Brother John Collins lives in Adams, MA and has served the Congregation as a Spiritual Director and Formator for many years. At one time in his life, he lived with, and was the caretaker of, two severely disabled young men. In this clip he briefly discusses the significance of that experience for his life as a Brother.
Transcript: “I’ve done things in the Xaverian Brothers I would never, could never, have imagined. I certainly never imagined going to Africa. I never imagined being a novice director. I never imagined living for years with two severely disabled young men. I never imagined a life around horses. I never imagined living in a community with the two young men and a Catholic lay women, and now it’s just the Catholic lay woman and myself. I mean, as a Xaverian Brother, I wouldn’t be thinking about such a community. So, as somebody put it, I came across these young men, and some Brother wrote to me and said, ‘No, no. They crossed your path. You didn’t cross their path.’ He had some distinction to make about that. That, ‘somehow they were sent into your life.’ And that, ‘your experience, of silence and contemplative living…life of reflection, that allowed you to be with them.'”
“Through all of these experiences, for me, I’ve learned, the whole life comes down to–the Gospel life comes down to–love of neighbor. That’s what the Gospel is all about. So, that’s what we as Brother, that’s what we as Followers of the Way, that’s what we as followers of Jesus try to do in our everyday lives. And to quote the Fundamental Principles, and this line is often quoted, ‘and its through the common, ordinary, unspectacular flow of everyday life’ that we really come in contact with the living spirit of God.”