When I was a member of a parish youth group, the priests and Brothers helped me to discern my vocation (1975-76), and I felt that I was being called to live my Religious vocation in a Community of Brothers, serving the needy, and they helped me to become acquainted with the Order’s Centre in  Valencia. That was my initial contact, after which I continued the process with the Brothers at Sant Boi (Barcelona), where I subsequently began my formation.

And that is how I began to become acquainted with Saint John of God, impressed by his way of life, his concerns, the way he accompanied people, and knew how to deal with them without making them dependent on him or on the other people helping them, but enabling them to remain autonomous, the masters of their own lives,[1] by involving the guests in managing their own situations, and sharing the responsibility to play an active part in their own well-being. We might phrase it this way: I with you, but not without you.

Today, I feel called every day to renew the discovery of my invitation to become part of this project of Hospitality at the service of the sick and needy, as a member of a Community of Brothers which accompanies, builds up, frames and updates this personal response which fosters fraternity and creates bonds with people who wish to play a part in being Hospitality for other people, following their own life options and, in my case, performing my own present mission for the Order’s Missions and International Cooperation Service to benefit the less affluent countries.