Precious Moments!

This past weekend, J.T. and I visited Madison, WI. We had a fall break from Saturday through Tuesday, and I decided to make a visit with Fr. Victor. Let me tell you about this man:

Fr. Victor Mosele was born in Italy 72 years ago. While in high school, his older brother joined a diocesan seminary and was encouraging Victor to think about doing the same. Being an energetic teenager, he could not imagine spending his whole life going back and forth from the church to the rectory. He desired adventure. Shortly after, he met some Xaverian missionaries (named after St. Francis Xavier) and decided they could help him serve God while having an adventure. He joined them out of high school.

He has since been in America for a long time, eventually helping build a seminary near Milwaukee. Then later, he went to Sierre Leone, Africa to be a priest and help set up schools for the people, as well as serve them in other ways. He helped set up about a dozen grade schools in 25 years - he saw them built from the ground up, and then served as the overseer of them all. After 25 years, rebel groups started terrorizing the country, but claimed to be freedom fighters. They destroyed all the schools, forced many of the children to fight as rebels, and eventually captured Fr. Victor. He was held captive for 5 years (with a short break somewhere during those years). He eventually escaped, and has been in America ever since, about 7 years now.

I met him when he was the assistant chaplain at ISU two years ago. After spending time with him this past weekend, I was amazed by his energy. He has the spunk of a new priest. He gives every minute of his day to God. I do not feel like I have the energy he has sometimes, and I'm 21! What I took away from Madison is a determination to waste less time. This does not mean to rush through things, but to be more structured and to dilly-dally less. It is very difficult to stay focused the whole day; even with this determination, I find I lose my focus sometime after dinner. But Fr. Victor has practice, and he has a great love for God, and this is key. You don't find many 72-year-old people of any occupation who give every minute their full attention, but even a priest who is not fervently in love with God will struggle to stay motivated.

St. Francis Xavier, pray for us!