“It’s a Gift”: Fr. George Hanna on Consecrated Life

By Jesse Hilario, Salesian Lay Missioner (SLM)

Question: As you celebrate 60 years of priesthood, what does consecrated life mean to you?

Fr. George Hanna, SDB: Consecrated life means everything to me. I've grown in my understanding of what consecrated life means and, as time goes by, trying to live that life faithfully. I think I understand it much more deeply now than I did at the beginning; something like this takes time to penetrate a thick head.

You learn to appreciate what consecrated life does for you. You grow in your understanding of community life and how to work together to bring about the good, especially for kids. As you do these things, you find it's just like performing the corporal works of mercy; you grow as a result of doing them. When you look at it from the perspective of 60 years of being a priest and 70 years as a Salesian, you could never in the beginning [or at first profession] understand the grace God gives you along the way, whether it's through adversity or the work that's placed before you. You grow, and then you learn to understand what it means to be someone who belongs to Christ as a consecrated religious.

But that's a very gradual growth. And I have a great feeling of fulfillment. It is God who has called me to do this. I didn't choose it. It is He who wanted me to do the work I did over all those years.

Helping people along the way has helped me grow. I understand now more about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. He says, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow in my footsteps.” And now I know what it means. Sometimes you have no choice — you just have to keep going. You have to work under the worst circumstances and keep going until you finish. But at the end of the day, you think about it, and you say, “Yes, this is good — this is what I never realized I could do and be.”

It's a gift. Consecrated life is a gift.

I was ordained in 1966. My vocation and my life as a Salesian are happy most of the time, not always. But the main thing is growing in knowing God and loving Him. You become a Salesian to become holy and to help kids become holy. You can't help them become holy unless you become holy yourself and have had an experience with God. Consecrated life has to be a relationship between you and God. I think that would characterize a Salesian: someone who has learned to have a relationship with God and continually grows — especially spiritually — under all circumstances, good and bad. It's a beautiful life.

For me, consecrated life is a gradual growth. It's a wonderful thing. I'm 92. I can honestly say: At my age, looking back and seeing where I was, God has done great things. It's not me, it's Him — I don't deserve anything. That's just the truth of it, you know. God is so good. That's my experience.