In his letter to Luis Bautista, Saint John of God wrote: “the time is approaching when you will have to choose.  If you decide to come here, you will have to be willing to do something for God.”

When I decided to commit myself to living as a Brother of Saint John of God, I felt an internal need to devote my life to the benefit of the people who most needed it.  Over the years since then, that sense of hospitality, lived as an option of faith, as a space for welcome and devotion to the most vulnerable, has become for me a vital life force, without which I would find it very difficult to go on.

Hospitality has helped me extend the bonds of friendship, to live with a wider view towards society, to feel myself Church which walks among men, to appreciate strangers as brothers, to never draw distinctions based on race or religion.  After all, in spite of any differences, when we encounter another person we have more in common, more that unites us than that separates us.

In addition to this, another aspect which enriches my existence and gives me the strength to continue, is our community life.  This makes it possible for me to live in this world with a powerful sense of brotherhood, equality and justice.  Utopian?  Well, perhaps, but inseparable from my faith and my trust in the Resurrected One.  And this enables me to embrace each day as a new day, with the conviction that it is possible to live the Kingdom, here and now, enjoying true happiness.