John Dornbos
Christian Brother, USA
I was born in the Rocky Mountains in Montana in the western USA in 1937. We lived in a local community that was highly Catholic, mostly Irish, very supportive and yet pluralistic among people of European background and native Americans. I lived in a wonderful parish, and was part of great schools run by the Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers.
God, in Christ, also called me deeply. In fact, this is the source of the vocation. I went to Mass daily and prayed the rosary often, including at home. I joined 55 years ago and now it seems like my whole life is the Brothers. Even when young, I was being prepared.
As a brother I taught, administered, shared various communities, experienced retreats, and got into retreat work. It was obvious to me that God was very much behind all that was happening in my life.
In 2002 I retired from full-time work in the schools and had a sabbatical year. Since then I have worked with the Edmund Rice Associates and the Edmundians, helped in a shelter, and given a lot of time to community needs. More and more the life I lead is a life of presence, which is really the life of Christ as it gets shared in me.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that the Edmund Rice charism, always present, became so clear among the Brothers, and it was quite obvious that Edmund incarnated a special view of what Jesus asked. I accept this in my life also, so maybe I became like Edmund. It is obvious that his stamp on the world is a special thing.
I've become much interested in cosmological spirituality and what God is doing in the wider world. I find that I am part of something much wider than I ever knew. I rejoice in this.
I also have met many Brothers in many places. What a wonderful group of men. The more that join, the better! As I continue to work with the Edmund Rice charism, I realize that this participation is a great grace. It is the community aspect that fascinates me at this point. Community is like a call within a call. One comes to community with a personal invitation, but then finds out that community is a wider participation - it is important what the whole group does. The total reality is greater than the sum of the parts.
It really is a question of “where two or three gather together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” And community is not just Brothers, but the people we serve and those that serve alongside us. Christ is not served by narrow boundaries. And the Edmund Rice manner is normative: it is a rather unique, caring, compassionate way of living community.
February 2010
