 Rev. Br. Augustine Hilander,
OP
I am a student brother working on a degree in Divinity
and a degree in Theology. Recently I was ordained a deacon, and I will be ordained a priest 2008,
God willing. I have spent most of my life in school, but also I hold dear all the education I
received outside of school. I was born in 1977 and
grew up in a secular home. My parents divorced when I was ten, and I grew up with my mother the
rest of my life. I went to a Catholic high school because it was the best high school in the
area. I then went to a Catholic college, because it had the type of curriculum I was interested
in -- a Great Books college with the Socratic method of teaching. In college, I discovered the
faith which animated people to welcome me and teach me what they knew. I wanted to be a person
like that so I went to instruction with a Jesuit chaplain. I converted to the Catholic faith in
Easter of 1997. This was the most important day of my life, reception into the Church. During
first communion I asked God what he planned for my life and I have never stopped asking. During
the next few years of college, I started preparing for what God had planned for my life. I never
ruled out marriage or the single life as I discerned a vocation. With a Dominican chaplain, Fr.
Bart de la Torre, I visited
St.
Albert’s, and I found the joy and love of a life lived for God and for the world overwhelming.
Now as I look back on my life, I see that it was not only my
education that formed my decision. God worked through my parents who encouraged me to take on
anything I wanted. He worked through my friends who were such great examples of a Christian life
lived for God and in the world. He worked through all the experiences of life that made me a
little more compassionate, a little more humble, a little more loving.
I look forward to a life where I will speak
“to God or of God,” as was said of St. Dominic. Formation in a way of life has its ups and downs,
but I hope that I can weather everything to make me a better preacher, a preacher open to God and
offering the world hope, only the hope that comes from Christ.
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