Profiles of Faith

Ivan and Lena,
Former USSR
My wife Lena and i got acquainted in September 1978, while working in the fields, gathering potatoes. At that time we were students (I studied in the Physics department, and my future wife in the Psychological department). I was already a Christian, having been baptized in the Orthodox Church two years before, in July, 1976. Lena was also interested in Christianity. Later I got acquainted with an elderly clandestine Catholic nun, Sister Catherine. She was born in 1909 and had spent thirteen years in labor camps for her faith. I also introduced my future wife to her in February 1981.

Later, on February 7, 1983, I proposed to Lena, and on May 15, 1983, we were married. In May of 1987 Sister Catherine died. For some time we were left without firm spiritual guidance and counseling. In 1991 Lena started working at a school not far from our home. That turned out to be providential, because in the same school and in the same year a former Orthodox priest, who converted to the Catholic Church started a daring missionary enterprise among the teachers of that school. He started with lectures on Christianity and eventually founded a thriving Greek-Catholic community of about 30 people. It should be taken into consideration that at that period all the former Soviet Union was in turmoil – it was the wake of the famous Gorbachev’s perestroika.

We together decided to visit this Catholic community. After that day, we visited regularly all the Sunday services. In January 1994 we met four Miles Jesu members.They were very open and friendly.

On April 7, 1994, they helped organize a ceremony of the Greek-Catholic community honoring the Immaculate Heart of Mary (April 7 is the Feast of Annunciation according to the Julian Calender).

After our acquaintance with Miles Jesu in January 1994, our relations became closer and closer each month. In June 1994, we invited four Miles Jesu members to stay with us for a week in a Summer camp for children (a former Soviet Pioneer camp) for one week. The men enjoyed that stay very much (in fact, they badly needed some rest and relaxation). I remember how we (me, my wife, our children and the Great Four – that’s the way we called the four Miles Jesu members) prepared popcorn in the woods on a camp-fire in a large aluminum kettle.

The members also saw to our Christian upbuilding: regularly supplying us with books and videos (Frank Sheed’s Theology and Sanity, Walter Ciszek With God in Russia, the videos: The Scarlet and the Black and A Man for All Seasons).

In April, 1995 my wife and i joined the Miles Jesu Family. That’s how we became vinculum members. Of course, it is not the whole story but only the start of a great enterprise.

The LeBeau Family,
Phoenix, Arizona
Maura and I were baptized in the Church as infants. However, our formation was poor and we went years without being nourished by the sacraments. Thanks be to God that the seed of truth had been planted in our hearts, and when we spiritually reawakened in our early twenties, we had no doubt that the Catholic Church was home. God began to work quickly in our livesâ??a one year engagement and frequent reception of the sacraments culminating in marriage in 1983.

Now, 23 years and 11 children later, (see front cover), we are gratefully at home in the Catholic faith, and grateful for the special way God brought Miles Jesu into our lives.

For eight years our family has been formed by the most consistently reverent priests weâ??ve ever had the grace to know. Miles Jesu priests are uniformly excellent in their homilies which are replete with authentic theology, church history, scriptural understanding and practical application.

We have been inspired by the dedication and reverence of the domus members. We have enjoyed life-changing Path to Rome pilgrimages. Miles Jesu summer camps and classes have helped form our children, who have learned service to others through Miles Jesuâ??s charitable activities, particularly the missions to Mexico.

We look forward to what more God has in store for us as members of Miles Jesu.

Andrew and Mara,
Rome, Italy
As youth of the “JPII generation”, we had fervently sought to know God’s will and direction for our lives. Wanting to give all to the Lord, we both spent time discerning whether we were called to religious or priestly life. The Lord, however, deigned to call us to another vocation, yet still, to give all to Him. We embraced the vocation of marriage in 2002 and immediately thereafter moved to Rome, where Andrew has been studying theology.

At the university, three of Andrewâ??s classmates were Miles Jesu seminarians, and they quickly became friends. After going to the General House for confession and Mass, we were inspired, intrigued, and edified by the Institute, finding that we felt very much at home with them. We were especially attracted to Miles Jesuâ??s â??tender and loving devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Our Lady of the Epiphanyâ??. We also were drawn to their devotion, reverence, and love of the Blessed Sacrament, their life of poverty, their unwavering loyalty and dedicated service to the Vicar of Christ, their thirst for holiness, their zeal for the salvation of souls, and the work they are doing in Eastern Europe.

United together in the love of the Lord and His Church, may we all be “a little part of the great Epiphany of the Lord as a simple witness of the hope of His coming and the world beyond” (as our Miles Jesu Vinculum consecration states).

Casey and Sarah,
Phoenix, Arizona
Although we married in the Church and considered ourselves faithful Catholics, we were not well formed and our faith still played a peripheral role in our lives. It wasnâ??t until after the birth of our first child, through a series of events, that God opened our hearts to exploring the many treasures available to us through His Church. It was not long after that we began going to Miles Jesu for Confession.

Since that time, Miles Jesu has become an important part of our marriage vocation and our growing family. Indispensable to living out our sacramental commitment has been the Claretian spirit of total dedication by Miles Jesu priests to Confession and spiritual formation. As such, we know our family will confidently receive guidance that is faithful to the Magisterium. Consequentially, our faith has emboldened us to be true apostolic witnesses to the Gospel in both word and example.

Now we look on our vocations with a greater sense of availability to each other as spouses, parents, but most of all to God Himself. In the modern secularized world, as Vinculum members of Miles Jesu, our family is not alone. Our interaction with Miles Jesu has been inspiring, challenging us to grow in holiness and service to our Lord.

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