A friend and reader of Vox Nova, Apolonio Latar, is now a seminarian of the Fraternity of St. Charles, and has written an interesting article on charity: Drawing Near to Others. In it, he discusses how he and his fellow seminarians visit a children’s hospital every week, sometimes receiving positive reactions, sometimes receiving negative reactions from those they visit:
We try to visit every room to talk to the children and their parents. We then invite them to pray and sing with us in the hallway, so that they can see something beautiful in one of the last places they would choose to be. We do not know what to expect every time we come into a room. There are times when a knock at a door could be answered with a look that tells us that we are the last people they would like to see no matter how big our smiles might be. Some want nothing to do with religion and tell us explicitly to get out of the room.
What is striking about the story is not the work they do, and the reactions of the people they visit, but how the work is also helping the seminarians themselves. This is the positive effect of love. The more you give, the more you do for others, the more you are transformed yourself. Apolonio explains how this is true for himself here — how his friendship with his seminarians helps him see the needs of the world better. “Friendship does such things: it takes away our indifference before reality.” As I wrote a few weeks ago, our priests need a sense of community, and this article shows exactly why. Please, read the whole article here.
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