Missionaries for Sri Lanka

Kasun empfängt seine Heilige Erstkommunion.

Kasun receives his First Holy Communion.

"A priest. I want to become a priest!"

…proclaimed seven-year-old second-grader Kasun to his classmates when the question of career aspirations came up at school. Born in 1997 in Panadura, Kasun grew up with his two brothers in his devout family. The family's economic situation required several moves as well as his mother working. His deeply devout grandmother took care of the children, and her shining example helped ensure that her grandchildren's religious upbringing fell on fertile ground: from early childhood, Kasun longed to receive his First Holy Communion, because he wanted to finally be allowed to become an altar server. When he was permitted to serve at the altar for the first time, a day after his First Communion, he was overjoyed. A full year before reaching the minimum age of 13, he was admitted to the minor seminary. One of his brothers is a seminarian with the Benedictines.

His bishop recognized and encouraged Kasun's special talents early on. He asked him to leave the seminary for a while in order to further his education at two other institutions. Kasun followed this request, took IT courses, acquired basic economic knowledge, and learned academic English. He then continued his philosophical and theological studies.

Languages as a path forward

When the bishop asked him to learn Tamil in the north of the country, Kasun once again changed his place of residence and learned this demanding language—whose alphabet consists of 247 letters!—within a very short time. And since he had already acquired knowledge of Latin, he also found it easy to learn European languages; this, too, was something his bishop had wished for him. For in doing so, he was preparing him for the next journey: Kasun was to complete his formation at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Here, Kasun is currently studying theology in his first year.

Kasun bei seiner Einführung in das Diakonat und Priestertum.

Kasun at his institution to the diaconate and priesthood.

God's loving providence

Kasun experiences living and exchanging ideas with seminarians from other countries as a blessing that broadens his horizons and his view of people, their thoughts, the world, and the most diverse cultures. In his intensive formation, Kasun gratefully recognizes the loving providence of God, who is preparing him for his future mission in the Church. Kasun, who already knows every seminary in Sri Lanka, believes and hopes that he will later be able to pass on his education as a formator to seminarians in his homeland. Every day he prays that God will form him into the priest whom He Himself wishes to employ for the building up of His Church.

We ask you most sincerely:

Kasuns Stimme erklingt nicht nur durch den Erwerb der vielen Fremdsprachen.

Kasun's voice is heard not only through his mastery of many foreign languages.

Accompany Kasun's vocation and formation with your prayers, and if possible, help with your generous donation, so that scholarship holders like him may one day go on to train missionary priests well on site and build up the Church!