“His greatest joy in life is living a life of prayers and serving others.”
「他最大的喜悅是過著有禱告的生活和服務別人」
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My first Couchsurfing host in Uganda was
a Catholic Priest, through his connection, I got the chance to meet many other priests
as well. One day my host took me to his good friend’s home for a visit. There I
met Mario, another priest who was one year junior than my host. The first
impression I had on Mario was so different than the other priests I met. He was
cheerful and energetic. The first question he asked me was what my faith was.
When I told him I believed in everything and also nothing, he showed me a
bright smile and said he respected people from all religions. He visited India
before and had many Indian friends, he also went to the mosque a few times and
learned the way the Muslims pray. During our conversation, an Indian song
suddenly started playing in the background. I knew I really wanted to stay with
this person and know more about him.
Lessons
from Parents
With 8 siblings, Mario was the second
last born but the only biological son of his parents. His dad grew up as an orphan
but lived as a happy man. He liked helping the needy so much as he found joy in
helping others. He was taking care of 7 orphans and let them stay in his own
farm. He didn’t want to own a car because he thought it was too expensive and
the money could be spent on the orphans instead. Mario’s mom was also a happy, simple
but quiet person, she didn’t like possessing material things. Instead, she had
a strong Catholic faith. The family was considered middle class as they did
modern farming and trading in large scale.
The family used to have many cows and Mario
was in charge of the income from selling the milk. When he was in P.7, his mom
asked him to share his income and take care of the school fees of two twins
girls who had no home. Mario felt negative towards it and wondered why he
needed to take care of people he didn’t know. The twins were a bit younger than
him but they came from poor village school and they needed to repeat some
classes.
A
Test in Life
In an evening 4 years ago, Mario’s dad was
on his way home from the bank. He was assaulted by robbers and died 2 days
later. Mario suddenly became the in charge of his family.
As time went by, the family farm started to get problems and failed to generate incomes.
Mario felt that he couldn’t afford the school fees for the twins anymore and decided
to take them back to their village. He drove them there but couldn’t find anywhere
they belonged to. He changed his mind, he took them back to his home and
decided to treat them as sisters and take care of them forever, rather than
regarding them as children he took care of. “When there is a will, there is a
way”, he believed, and he was right, the twins are in University now.
A Call
from God
“Why did you become a Priest?” The most
common question Mario got from people around. He felt he never wish for that,
but was a call from God to serve people detached. He went to the Minor
Seminary for his Secondary Education and then Major Seminary for University
Education. In the 8 years of Major Seminary, he did
Psychology for 2 years, Philosophy for 2 years, and the last four years in
Theology (Religious Study). There was one year break in between and he did a
Certificate of Guiding and Counseling. In his class, there were 74 students at
the beginning but at the end only 3 graduated as Priests. Some were sent away
due to romantic relationships, some chose not to continue, however, majority of
his classmates are having good jobs now, like the army forces, medical fields
or businesses. Mario became a Priest at the age of 28.
The
Gift from God
The first appointment for Mario in his
priesthood was being the Youth leader in West Uganda, worked as a Youth
Coordinator at the Youth Chapel in Kabale Diocese. He did education and provided
trainings in camps to empower the Youth and awake their minds to love God. He
partnered with the UN and Uganda Aids Commission to promote agriculture and
sexual reproductive health for the Youth. With the position, he got a lot of networking
opportunities and many invitations to give speeches locally and overseas on different
Youth topics regarding Spirituality Development, which increased his source of
income from appreciation after giving services to people.
Sharing
the Blessings
“Not everyone is blessed equally.” Mario
said. He felt he is fortunate to have so much blessings and he should share his
blessings with the others. He has no savings for himself and is not interested
in possessing too many personal things because he felt all his money and
properties should go to the people in need. He finds joy in helping others. His
dream is to help the needy children, especially the girls who are not valued in
his community. He has been supporting orphans and wants to educate all children
in his village. Now he is in the process of registering a NGO, Youth
Empowerment through Farming, to have modern farms for rabbits, pigs and hens,
so that they are self-sustainable and can raise school fees for those in needs.
A
Hiccup at Work
Life is never smooth and everyone lives
with challenges. After 3 years of working at the Diosese, Mario was transferred
to a parish located at a remote village, which is 2 hours away from his home
town. Compare with his previous post, the new job is more relaxing but it also
means he has no more networking opportunities to give talks and has no more
income. He also needs to spend a lot of money on the fuel to drive home and to
visit the children in his home town.
This year Mario is supporting 12 orphans who
are at secondary levels, and paying school fees is a headache for him now. The
government schools are poor in quality so all the kids are attending private
schools. In Uganda there are 3 school terms a year and it costs US$300/ term/
child in the upper Sec. He has 1 in lower Sec but 11 in upper Sec, which then become
US10,000/year for his expenditure. He is now taking bank loans in order to sort
out the school fees.
Helping
Others is the Source of Happiness
On a happiness scale of 0-10, he rated 5. His
greatest joy in life is living a life of prayers and serving others. He is
happy when he carries his Ministry works, sees his kids going to school and eating
well. However, he is stressed because he doesn’t know how to find income and
raise money. His farm project was mismanaged as he could hardly visit the
project with his new position.
At last, Mario gave me a dice with six
different positive phrases as the present for exchange. He got it 7 years ago
as a present from a Youth Training seminar in Nairobi, Kenya. It was called the
Focolare Movement which originated in Italy to promote living spirituality with
Jesus all the time. Every morning he tossed the dice and whatever went up he tried
to live it for the day.
One last thing Mario asked from me is to pray
for him, may he live his priesthood well and be able to face all the challenges.
I really felt an Angel was sitting next to me, and I am honored to have met
such a special friend in my life.
來到烏干達，我的第一位沙發主人是一位天主教神父，透過他的聯繫，我又有機會認識其他神父。有一天，沙發主人帶我到訪他的好友家，在那裏我遇見了Mario，一位比我沙發主人年輕一年的神父。我對Mario的第一印象跟其他神父非常不同，他很開朗和充滿活力。他問我的第一個問題是我有甚麼信仰，我答道我甚麼也相信，也甚麼都不相信。他立即給我展露一個燦爛的笑容，說他尊重不同宗教的人。他曾到訪印度，也有很多印度友人，甚至幾次到訪清真寺，學習回教徒朝拜的方式。當我們正聊得興起的時候，一首印度音樂響起，我知道我一定要在這位新朋友家中借宿，以便好好認識他。
父母的身教
有八個兄弟姐妹，Mario排行尾二卻是父母唯一的親生兒子。父親很小時候已是孤兒但他的一生卻活得很快樂，他喜歡幫助別人令自己快樂，從前一共供養了七名孤兒，讓他們在自己的農場生活，他不願意買車因為車子的費用可以用於孩子身上。母親則是個快樂、簡單但安靜的人，她不喜歡擁有太多物質上的東西，她是一名很虔誠的天主教徒。家裏做大規模的農業和貿易生意，可算是中產階級。
從前家裏畜養了很多頭牛，小時候的Mario負責掌管賣牛奶的收入。當他唸小學七年級的時候，媽媽叫他幫忙照顧兩名無家可歸的孖女，用他的收入繳交兩女的學費。他覺得很不悅，不明白為甚麼自己要照顧不認識的人。兩名孖女比他年幼少許，但因為來自鄉村學校所以她們要降級數年。
人生的考驗
四年前的一個晚上，當父親離開銀行回家，突然被匪徒襲擊並於兩天後離世， Mario突然變成了一家之主。
父親離世後，家裏的農場開始經營不善，Mario覺得自己不可能繼續負擔孖女的學費，決定把她們送回農村。可是，他駕車到那裏卻找不到她們所屬的地方，於是，他改變了想法，他決定把她們帶回家，視她們為自己的親生妹妹和永遠照顧她們，不再只視她們為自己助養的小孩。他相信「世上無難事，只怕有心人」，最後他是對的，兩位孖女現在已經在唸大學了。
天主的召喚
「為甚麼要當神父？」這是Mario最常聽到的問題。他覺得自己從來也沒有刻意計劃過，但他相信這是上天的安排要他獨立地服侍世人。中學時期他已入讀神學院，大學則唸了八個年頭，包括兩年心理學、兩年哲學和四年神學。中間的一年間隔年他更修讀了輔導證書課程。神學院的班上本來有七十四位同學，最終卻只有三位同學畢業當神父，有些因為交了伴侶而被趕出校，有些則自覺不適合而離開，但大部分同學現在都有很好的工作，有當軍人的、醫生的、從商的。最後Mario於二十八歲時正式當上了神父。
上天的恩賜
當上了神父之後，Mario被分配的第一個職務是負責烏干達西部的青年工作，在區內的禮拜堂當青年統籌。他主力負責教育和青年培訓的充權工作，以推廣青年人愛戴天父。他也跟聯合國和烏干達愛滋病委員會合作，推廣農業和青年人的兩性健康。這個職位讓他有很廣泛的人際網絡，時常被獲邀在本地和外地做關於青少年靈性發展議題的演說，透過做這些服務他也獲得很不錯的收入。
分享福份
「不是每個人都有平等福份的」，Mario說，他覺得自己有那麼多的福氣，真是一名幸運兒，於是他應該和別人分享。他沒有積蓄，也不需要擁有太多個人物品，因為錢財應該給予有需要的人的。透過幫助別人讓他獲得心靈的喜悅，他的夢想是幫助有需要的小孩，尤其是女生，因為她們在自己的社區都不被重視。他一直有助養孤兒，希望能幫助全村的小孩獲得教育的機會。現在他正嘗試註冊一間非營利機構，以農耕方式幫青年充權，專營兔仔、豬仔、雞仔農莊，以可持續發展方式賺取經費以助養兒童。
工作的挑戰
人生永遠不是只有順境的，每個人都有遭遇挫折的時候。在青年禮拜堂工作了三個年頭以後，Mario給調派到一家位於遍遠山區的教堂工作，回家車程足足兩個小時。跟之前的職責相比，現在的工作是輕鬆多了，但也代表他再沒有人際網絡，再不會有演說邀請，再沒有額外收入，他更要花額外的汽油錢回家和探望他助養的小孩子。
今年他一共助養了十二名中學程度的小孩，繳交學費變成一件令他頭痛的事情。政府學校質素很差所以他的小孩子都上私校。烏干達每年共有三個學期，上高中的學費每人每個學期要三百塊美元，他的小孩有一名初中生和十一名高中生，一年的支出加起來足足要一萬塊美元了，現在他只好跟銀行借貸款繳付學費。
助人為快樂之本
一至十的快樂指數，Mario給自己五分，他最大的喜悅是過著有禱告的生活和服務別人，自己能夠做神職，看見小孩子上學和吃得好都是令他高興的事情。不過，他很苦惱不知道該怎樣賺錢和籌募學費，由於他轉職後很難再時常到訪農莊，那些項目現在都管理不善。
最後，他給我送了一粒有六面正向生活句子的骰子作交換禮物，那是七年前在肯亞奈洛比參加青年培訓時的禮物，那是源於意大利的普世博愛運動(Focolare Movement)，以推廣耶穌基督的靈性生活為宗旨。每個早上他都會擲骰子，甚麼句子向上他就會努力以它作為當天生活的指標。
訪問臨完結前，Mario向我提出了一個請求，他希望我能時常幫他祈禱，祈求他能好好擔任神職工作和成功面對所有難關。那一刻我感到自己身邊坐著的是一位天使，能夠認識一位那麼特別的朋友真是我的榮幸。
