Starting with the new academic year, Fr. Rafael Querobin, SCJ, and Br. Brian Tompkins, SCJ, are the directors of the US Province formation program based within Sacred Heart Monastery. In traditional religious terminology, they are “formators.”
“We are a bridge,” said Fr. Rafael, explaining what it means to be a formator. “We don’t actually ‘form’ a person to be a priest or religious. Instead, we work with men who are called by God to be a disciple of Christ, to be a religious. We are the bridge between these young men called to live and serve with us, and our spirituality as Priests of the Sacred Heart. We are the bridge that brings these two things together.”
Fr. Rafael spoke about the privileged nature of being in a formation community. “We live our SCJ religious life in a very intentional way,” he said. “That does not mean that other communities do not live intentionally, but the demands of outside ministries can sometimes find us putting our lives as religious on the side.” He speaks from experience, after having completed several years as pastor of a busy parish in Houston: Our Lady of Guadalupe.
“But here, in the formation community, focusing on our life as Dehonians IS our ministry,” said Fr. Rafael. “It doesn’t matter if you are a student or a director, we are all in formation every day. We are immersed in formation.”
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