On Tuesday Nov. 7th, Our Lady of Refuge students and staff celebrated vocations week with a “vocations day” of our own. Brother Brenton and Brother Igor came from St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit to share their vocation stories and tell us about life as Capuchin (Cap-Uh-Shin) Franciscan Brothers.

Students learned that as Franciscans, everyone is known as “Brother”, even if you are a priest like Brother Brenton.

Our Capuchin Brothers taught us about discerning our own vocation in life and answered many questions posed by students and teachers. We discovered that the name of their religious order, Friars Minor, means “little brothers” in Italian and that humility and being among the people they serve is very important to them; they even look at animals and the world around us as their brothers and sisters – just like their founder St. Francis of Assisi did!

Students were particularly interested to learn that in addition to praying and serving the poor, the Brothers love sports (baseball & football), have pet dogs named after St. Francis and St. Clare, and live in a house with twenty-four other brothers who range in age from their twenties to their eighties.

Brother Brenton and Brother Igor promised to pray for the Our Lady of Refuge family; many Refuge family members will be praying for them, too.