THE STORY OF A VOCATION TO DEDICATED CHURCH
SERVICE
FatherJohn Henry (Edward) Hanson, O.Praem.
Without recounting my vocation story in its
entirety, I would like to mention the role which Our Lady of Refuge
played in its realization.
I met Father Al Scott at a very pivotal
time in my discernment process. It
was through his direction and friendship that I experienced in my life a
re-awakening of the call I had heard from my earliest years – a call
to follow Christ and to participate in His holy priesthood. 
Father Scott prepared me to accept this
call by enlisting me in all sorts of charitable works which he is
accustomed to organize in and around the parish.
Principal among these was the volunteer service we offered to the
Missionaries of Charity in Lynwood and the visits we paid to several
convalescent homes in the area.
But most of all, I am grateful to Father
Scott for encouraging me – by word and example – to keep watch with
Christ daily in the Eucharistic Holy Hour.
He not only recommended this important practice to me, but loaned
me several tape series of Bishop Fulton Sheen, that apostle of the Holy
Hour, which confirmed the necessity of the devotion for me and finally
persuaded me to undertake it. And
like all priests and religious, I suppose, it was before the Blessed
Sacrament that I found my vocation.
At present (2002) I am seven years at St.
Michael’s Abbey, having made my “simple” profession of vows, and I
am preparing to begin my third year of theology at the Angelicum in
Rome.
Thanks be to God for my vocation and to
Our Lady who has ever been my Refuge, my joy and the love of my heart
– having taken me to herself and then brought me to a sweet encounter
with her Divine Son.
I heartily thank the OLR parish – her
good priests and devout
people – for mediating these vocational graces to me.
2008 Addendum:
Father John Henry was ordained to the priesthood. He is now
serving at St. Michael's Abbey in Silverado, California.
THE STORY OF OUR
PARISH
