Laboure Society
“The various challenges that I had endured in life I now saw as resilience and wisdom, rather than resignation or resentment. I grew in the desire to give myself completely to God.”
Meet the rest of my class
My name is Michael Horka. I am called to attend simply and directly to spiritual and other basic human needs as a friar with the Capuchin Franciscans of the Province of St. Joseph. This is my story.
I was born into a practicing Catholic family in suburban Detroit where I regularly attended Mass, was an altar server, and occasionally participated in church youth activities. I was also interested in recycling and protecting God’s creation as a youth. My aunt was a Dominican nun and my mother worked as a parish administrator.
In my early 20s, an evangelical co-worker helped awaken an adult faith in me, through a deepened relationship with Jesus in prayer. I finished my undergraduate degree in marketing and interned at a nonprofit that worked with the poor. This experience stirred in me a powerful sense that God is intimately close to those experiencing poverty.
My first job was serving at a parish to better connect the existing community and reach beyond the parish walls. Additional responsibilities also grew in pastoral ministry. In time, I found myself looking for change, and worked in sales and marketing for a few companies. I then pursued a Ph.D. in American Studies. Yet I felt something lacking in my life. Like so many Catholics, I was frustrated by the scandals the Church faced, and the polarized political environment that festered among the faithful. My relationship with the Church felt strained.
Pope Francis’s visit to Washington, D.C., which occurred while I was a graduate student there, helped rekindle my faith. The smiling Francis, his welcoming spirit, and his clarion call to renew our commitment to the poor and the environment awakened something in me. The publication of Laudato Si greatly influenced my studies and academic work.
Feeling a growing connection with God, I undertook the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. During a year of daily prayer, reflection, and spiritual direction, I was being transformed. My harder edges were softening. I was feeling called to something more. As a professor, now in Ohio, I found myself daydreaming about giving homilies instead of lectures, and saw teaching and my relationships with students as akin to ministry. The various challenges that I had endured in life I now saw as resilience and wisdom, rather than resignation or resentment. I grew in the desire to give myself completely to God.
In 2022, I began to feel a strong call and a persistent excitement to pursue ministry, so much so that I could not sleep. This was unusual for me because I can always sleep. I felt a sense of peace while discerning a call to the Capuchin Franciscans. The order’s priorities are things about which I care deeply: community, prayer, the environment, and serving the poor.
I feel that all my life’s experiences have led me to this order and this vocation. Direct aid to the poor is at the core of my passions. God has given me the desire to help people facing issues of environmental injustice and food insecurity. Walking with people on their spiritual journeys, whether as a priest or brother, as a pastor or spiritual director, would be a great honor.
Please pray for me and for my fellow Labouré classmates on our vocation journeys.
Feel free to reach out with any questions you might have at: MichaelHorka@rescuevocations.org.
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