great fire. But God wasn’t in any of those things. God was in the tiny whisper of the wind to remind us that God isn’t in destruction. God is sometimes in places that we least expect to find him, and that is inside of ourselves when we take a moment to sit down and listen.

Very often when we do that we come to a closer union with God, especially with the Sacred Heart of Christ. We hear that he doesn’t want us to just stay within ourselves, he doesn’t just want us to keep his message to ourselves. He wants us to go out. God told Elijah to do something that he was very frightened to do but God gave him the strength and reassurance that he would be with him.

In the Gospel, Christ gives us, his followers, an almost impossible task: to go out to all nations, to make all his disciples. But he assures us that he is with us always; that he goes before us, he goes with us.

Justin sings the closing hymn with his grandmother — Justin with his grandmother

This is one of the reasons why I chose the Priests the Sacred Heart, chose to be a son of Fr. Dehon, and I continue to choose to be a son of Dehon. It is the reminder that God is not just about what is within myself, that I cannot stay in but must go out, even when I don’t want to, when I want to stay and sleep or be by myself. God calls all of us to go out in any way we can to be a part of the world, not a part from the world.

This is the message of Fr. Dehon. We have to take a moment to look around us and find any way that we possibly can to make the world just little bit of a better place, to bring the light of Christ to those of most need. So today, before all of you, before Fr. John [Czyzynski], before my brothers in community, I very joyfully renew my vows and continue the message of Christ and of our dear founder, Fr. Dehon.