In the spirit of the International Family, we dedicate the first Thursday of each month to “prayer for vocations.” This March, we will hear the testimony of Ignacio Suazo, a member of the Secular Institute of the Brothers of Mary of Schoenstatt.
He is Chilean and has been part of the community for three years.
The Brothers of Mary form a community of consecrated lay people who wish to serve society through the various professions they practice, such as engineering, education, art, and law. They always carry the mark of the Covenant of Love in their being and in their actions, in the image of Christ, formed by Mary.
Learn more about Ignacio’s discernment process and remember to pray for our vocations:
I can’t say when I first heard about the Brothers of Mary. I remember participating, at the age of 17 or 18, in a talk about Mario Hiriart, given by Pedro M. Dillinger. I don’t remember what was said there, but I do remember returning home, filled with deep emotion and dreams and plans. Certainly, I never associated any of this with a call to the community. That would come much later.
A conscious step was taken, on the other hand, in 2005 with World Youth Day in Cologne. I was in my final year of high school, and although I saw the possibility of going to university, I didn’t know what to study. A novena that I found “by chance” about Sister M. Emilie Engel led me to ask her to help me overcome my fear of uncertainty and to make a free decision. And she—faithful as she is—did her part: in a very special prayer in the Original Shrine, I understood that my passion for the world of politics was a gift and a task. And with the inspiration of the Blessed Mother, I decided to study sociology so that one day I could work for my country in public service.
God needs lay people who aspire to holiness
That experience was, in the long run, decisive: during my time at university, God allowed me to understand and love in a very privileged way the family founded by our Father Joseph Kentenich. I thought very seriously about joining the Schoenstatt Fathers because of this. But this gift that the Blessed Mother and Sister M. Emilie gave me became a certainty over time: God needs lay people who aspire to holiness with the same seriousness as a priest. And, certainly, he also needs them in the public sphere.
The next step was to get to know Mario Hiriart seriously. The woman who was then the postulator of his cause for canonization gave me, after a visit to her home, the book “Biography in Body and Soul” by Isabel González. Mario put into words and order many of the intuitions I had at the time. At the same time, I identified with many of the problems he had: the difficulty of finding time to pray and write, the helplessness of wanting to do more for Schoenstatt or for others but not being able to, the tension of whether or not to take on a new apostolate, and a long list of other things.
I remember one night when I closed the book and said aloud, “If this man became a saint like this, then I can too.”
“I broke up with my girlfriend and decided to turn my life around…”
At 30, I realized I had to change something. I broke up with my girlfriend at the time (an extraordinary woman) and decided to turn my life around… or rather, God did. A few weeks after ending that relationship, I met Jaime, a friend from college who had found God living in La Bandera, a town south of Santiago, in a simple wooden house. I went to live with him and stayed there for six years. In that place, over the years, I was able to give a name to my vocation. Layman? Yes, but seeking to give my heart undividedly to God.
I was immensely happy in La Bandera and could have stayed there for the rest of my life. But in conversation with my spiritual director, the question arose: if you seem to have the calling and the qualities, why not live that vocation in Schoenstatt? During all this time, I had remained active in the Movement: it had been, and remained, my first great love. I then decided, like Thérèse of Lisieux, to say “I want it all.” No, first of all, not my political or social projects. Nor my tastes or preferences. All of that is fine, but it is Mary who must show what, how, and when. And if, at 35, I were accepted into the community of the Brothers of Mary, the answer would be clear: that is the path God wants you to follow.
Three years have passed since that moment, and I can only thank our Mother for the gift of belonging to this community. The path has been strewn with doubts, challenges, and uncertainties (could it be any other way?), but she has guided my steps with a kind and steady hand.
