VIRIDITAS: SOUL GREENING
As a scholastic with the Society of Mary, we lived about 15 minutes away from the University of Dayton in Ohio where we attended classes. On the property was a farm run by the working brothers. Being a city boy, I think the superiors felt that I needed some hands-on life experience to complement my intellectual growth. So I was often assigned to work on the farm. I learned how to bale hay, feed the cows and even served alone as a midwife for a sow giving birth. All these experiences were good, and I did learn a few things which I would later apply in ministry as I grew from feeding farm cows to becoming shepherd to those entrusted to me.
I love teaching and serving people. As a Marianist educator, I felt that I was able to make a positive impact on students’ lives, calling them forth to become their best. Later on, after my ordination as a priest, teaching in school was replaced with preaching and serving in leadership and in the formation of another generation of scholastics.
During my time of service as vicar general of the society, I lived in Rome. Being able to visit Marianist religious and lay Marianists throughout the world on almost every continent was really a great grace. I won’t say it was always easy as language is a challenge. I did study Italian and Spanish for a brief time, so I could understand pretty much, but it was hard to communicate. But people are always kind and generous. It is a great grace to see how much culture can teach us and how wonderful cultures are. No one culture is better than another, we can learn a lot from each.
One memorable cultural experience occurred when I visited our Marianist shrine, Our Lady of the Pillar on the Ivory Coast. It was the feast of the Corpus Christi and there were hundreds of pilgrims there. I vividly remember the priest carrying around the monstrance with the host walking around the outside and inside of the shrine. When the host came to a particular group of people, the music crescendoed. It was just wonderful. As he moved on, the music softened until he came to another group when it crescendoed again. I thought, “What amazing faith these people have.”
The prayer life of my religious community is what keeps me going in my life as a Marianist. Praying several times a day together with others, knowing that they are supporting me and I them by presence and participation is really at the heart of fueling all we do. A retreat director once gave me a section from the book of Lamentations (3:21-23) to pray over. I have found in it much consolation. It says, “The favors of the Lord are not exhausted; they are renewed every morning. So great is God’s faithfulness.”
God is with us all the time. Even in down moments, difficult or challenging times, God is really present with us. Although I have never been in a place that I have not enjoyed or been happy, I am sad to be leaving Hawaii.
Father George Cerniglia belongs to the Society of Mary, also known as the Marianists. He is 60 years professed. In October he will be leaving his position as chaplain of Chaminade University of Honolulu to assume his new assignment as associate pastor at Our Lady of the Pillar Church in St. Louis, Missouri.
