I carry all the Volunteers of God in my heart; I love your mission: "To live the love of Christ everywhere in the present moment".
You live this mission fully. Love is important in a broken world. Jesus calls us to embody his love because the love of God can transform the world.
Rév. Gerald Michaud

Humanity's loud cry is not war, famine, etc., it is the lack of love. Everyone everywhere needs love, whether in prison, in retirement homes, etc. Therein lies the strength of the Volunteer of God teams because it is love that reigns there. Alone it’s more difficult, but, together, everything becomes extraordinary.

In all situations, God calls us to embody the love of the Father and that is what Volunteers do. Let’s go back in time and remember how we encountered the love of God.

• "I was in a very difficult situation. I was involved in many activities, unable to say no and I was very tired. Going to the hospital to meet a patient, I enter the wrong room and come across a grieving family. God sent me to this room to comfort them ... "

God needs our hands, our eyes, ... to realize this beautiful project of love.

• “One day, upon entering a community center, I see a statue of a woman holding her child above her head. My first impression was that it was Mary and Jesus. But that statue actually represented any mother and her child and that's when I realized that this child was me. God raises me up through my baptism and tells me: You are my beloved son and I love you, you are my child. "

God takes us in our littleness and lifts us up with the princes; he gives us our dignity.

Love is the heart of our mission. We must realize that God loves us and that we must trust him because the Volunteers have said "yes" to God and He is in all our gestures of tenderness and love. He brings love into our daily lives. The heart of our spirituality is the five attitudes of life.

The young people of today with their tattoos, their multi-colored hair-styles tell us: "Hey! I'm here ...!!" Many elderly people are bored; they need to know that someone is thinking of them.

That is how we can be missionaries everywhere. God takes us where there is a need. Sometimes we don't think we are up to the task, but God knows we are; He knows our abilities, our qualities, ... He sends us with what we have.

The Kingdom of God is the kingdom of love. Every time I make a gesture of love, I participate in building the Kingdom. Our small gestures have extraordinary power.

Father Parent taught us not to criticize, not to crush the gifts of others. Criticism kills life; it prevents the flourishing and fulfilment of ones-self. The absence of a complaint means that God is there with us and that we must see the positive in all events because God is active in each of us:
• "I am a chaplain in a prison and I realize that I too could have been incarcerated here if I hadn't had love in my life."

The prison is an environment of great suffering but prisoners are children of God. They are screaming to us that they need love. The path of love is a path of growth.

The greatest suffering can turn into a path of Life, of Resurrection. Some situations are not easy, but we are called to grow, to become transparent with the love of God.

If we accept to suffer, we will see other miracles happen. By embracing the reality of what is happening, we allow God to do His work.

In the Eucharist we remember the presence of God. We can meet God in others because God is at work there. He wants us to take the path of love.

Father Gérald Michaud, I.V.D.

(Extracts from a conference to the Volunteers of God at the Basilica.)