Training and Formation

Alan Neville during his missionary placement in Venezuela

Becoming a Missionary of the Sacred Heart doesn’t happen over night. Plenty of time and help is given to preparing us for a way of life that is certainly not ordinary!

People interested in exploring if this way is for them usually journey with us for a time of Accompaniment. This is an opportunity to carefully and prayerfully get more of a sense of what we are about and come to know yourself better.

If a person decides to join us he is helped along the many steps of prayer, study, reflection, living and working in our pastoral and missionary settings and sharing our way of life to try it out for size. All this happens before any commitment is made.

The Vocation story of an MSC pre-novice

Michael O'Rourke

Hello, my name is Michael O’Rourke. I am 25 years old, from Liverpool, and currently in pre-noviciate formation for the priesthood with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart.

Since February 2009 I have been living in the MSC community at the parish of SS Alban & Stephen in St Alban’s, Hertfordshire (England) while also studying at Heythrop College in Kensington which is the theology college of the University of London.

The journey of my life so far, a journey that has brought me to exploring my vocation with the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, has been one of many twists and turns. It has been one of trying to respond to the whispers of God's voice speaking through the people and events of my life story.

Read more about me and what has brought me into formation with the MSC here.

Recently I was interviewed by the BBC for their local news service in Hertfordshire. You can read the interview on the BBC site here and also listen to some of the audio tape of the interview. You can read a transcript of the interview in PDF format here.