Photo by Matt Cashore/University of Notre Dame
A few months ago, a friend asked me what aspect of Father Moreau’s life I think best applies to my next ministry in the Office of Vocations for the Congregation of Holy Cross. At the time, I was preparing to say goodbye to St. John Vianney Parish and André House of Hospitality. I thought about how much our consecrated life as religious is like a long pilgrimage with different stops along the way. I also reflected on how I would like to have Father Basil Moreau as a father and companion to me as I strive to be a father and companion to the men that the Lord will bring me to encounter through the Vocations ministry.
Father Moreau throughout his life would make frequent visits to the Eucharistic presence of our Lord Jesus. It seems to be the way of many holy women and men: spending time during the day, or even late during the night, to pray for the people entrusted to them. Kneeling down and spending time with the one who called them to Himself, rather than calling on Jesus to be present to myself. In one of his Sermons, Father Moreau says, “On the Altar, Jesus Christ is as really present as in Heaven, in the capacity of sacrificial Victim, seeing you through the Eucharistic veils and burning with desire to give Himself to you.”
This year I am excited to be living in O’Neill Hall on the campus of Notre Dame, getting in touch with my anger (the mascot of the dorm is known as the “Angry Mob”!). It is an opportunity to accompany young men in the dorm, and young men in high schools and colleges around the U.S. who are discerning where and how Jesus is inviting them to surrender their gifts to His purposes, take up their crosses, and follow after Him with the offering of their life.
Father Moreau is certainly present in this ministry. Here is a man who gave of himself so tirelessly to the formation, growth, and holiness of his brothers and of others, at the expense of his own dreams to go to the foreign missions preaching the Gospel, yet all with the trust, humility, and strength in Jesus’ prompting. Christ was the center of his life, the one who calls, the one who acts, the agent of all good work.
Father Moreau, help all of us in the Congregation of Holy Cross to be vocation directors: “simple tools,” as Father Moreau would say, “in the hands of the Lord.”
Fr. Andrew Fritz, C.S.C.
Published on July 30, 2025
