Br Karl Emerick is living in Hong Kong as part of a year-long novitiate with the Order. The Queensland man sheds some light on what the first six months of his experience has entailed in Queensland’s Catholic Leader. This is part two of three.
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Most of us have will have had the experience of wanting something when we were young, a bicycle, or a stereo, and being told that we would have to earn it, as something you paid for yourself would have greater value for you.
In Australia we don’t have to work for our faith, for most of us it is given to us by our parents, and there is no hardship in saying we are Catholic.
For myself, I wonder if I could still profess my faith under the conditions that many Catholics throughout the world are professing their faith under.
At this point in our formation as Dominicans we are learning about the Order, the laws, history and spirituality, learning Latin and Hebrew (which for me is very difficult), fortunately the novice master is an Old Testament scholar who obtained his Licentiate at L’Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem and we are getting a thorough grounding in the Pentateuch (the first books of the Old Testament), and looking at Church documents on religious life and the priesthood.
As I was saying my rosary this morning (we say it together as a community before Divine Office and Mass, but I like to say it with more deliberation and meditation – my family will tell you that I like to say it slowly) I was contemplating my vocation and my life, so far.
I am 37, in comparison to the others here a late vocation, and have spent a number of years working and coming from a large family, to date 12 nieces and nephews and I have been fortunate to have had a wide range of experiences.
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Most of us have will have had the experience of wanting something when we were young, a bicycle, or a stereo, and being told that we would have to earn it, as something you paid for yourself would have greater value for you.
In Australia we don’t have to work for our faith, for most of us it is given to us by our parents, and there is no hardship in saying we are Catholic.
For myself, I wonder if I could still profess my faith under the conditions that many Catholics throughout the world are professing their faith under.
At this point in our formation as Dominicans we are learning about the Order, the laws, history and spirituality, learning Latin and Hebrew (which for me is very difficult), fortunately the novice master is an Old Testament scholar who obtained his Licentiate at L’Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem and we are getting a thorough grounding in the Pentateuch (the first books of the Old Testament), and looking at Church documents on religious life and the priesthood.
As I was saying my rosary this morning (we say it together as a community before Divine Office and Mass, but I like to say it with more deliberation and meditation – my family will tell you that I like to say it slowly) I was contemplating my vocation and my life, so far.
I am 37, in comparison to the others here a late vocation, and have spent a number of years working and coming from a large family, to date 12 nieces and nephews and I have been fortunate to have had a wide range of experiences.
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