"For Him I lived, for Him I died," Fr. Leo John Dehon - the founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart.
In a midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, he was deeply touched and urged to give himself totally to God to be a priest and called to bring more people to God. This is the beginning of a dream and at the same time a long struggle, which would be not easy, because he unconsciously had to deal with the "wind" which was coming from the opposite direction. Who is he? He is Fr. Leo John Dehon, the founder of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, who was born in La Capelle, France, to Jules and Adele Belzamine Vandelet Dehon. His touching experience to become a priest unspeakable occurred when he was still studying in high school.
After graduating high school, he wanted to fulfill his dream by entering seminary in order to study for becoming a priest, but he started to get obstacle of the “wind” from his own family. Leo's family, in the person of his father, had other ambitions for the youngest son. “The Dehons were prosperous landowners whose extensive holdings included rich farmland, prized livestock, and thoroughbred race horses. The elder Dehon envisioned a career for his son in business, law or politics (various family members held public office in local government for several generations). Despite Leo’s dream of priesthood, his father insisted that he pursue a professional education that would prepare him to assume a proper role in society.”
For the sake of obedience to the direction of his father, in 1859, Leo went to Paris, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in science and then enrolled at the university to study law. He is intelligent, so legal studies came easily to him. Therefore, he made the most of his free time to experience many of the vast cultural and artistic opportunities that the city offered. He was also very active in the Church’s activities and became a member of St. Vincent de Paul Society that work to visit the poor and the elderly. He also strongly maintained his religious life, by attending daily Mass and having regular confessor and spiritual director. With all that, though he lived in the big city, but his dream to continue fighting against the “wind” to stay alive and maintained.
His father remained strong against his will and forced him to forget his dream of becoming a priest. For that, his father and brother provided a special program for him, so that he would find happiness in the other forms of life and forgot the dream, which worth for him, but for his father was a nightmare that accomplishes nothing. “The elder Dehon arranged for Leo and his college roommate to go on a nine-month tour through Greece and the Middle East. For two young men in their early 20s this proved to be the adventure of a lifetime. They were shot at by bandits as they rode horseback through the Balkan mountains; in Egypt all their clothes became infested with lice and had to be burned; they sailed on a barge down the Nile river and they rode camels across the Sinai desert, camping out in tents under stars.”
Did he discover the excitement of adventure and then forget about his dream to become a priest? Unfortunately for his father, his dream was more alive than ever. It was because in his long trip and adventure, he also found the spiritual dimension experience. “They spent two weeks in the Holy Land, where Leo was able to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and relive the great moments in the life of the Man who changed the world And returning home by way of Rome he had an audience with the pope, who affirmed him in his vocation.”
With a heavy heart, his father finally relented. In 1865, he entered the French Seminary in Rome. He was very happy and through years of formation as a "golden years." The more so because he no longer had to fight the “wind,” though still less supported. He stepped forward steadily. “He not only excelled in his theological studies but he also learned how to meditate, and this method of inferior prayer (which he kept up all his life) brought him into personal contact with the living love of the Heart of Jesus. He soon became convinced that this love should be the foundation of his life and that sharing this love with others could be the remedy for much of the disorder and misery of modern life.”
On December 19, 1968 he was ordained a priest at St. John Lateran in Rome. At the time of ordination, the climax of his struggle to fight against the strong “wind” that hit the long journey to fulfill his dreams happened. None other than, because of his family, particularly his father came to attend his son’s ordination to become a priest. In fact he had the additional joy of giving Communion to his father who had returned to the practice of faith. What a beautiful moment it was. But his ordination was not simply the fulfillment of a personal dream. “Instead, it was the beginning of a mission of helping others to know the great love that God has for each of us.”