Br. John Luczkowski, 27

My name is Br. John Luczkowski. I’m currently finishing the novitiate year for the Christian Brothers and will return to teaching this August at St. John’s College High School in the Nation’s capita. This year in the novitiate continues to provide me with opportunities to look back, take stock, and examine life as it happened to me and my responses to it, to really begin to understand my own personal journey. I joined the Brothers right after college so from a societal standpoint, it may seem that I “rushed into” this life, but it came to me. I’ve come to a deeper understanding of and appreciation for my life as a Brother. I pray that I may continually develop and share my life as a Brother well into the future.

Somewhere inside of me lies a deep faith, a faith that manifests itself in the ideologies I hold, the truths I speak, and the values I live by. I grew up in a pretty normal Catholic family and environment in Philadelphia. Just this past weekend the Brothers on the West Coast, where I’m currently living, invited a few men to a weekend of discernment concerning their own personal vocation. At one point, having been asked to share my story, I was struck with an inspiration. I absolutely love being a Brother and a teacher because both challenge me. The life of a Brother and the requirements of teaching use my best talents and confront my worst qualities. I couldn’t imagine my life now or my makeup as a teacher if I had not chosen nor stayed with the Brothers.
My parents lost their faith, at least externally, as I entered my teenage years. At a time in life when all people question the faith of their childhood, or should, I found little recourse in my family. My dad was a Navy guy, so naturally in high school I looked at the military, particularly the Marines. They were all talk concerning what I would get, how smart I was, etc. but then they got the physical exam back and saw that I failed the hearing test. Well, it was like night and day. All of sudden the language went from being “you’re so great” to “well, you’d have to get an act of Congress passed”. What!?! Did I miss something here? I had a similar experience with the group of priests that ran my high school alma mater. It wasn’t that their language changed. It was more like I was being ignored by the vocation director, who may have thought I was too immature, not serious enough, or not a good fit for the priesthood. Whatever the reasons, I’ll never know because after one face-to-face encounter, I never saw the guy again and only heard from him rarely.

Then along came the Brothers, who I first encountered in college. (GO LA SALLE!) The vocation director was always available, the Brothers I met at different communities in the area were interested in me, in my story, and for the most part, exuded a love for life, for their lifestyle, and for their work. I was immediately challenged and rewarded. The experience at the house of studies challenged me to live communally, to healthily set aside my own needs and wants from time to time, for the sake of the men I lived with. Without knowing it, I was still living like a teenager, with little sense of responsibility and no real experience of commitment. But the life also drew out my deep reserve of care and awareness for the needs of the community and the individuals I lived with. Then, I began teaching. What a disaster that was at first. I learned how emotional I was, how selfish I was, how undisciplined I was, how lazy I was. With time I became better, thanks in large part to the men I lived with at my second community, to the people I worked with and taught along side, and because I discovered that the demands of a teacher, at least today, call out my bottomless reserves of organization, structure, strength, energy, clarity, and love.

What I’ve discovered this year seems simple now. After several opportunities to work hard to achieve something I seemingly wanted, which I either didn’t do or truly desire, I’ve found a congregation of men, a ministry, and a lifestyle that keeps me honest, challenges and reforms my vices and failings, and calls out of me the best I can offer this world. In short, I found something worth fighting for, worth undergoing trial and error, worth basking in, a vocation that fits me as well as anything ever will. That’s it! I just got an insight. This year is like the gym for religious! Lose some weight in order that the life fits us better. Word.