The annual Global Fellows meeting will take place on Oct. 26 to 28 in the headquarter of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Baltimore. About fifty priests and deacons around the country will gather to learn CRS’ current works and to renew Global Fellows’ vision. This annual meeting is special to me because it will be my last one before going back to Korea in 2011. So I asked Mikaele, the program officer, to give me an opportunity to share my experience with CRS and Global fellows. In the presentation, I will share my first immersion trip to Madagascar in 2005 and how it has shaped the priesthood. And then I will thank my fellow priests and deacons who have been huge impact on me last several years.
Now I know the importance of a friend’s advice before the ordination: “Pray, obey and stay close to the poor.” As long as I remember the poor, especially through running, I would be fine to live out my priestly vocation as a missionary priest. It does not matter to keep the spirit of a missionary whether I work for the diocese in Korea because I continue to support the poor in the third world countries and someday I will take a missionary life. With humility, I am now happy to be a priest whose heart is filled with compassion for brothers and sisters around the world.