Founding a Society (part 2)

A vocation article written by Glenmary's founder, Fr. Bishop, from 1939 stated:

"The young man who prepares for the Home Missions will not have to learn to speak Chinese, but he will have to study the environment, the work and the ways of of many different kinds of rural people from the swamp people of the Swanee River region who are neighbors to the alligator and crocodile to the lumberman and fishermen of the Columbia River, the habitat of the salmon and the tuna. He will know the prejudices and superstitions, the loves and the hatreds, the virtues and vices of the backwoods sections, from the mountains of Pennsylvania to the plains of Texas. He will know climates and crops and seasons and the economic and social conditions among landowners, tenants and farm laborers from the great wheat ranches of the Northwest to the plantations and the little mountain 'clearings' of the Southeast. He will know how to defend himself not only against the hecklers who may try to break up his meetings but against snakes and mosquitoes and the germs of disease that threaten his life or health. He will know how to apply first-aid and simple remedies to himself and others in case of injury or sickness where doctors cannot be reached. He will know how to help the poor and ignorant to have better crops and healthier surroundings. He will know how to cook a meal that will be fit to eat. He will know how to mend his own clothes when he has to. He will be equally at home driving a motor chapel over the smooth state roads or riding a horse through rough mountain trails.

But most of all and best of all, he will know how to touch the hearts of simple people with the glorious and saving truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He will know how to make them take home his words from sermons and inquiry classes to their quiet firesides where they will repeat them to their children and ponder them in their hearts-and then come back for more and more again."
Times may change but needs don't. Is God calling you to "touch the hearts" of the people in Mission-Land USA and share your love of Jesus Christ? Contact the Vocation Office for more information about Glenmary Home Missioners.