The dreams of a fair-haired, shy altarboy. And the dreams of a priest whose heart overflowing with love consoles, governs, sanctifies. What’s all this about? You may well be asking yourself. Well, it’s all very simple, because in the plans of God everything is simple, even that which we find so complicated, a mystery we can scarcely comprehend or explain.
Yes, it all began because I was an altarboy in my village, Rielves, in the province of Toledo, Spain. I really was a blond altarboy, very blond, and shy, very shy. There I was, an altarboy in my parish church.
Looking back, I give thanks to God for everything, because He preserved in me that desire to assist at the altar, even when all my friends who were the same age as I was, and even a little younger, had stopped helping at Mass and had even stopped going to church.
A grace that I consider very important during this time of my life was that of never missing Mass on Sundays. I only remember having missed the Eucharist on two Sundays, and I remember it bitterly. It was a grace that God gave me, because it was He who gave me the grace to say “NO” to my friends when they made plans to play soccer on Sunday mornings, which would entail missing the Holy Mass. But let’s return to the main story. As you know, diocesan priests normally change parishes periodically, and they go to where their Bishop sends them, to tend to the portion of God’s people commended to them. This was the case of my village: many priests had passed through there, from the time I was preparing to make my First Communion to the time I left the village to give my life to God.
When I was twelve years old, approximately at the beginning of the school year, a new priest arrived in the parish. Another one. I remember how we were waiting in the sacristy, another boy who was altarboy and I, to see what the new priest would be like. He arrived: a young, friendly priest who liked to tell jokes and who spoke emphatically in his homilies.
Little by little I got to know him, and our friendship grew and with the friendship, came spiritual direction. I remember also that some Sundays he would come with an elderly lady who spoke with a funny accent in Spanish. She wasn’t Spanish, but she was really nice and she used to give us sweets after Mass.
Time passed, and Holy Week arrived. Surprise, surprise! Fr. Rafael, our parish priest, had the bright idea of bringing a group of boys and girls to the village to spend Holy Week in a climate of prayer and true friendship in God.
That’s how I met the first members of the Home of the Mother of the Youth. I was favourably impressed by their Christian joyfulness, the friendship between them and the love and affection that flowed from them.
So what happened next? Well, some of those young people began to come from time to time to the parish with Fr. Rafael; I got to know them better and better. I started to like their way of Christian life and I felt very drawn to living like them.
At the same time I began to pray with a little book of meditations about the Blessed Virgin Mary. I can say that this book helped me a lot and taught me how to pray. Around this same period of time I received the vocation to the priesthood. Let me explain a little. Seeing Fr. Rafael exercising his priestly ministry, I felt very attracted to the priesthood as he lived it. As I have said before, we were two altarboys. I remember how Fr. Rafael used to ask the other one if he wanted to be a priest, that the Church needed priests. And he used to answer no or try to avoid the question. I remember that he used never used to ask me and I used to get angry inside, thinking: why doesn’t he ask me, and I could tell him that yes I do want to be a priest? One day, of course, the question finally arrived. And I answered yes, that I wanted to be a priest.
In 1984 I went to my first summer-camp with the Home and the following year I made my first commitment. Since then, with good patches and not so good, I have remained in the place God has prepared for me since all eternity.
Evidently, the moment came to leave the H.M.Y. to enter the Servant Priests and Brothers of the Home of the Mother, but with the same spirituality that the Lord and Our Mother want for me. I give thanks to the Lord and to the Virgin Mary for the Home, for Fr. Rafael, and for my vocation; for having always placed the people I needed at my side, so I could find and respond to my vocation.
This letter is addressed to all who love the Eucharist and cherish the Catholic priesthood as a gift of Jesus Christ to his Church. I write as Superior General of the Servant Priests & Brothers of the Home of the Mother, an institution canonically erected in the diocese of Cuenca, Spain, consisting of young priests and candidates for the priesthood whose specific missions are: the defense of the Eucharist, the defense of the honor of Our Mother, especially in the privilege of her Virginity, and the conquest of the young people for Jesus Christ.
Ecclesia de Eucharistia vivit. The Church lives from the Eucharist. With these words John Paul II commenced his Encyclical concerning the Eucharist. All of us who love the Bride of Christ feel the urgent need of renewal in so many ambits of the ecclesial life. But we are convinced that a great part of the vitality and fertility of the Church depends upon the holiness of her priests. One of our most urgent desires and petitions should be: Lord, give us many holy priests! It is to them, moreover, that the Lord has entrusted the mystery of his Body and Blood. It is they who, in the name of Christ, illumine the People of God with the Word of Eternal Life and strengthen it with the sacraments. As Benedict XVI has said: "Christ, the High Priest, in his solicitude for the Church, also calls, in every generation, persons to take care of his people; in particular, He calls men to the priestly ministry to carry out a paternal function the source of which is the paternity of God himself (cf. Eph. 3, 15). The mission of the priest in the Church is irreplaceable" (5 March 2006). In the face of this reality, what should we do?
- Spiritually: we must increase our prayer for vocations: "Pray to the Owner of the harvest that He send workers to the harvest" (Mt. 9, 38). Many priests are needed, and the Christian People should be conscious of its responsibility in this area. Prayer is often centered in oneself, in "my" needs, in "my" sufferings, in "my" family, etc.. But our hearts must be open to the whole Church, and if we know that the Church lives from the Eucharist, and that the Eucharist comes to us only through the priests, then we must pray intensely for an increase of priestly vocations. "Do not be surprised that vocations flourish where there is fervent prayer" (Benedict XVI).
The second aspect is that of prayer for the holiness of priests. The Congregation for the Clergy published on the 8th of December 2007 a document promoting a chain of Eucharistic Adoration for the holiness of priests, especially fomenting spiritual maternity. We wish, with the help of your prayer, to entrust to Mary, Mother of the Eternal High Priest, all of the Servants, especially those who are already priests, putting Eucharistic Adoration in the center, so that a prayer of gratitude for vocations already received may be raised to the Lord, a prayer of praise of his mercy and of fervent supplication that He sanctify those whom He has chosen to be alter Christus and to represent Him as Head, Shepherd and Bridegroom of the Church.
Would you be disposed to commit (daily or weekly) to an hour of adoration before the Eucharist to pray for the holiness of priests, with the Servants of the Home of the Mother as a special intention?
We are conscious of the immense greatness of the priestly vocation and, at the same time, we know our inadequacy. With the Holy Father we know that "in the mystery of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, the divine power of love changes man's heart, capacitating him to communicate the love of God to his brothers and sisters". We believe in the power of prayer and we entrust ourselves to the prayer of the People of God so that we may be faithful to the love of Jesus Christ. In the ceremony of priestly ordination, the candidate prostrates himself on the floor as the litanies of the saints are chanted. It is a gesture of humility that helps him to comprehend that the mission that God entrusts to him can only be undertaken with trust in the help of God and the intercession of the whole Church for him. This chain of prayer is a gesture that manifests that the pilgrim Church, which means you, wraps and sustains her priests with prayer.
If you love your priests, pray to God continually for their fidelity and holiness.
- Materially: In the midst of the scarcity of priests and of vocations, the Lord continues to work wonders. There are young men who have felt the call of the Lord and have not stepped back from the demands of a total self-giving to God, to serve the Church as priests.
In the Servants of the Home of the Mother, the Lord is blessing us with new vocations. Many of them come from numerous families with few economic resources. The lack the funds needed to take on the payment of their University studies.
Furthermore, in order to provide our priests with a good theological preparation in fidelity to the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Church, we have transferred our center of formation to Rome, to the University of the Holy Cross. We want the Servants of the Home of the Mother who are preparing for the priesthood to be ready for the demands of contemporary society and to be good shepherds of God's people.
We also need your material help. We know that your help is solicited from many parts. But we invite you to be generous, recalling that there is more joy in giving than in receiving and that at the end of life "I will only have what I gave". Could you commit to giving some contribution, however small, every month or three months, to aid the formation of our brothers who are preparing for the priesthood?
Please, do not deny us the help of your prayers (which is the most important thing), but in accordance with your possibilities, I ask of you also some contribution so that we may seriously prepare ourselves and follow our desire to respond to God's call and to be living images of Christ the Priest, to be his hands to bless and forgive with, his mouth to proclaim the message of salvation. In the words of St. Augustine, with you I am Christian, for you I am priest. Our life and ministry is for your service and for the service of the whole Church.
The Servants of the Home of the Mother wish to learn to live our priesthood with Mary, Mother of Christ the Priest. She will teach us to love Jesus with tenderness and generously to give Him to souls.
Fr. Félix López, Superior General of the Servants of the Home of the Mother.
Good Father, Lord of the Vineyard, raise up from among your sons numerous and holy vocations to the priesthood in the Church, especially in the Servants of the Home of the Mother, so that they may keep alive the faith and conserve the grateful recollection of your Son Jesus through the preaching of his Word and the administration of the sacraments with which You continually renew your faithful.
Give us holy ministers of your altar, attentive and fervent custodians of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Love, supreme gift of Christ for the redemption of the world.
Call ministers of your mercy who will spread, through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the joy of your forgiveness and who may heal so many broken hearts.
See to it, Father, that young people receive with joy the loving invitation of Jesus to give up all to follow Him and to be with Him fishers of men.
Sustain your servants and sanctify them with the power of your Spirit, so that they may be true ministers of your altar who transmit to others by their holy life, the holiness of God.
Mary, Mother of Christ the Priest, you who in your womb, by the power of the Spirit, gave form to Christ the Eternal High Priest, continue to form, by the action of the Sanctifier, those whom Christ has chosen to be his living presence among men. May He continue to save, to console, to forgive, to love and to spread hope through them, so that all men and women may come to know the love of God and reach eternal life. Amen.
Date of entrance into the Servant Brothers: November 25, 2001
Age at entrance: 19 years old
City and country of origin : Cuenca, Spain
Date of perpetual vows: September 8th, 2012
Current Community: Rome, Italy
Contact address:
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“It was during a daily mass in my parish where I felt that the Lord, through the Gospel that the priest read, was speaking directly to me. It was the conversation of Jesus with the young man: 'Lord, I will follow you wherever you go, but let me first bury my parents.' 'Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back, is not worthy of the kingdom of heaven'” (Lk 9:57).
The summer that I met the Home, I was 18 years old. I had just finished my first year of Fine Arts studies and I saw the faith as the rules that kept me from being happy, but that could save me. I was spiritually disoriented, but I had faith.
Even so, during the last year of my studies, I began to really suffer at the sight of the lack of coherence in which I was living and that I was incapable of maintaining myself in a state of grace. I was tied down to what I saw was wrong and incapable of freeing myself. But, as I barely ever prayed, where was I going to find strength?I think that the problem was that I didn’t see any alternative, a way of life that was pure and attractive.
I did begin to leave some things, and even I was surprised that I could. And yet, I was still far from seeing my faith as the only true source of freedom. I still stayed out late on Saturday nights and then casually went to mass at noon on Sunday, although little by little I began to feel more and more “guilt” for doing so. I began to understand that, “to be a lover of the world means enmity with God” (James 4:4).
But once in a confession, God placed the reality of my lack of coherence before me, my repeated abuse of His forgiveness, in not deciding once and for all to change: neither for better nor for worse. As my penance, the priest, who was serious and worried about me, told me to pray two decades of the Rosary. For me, this was like sending me on a walking pilgrimage to Jerusalem barefoot. This made me realize the importance of making reparation for sinful actions and also the great value of prayer. Through this priest, the Lord had given me the biggest grace in my life: to see that you cannot be happy, even if you are a Christian, unless it is because of Christ, because “you made us, Lord, for you; and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (St. Augustine). That same afternoon, I went to pray the Rosary with the young people of the parish and later, my two decades. It was as though I were still in shock and I spent a lot of time thinking about what I had discovered in that confession. I had changed my way of seeing basically everything. My faith had gone from being a weight to being liberating, and from that day on, I began to change everything as fast as I could. I began to spend more time with the young people in my parish, especially with two or three who went to mass with me everyday. We would spend time together, laughing… praying the Rosary together, visiting the Lord in the tabernacle, and talking about God. I began asking questions and the Lord gave me the grace to open my heart and understand the truth about so many things that I had heard in a distorted way through the television, in movies, or in music.
A few weeks later, we decided to go on a pilgrimage. There were two possibilities: Lourdes, with the youth of the parish, or Fatima, with a group called “The Home of the Mother” that I did not know. I preferred going with people I knew and with girls to Lourdes than with people I didn’t know and without girls to Fatima, but one of these good friends of mine insisted that we go to Fatima and as I really didn’t care that much, we went to Fatima.
It was in this pilgrimage that I met the Home. There were three things that stood out for me: seeing young people who were happy living in a state of grace, young religious brothers who had an intense love for Our Lady and, finally, the message of Our Lady in Fatima: “Many souls are going to hell because there is no one praying and making sacrifices for them.”I was still a bit off track spiritually and did not understand some things, for example the value of prayer and sacrifice. But when I saw that the Virgin was asking us to offer prayer and penance for the salvation of souls, I was filled with a great desire to pray and without a complaint, continue going forward and from then on always respond to God’s will, as I now realized that it was best thing that I could choose. I saw that although it would not always be easy, it would always be worth the effort. I was amazed to discover the consecrated life in this trip. I was surprised to see that the Servant Brothers were so few. So, I said to myself,“If this vocation is a gift of intimacy with God and Our Mother, and it means dedicating oneself to the “one thing necessary,” which is the interior life, and if their work includes taking people on trips to Fatima and places like that… how can they be so few? There must be something about this consecrated life that I still haven’t understood.”
From that moment, I made the resolution to not rest until I found that “something” that I didn’t see and that formed the reason behind there being so few in the consecrated life. And with this thought in mind, I went to visit the Community in their own house, with two or three of my friends from the trip to Fatima, to spend a week with the Servant Brothers. I was hoping to find, as soon as possible, the response to my questions, “Why are they so few? What is it that I don’t see and I don’t understand?,” because I felt very attracted to following this path, but I did not want to make a commitment to something that I did not know. And during those days, I got to know it.
One morning, we had to take care of a group of children so that their parents and the Servant Brothers could attend some talks. So, we got to work. The time seemed like an eternity and after one of the boys nailed me with a ball (leaving a wound that hurt for two weeks later), I began to be bored, and more bored. I was so bored that, looking at the clock and seeing that there were still over two hours until lunch and that not even forty minutes had passed, I left my friends with the children and went to play the guitar in my room. How responsible of me, right?
I didn’t feel that bad about it until, after lunch, the Brothers had us watch a video about the Home. At a certain moment in the film, a sister is seen sweeping the floor and the narrator says, “The Servant Sister does not belong to herself; she belongs to Jesus Christ.”In that moment, I understood that “something” that I had been looking for. I saw myself playing the guitar in my room, leaving the work that had been entrusted to me, without any worry at all. On the other hand, I saw how this sister in the video who was sweeping could please God doing even the littlest thing for Him, forgetting herself, letting that be her joy and her peace. Only faith and total self-denial could make the religious life possible. Here, no one could keep anything for himself…not the guitar, or the career, or the friends…nothing. And that is precisely where one reaches the intimate union with God. I was left frightened at the sight of all this.
However, I also saw that in giving oneself completely to Him, He gives Himself completely and He fills us more than the world could ever try to fill us; but we have to leave all our securities first. He is the one who does it all, but we have to let Him enter, like Mary did: “Be it done unto me according to thy word.” And He does the rest.
All this helped me to see that God took my life seriously and that He responded to my questions with clarity and without delay. And so, knowing a bit more about the Religious Life in the Home and feeling attracted by it, I felt that I still needed some type of call or sign to be able to decide to ask for permission to enter in the Home as consecrated member.
It was during a daily mass in my parish where I felt that the Lord, through the Gospel that the priest read, was speaking directly to me. It was the conversation of Jesus with the young man: “Lord, I will follow you wherever you go, but let me first bury my parents.” “Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back, is not worthy of the kingdom of heaven” (Lk 9:57).
While I had been thinking of trying to finish my five year program in the university (I was only in my second year) and then preparing myself little by little on the path to follow Him, if He was calling me, I found that He, in calling me, did not want a half-hearted surrender and I once again remembered that following Him is “not belonging to oneself, but rather to Jesus Christ.”
Having been chosen among so many to be His, I saw that love is blind and that the Lord is pure mercy. He chooses the weak of the world to confuse the strong and the foolish, to show His strength.
Shortly following this experience, I went on my first spiritual exercises, where I decided to do whatever God asked me. One afternoon, after the exercises were over, one of those friends from Mass and the trip with the Home to Fatima gave me a ride to my music class. When he had stopped the car, he got out and told me that he had something very important to tell me. “ What is it?,” I asked. He responded, “I’m entering in the Servant Brothers.” And I replied, “What? Me, too!” He couldn’t believe it.
We had gone together to Fatima and we had done spiritual exercises together. Both of us had spoken with the Superior of the Servant Brothers to ask for permission to enter, but we had never talked about it between us. Only jokingly, sometimes. Now God had given us both this grace of the vocation and still today here we are, trying to be the Servant Brothers that God expects us to be, and trying to please Our Mother, sweeping or playing guitar, or chiselling a wall, or doing whatever we’re asked to do.
Religious Name: Fr. Juan Antonio Maria of the Eucharist
Date of entrance: September 8th, 1990
Age at entrance: 19 years old
City and country of origin: Rielves (Toledo), Spain
Date of perpetual vows: September 8th, 1998
Current Community: Las Presillas (Cantabria), Spain
Date of Ordination to the Priesthood: October 28, 1995
Contact address:
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"I give thanks to the Lord and to the Virgin Mary for the Home, Fr. Rafael, and for my vocation; for always placing the people I needed at my side, so I could find and respond to my vocation."
Cantabria Siervos del Hogar de la Madre Bº Rucarbos, 10 39679 Las Presillas Cantabria Phone N. (+34) 942-598062
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Navarra C/ Centro, 9 31420 Urroz Villa Navarra Phone N. (+34) 948-338128
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Valencia Parroquia S. Dionisio y S. Pancracio Calle Marques de Montortal, 46 46019 Valencia Tel. (+34) 963 664 438
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Italy:
Roma Servi del Focolare della Madre V. Tito Labieno, 36. Sc. A, Int. 18 00174 Roma Phone N. (+39) 0645436123
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This defense is carried out by: - Believing what the Church has always believed and believes - Promoting Its worship and devotion - Encouraging the active and conscious participation of the faithful in the Eucharistic celebrations - Forming ourselves through study and meditation in the knowledge of this mystery - Loving It and making It loved.
2) The Defense of the Honor of Our Mother, Especially in the Privilege of Her Virginity
- Mary is the Mother, Model, and Teacher of the Servants of the Home of the Mother. - We must defend all of her privileges and titles, which have Christ as their center, in and with our life, especially her virginal integrity, guaranteed by Tradition and Scripture.
3) The Conquest of the Youth for Jesus Christ
- This is our primary, but not exclusive, apostolate. - We fundamentally direct our offerings, oblation, and prayer towards this intention. - We wish to increase their love for Christ in the Eucharist and for the Mother of God and Our Mother, so that they may grow closer to Jesus Christ, through the Church, as the source of the happiness which their hearts desire. “Lord, you have made us for you and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” (St. Augustine, Confessions)
In 1983, Holy Year of the Redemption, Fr. Rafael Alonso, founder of the Home of the Mother, felt that the time had come to begin the male branch of the Home of the Mother of the Youth, whose feminine branch had begun the year before. So, on the 27th of December, feast day of St. John the Evangelist, seven boys made their first commitments at the tomb of St. Peter, as a sign of fidelity to the Catholic Church in the person of the Pope. It was the feast day of the Evangelist who received the last gift from the Heart of Christ: His own Mother. “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother. And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.” (Jn. 19, 27-28).
Some of the members of the youth group, through prayer and spiritual direction, felt the vocation to make a total donation of their lives as priests, consecrated to the charism of the Home of the Mother.
In Fatima, on January 3rd, 1987, the founder Fr. Rafael Alonso and Félix López consecrated themselves privately to the Inmaculate Heart of Mary. This step in the heart of Fr. Félix was the moral foundation of the Servant Priests and Brothers of the Home of the Mother.
Foundation of the Servant Priests and Brothers
On the 8th of September, 1990, feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, three young men made their comittments as “Servant Brothers of the Home of the Mother” in the chapel of the Servant Sisters’ first house in Zurita (Cantabria). The first years were lived in Burgos, studying theology in the School of Theology there, beginning preparations for the priesthood, and establishing the first community.
Every weekend, they would travel to Santander to spend time with the Founder and learn more about the charism. They were years of intense joy, of unquenchable hope, of profound trust. Years lived very close to Fr. Rafael and Mamie.
Approval and First Priestly Ordinations
Desiring to receive the approval of the Church for the life we were living, we spoke with the Bishop of Cuenca, His Excellency José Guerra Campos, who paternally manifested his openess to approving our new community. Bishop Guerra Campos ordained the first priests.
In 1993, Fr. Felix Lopez was ordained a priest, the first Servant Brother to receive this grace. Fr. Juan Antonio Gomez was ordained in 1995. On the 26th of November, 1994, Bishop José Guerra Campos of Cuenca gave the decree of canonical erection of the Servant Priests and Brothers of the Home of the Mother as a Public Association of Faithful, Religious Institute in Formation.
Our Work for the Kingdom of God
For several years, we attended to parishes in towns in the Diocese of Cuenca: Alcantud, Pozuelo de la Sierra, Arandilla del Arroyo, Vindel, and Valdeolivas.
At present, we have a community in Barcenilla de Piélagos, Cantabria, Spain. The novitiate is provisionally located there until we finish the construction of the house of formation in Las Presillas, Cantabria.
For several years, we have worked with our own hands on the construction of the “Casa Hogar Carmen Maria," destined to be a house of spirituality for Members of the Home of the Mother. We have cooperated in the construction of the Novitiate of the Servant Sisters and we have also worked in the construction of our television and radio studios, as well as our printing press.
We collaborate in the translation of HM Magazine, as well as in the drawings and design of HM Zoom+ for children.
First Community Outside of Spain
In 2003, we were offered the possibility of sending a community to Ave Maria University in FL, USA. Fr. Colum Power, together with two brothers, began this first community outside of Spain.
Until the year 2006, the community of students resided in Burgos, Spain, and studied in the Theology Faculty there.
At the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year, with the permission of the Bishop of Cuenca, His Excellency Jose M. Yanguas, the house of theological formation was transferred to Rome. There, we received the recognition for a house of our Association by the Vicariate of Rome. Our students attend courses in Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. We wish to prepare ourselves intensely to serve the Church with fidelity and to give responses to the questions that trouble mankind today.
On July 7, 2007, Fr. Henry Kowalczyk and Fr. Dominic Feehan were ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Jose M. Yanguas.
On the weekends, we collaborate with the Television News Agency “H2o News”, which is supported by the Italian Episcopal Conference, recording interviews and events, so that the Gospel of Truth may reach the hearts of men through the mass media.
Our community is formed by members from six different nationalities. Our desire is to open a house in mission countries as soon as possible.
Looking at the Servant Priests and Brothers of the Home of the Mother, it is easy to comprehend the truth of these words of St. Paul: “God has chosen the poor of the world to confound the proud” (cf. 1 Cor. 27-28). We are conscious of being poor and useless instruments, but we also feel deeply loved by God, chosen by Him with a grace of special predilection. In spite of our poverty, the Lord continues to make this work of His advance, this work that is the gift that He wishes to make to His Mother.
Apostolate
Our apostolate is centered mainly, but not exclusively, on the youth. Every year, we have summer encounters for boys. Last summer we had three encounters: one in Spain in the Peaks of Europe (Cantabria) and two in the USA, in FL and CT. We also organize pilgrimages to Marian Shrines and other holy sites. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and retreats for young people and families are just some of the activites through which we carry out our priestly ministry.
During vacation times, we work on building our houses. This desire to work with our own hands is a sign of our poverty and desire to imitate Christ.
Every community carries out the apostolic work specific to the mission to which it is called. The Servant Brothers and Priests are not defined by what they do, but by who they are. Everywhere, we are called to live our consecration to God, through the Heart of Mary, living our specific missions.
About Us 
It was in this pilgrimage that I met the Home. There were three things that stood out for me: seeing young people who were happy living in a state of grace, young religious brothers who had an intense love for Our Lady and, finally, the message of Our Lady in Fatima: “Many souls are going to hell because there is no one praying and making sacrifices for them.” I was still a bit off track spiritually and did not understand some things, for example the value of prayer and sacrifice. But when I saw that the Virgin was asking us to offer prayer and penance for the salvation of souls, I was filled with a great desire to pray and without a complaint, continue going forward and from then on always respond to God’s will, as I now realized that it was best thing that I could choose. I saw that although it would not always be easy, it would always be worth the effort. I was amazed to discover the consecrated life in this trip. I was surprised to see that the Servant Brothers were so few. So, I said to myself, “If this vocation is a gift of intimacy with God and Our Mother, and it means dedicating oneself to the “one thing necessary,” which is the interior life, and if their work includes taking people on trips to Fatima and places like that… how can they be so few? There must be something about this consecrated life that I still haven’t understood.”
I didn’t feel that bad about it until, after lunch, the Brothers had us watch a video about the Home. At a certain moment in the film, a sister is seen sweeping the floor and the narrator says, “The Servant Sister does not belong to herself; she belongs to Jesus Christ.” In that moment, I understood that “something” that I had been looking for. I saw myself playing the guitar in my room, leaving the work that had been entrusted to me, without any worry at all. On the other hand, I saw how this sister in the video who was sweeping could please God doing even the littlest thing for Him, forgetting herself, letting that be her joy and her peace. Only faith and total self-denial could make the religious life possible. Here, no one could keep anything for himself…not the guitar, or the career, or the friends…nothing. And that is precisely where one reaches the intimate union with God. I was left frightened at the sight of all this.
sen among so many to be His, I saw that love is blind and that the Lord is pure mercy. He chooses the weak of the world to confuse the strong and the foolish, to show His strength.
tell him that yes I do want to be a priest? One day, of course, the question finally arrived. And I answered yes, that I wanted to be a priest. 
Valencia
1) The Defense of the Eucharist.
2) The Defense of the Honor of Our Mother, Especially in the Privilege of Her Virginity
3) The Conquest of the Youth for Jesus Christ
Some of the members of the youth group, through prayer and spiritual direction, felt the vocation to make a total donation of their lives as priests, consecrated to the charism of the Home of the Mother. 
On the 8th of September, 1990, feast of the Nativity of Our Lady, three young men made their comittments as “Servant Brothers of the Home of the Mother” in the chapel of the Servant Sisters’ first house in Zurita (Cantabria). The first years were lived in Burgos, studying theology in the School of Theology there, beginning preparations for the priesthood, and establishing the first community.
Desiring to receive the approval of the Church for the life we were living, we spoke with the Bishop of Cuenca, His Excellency José Guerra Campos, who paternally manifested his openess to approving our new community. Bishop Guerra Campos ordained the first priests.
At present, we have a community in Barcenilla de Piélagos, Cantabria, Spain. The novitiate is provisionally located there until we finish the construction of the house of formation in Las Presillas, Cantabria.
In 2003, we were offered the possibility of sending a community to Ave Maria University in FL, USA. Fr. Colum Power, together with two brothers, began this first community outside of Spain. 
Until the year 2006, the community of students resided in Burgos, Spain, and studied in the Theology Faculty there.
On July 7, 2007, Fr. Henry Kowalczyk and Fr. Dominic Feehan were ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Jose M. Yanguas.
Our apostolate is centered mainly, but not exclusively, on the youth. Every year, we have summer encounters for boys. Last summer we had three encounters: one in Spain in the Peaks of Europe (Cantabria) and two in the USA, in FL and CT. We also organize pilgrimages to Marian Shrines and other holy sites. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and retreats for young people and families are just some of the activites through which we carry out our priestly ministry. 
Every community carries out the apostolic work specific to the mission to which it is called.
