My life’s path and its response to God’s call.

My name is Matthew. I am 51 years old and for the last two years I have been a novice in the Hospitaller Order.

For a long time, I had wanted to find a way to return to a religious vocation, to discover its meaning and its breath according to the will of the Lord. But this desire of mine, however noble, could not be immediately fulfilled. In fact, it took me 10 years to separate myself from a very prestigious job (CEO of one of Europe’s biggest companies) that is from a high-ranking position, from an opulent life-style with travel, homes etc.

My fascination with the charism of Saint Faustina Kowalska, with the phenomenon of God’s mercy, which through prayer helps the dying, the suffering souls of Purgatory, and the gravely ill of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina (witness for example, the construction of the Hospital for the Relief of Suffering there) began in the early 1990s and gradually strengthened my conviction that this was the path I should follow for the future.  And yet, I still didn’t know what I should do.

In 2008, the turbulence that hit world financial markets, with the accompanying difficulties in finding capital, led to many organizational changes in my company. I began to feel the need to change my lifestyle. I asked myself a very basic question. What is more important in my life: my future career or following my heart?

A job change and a brief stay in Poznan facilitated this decision. It occurred on February 14, 2010, when I went to the Basilica of Lichen to ask the Blessed Virgin for help regarding a work problem. Praying before the miraculous image of the Madonna of Lichen, I realized it was Saint Valentine ’s Day and it came to me that I should offer Mary my heart, trusting in Her and asking for enlightenment as to the path to follow.

After that even, events precipitated. Maria led me to Krakow and there I was helped by Father Tomasz Bajer, Director of Studies for the Ministry of the Laity at John Paul II University, who gave me moral support and encouraged me to follow this course of study. After that, I began studying philosophy and theology with the Dominicans and following that I began post-graduate studies in the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and then in psycho-oncology. The school put me in touch with the Charism of Hospitality and helped me find my true vocation in the ministry of the Order of Saint John of God.

Even if my religious vocation, which by the grace of God has become my life, was a great surprise to all those who knew me (especially to my relatives and my parents), even if the search for that path was at the outset confused and difficult, interspersed with both joys and sorrows, moments of hope and other moments of despair, once I joined the Order it took on another dimension. Here, among the gravely ill, the suffering and the dying, Jesus revealed to me that for which I had long been searching. I was looking for the Truth, the Truth about my life, my behavior, my relationships with other people.

This desire led me to know Jesus better and to be able to feel His love. It has been enough just to be able to welcome His love and to open my heart to it, just as one takes the outstretched hand of a friend.