Brother Rafael Antonio Castro Quiroz has been a member of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God for 75 years and now lives in the home of our elder Brothers at Fusagasuga (Colombia), where, in his words, “he is devoting his life to prayer and contemplation for the good of the Order and the centres in which the Hospitaller mission is performed”. For a substantial period in his life he was a member of the Novitiate Formation Community of the Colombian Province where, with his witness of life and his constant prayer of the Holy Rosary with the sick, he helped to encourage devotion to Our Lady the Virgin Mary, and with his simplicity and joyful nature always handed on the happiness he derived from his consecration and the dedication of his life to serving the sick and needy in our Order. When we asked him: “What meaning has Hospitality for you after these 75 years in the Religious Life?”, our Brother replied:

“Hospitality, as the Charism of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God, is Jesus’s own charism; love has moved me to do everything I have done in life. The diamond jubilee (75 years in the Religious Life) is very fine, but strong, so strong that it is capable of piercing the hardest objects, because this 75-year-old diamond has enabled me, through the grace and mercy of God, to penetrate the hearts of many sick people, including my own, drilling through this 100-year-old wall, following the example of Jesus, Mary and St John of God”.