“For me, it’s: ‘How the Cross has transformed my life’. As the senior member of the Province, I can still remember vividly the auto accident that took the father and bread-winner of the family from our midst. At the ripe age of 10, I was the ostensible heir of my dad’s saloon business. But dad’s death plunged the family into what became abject poverty. In that first year I knew some five different residences!

The last was the German St. Vincent Orphan Home where the Passionists were chaplains. I was already concerned that my prayers might be a help to my dad who was some 14 years “out of the Church” at the time of his death.

It was simple to channel my prayers into the Way of the Cross and the Heart of the Crucified as directed by Passionists. It seemed normal to move to the Passionist Preparatory Seminary after my 8th grade. There I had six years to grow beneath the cross - that lesson was well taught along with Latin, Greek, French, Math and English. Seventy years ago I ratified that lifestyle by taking my vows as a Passionist. In 1944 the Priesthood was added and now the Cross was mine to share!”

Fr. Fred Sucher, CP, 3.26.08


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