Personal relationship with Christ fuels Rutgers graduate’s vocation

Life as a religious was not something Brother Ray Morris imagined for himself while growing up. In fact, when he chose to attend Rutgers University, the Catholic Center on campus and the Brothers of Hope who minister there were nowhere on his radar.

“I was not thinking at all that I would get involved in my faith,” he said.

Brother Ray grew up in Long Branch and while his family was culturally Catholic, they did not attend Mass, not even on Christmas or Easter, although his mother made sure he was baptized and confirmed, he said.

He attended the public schools in Long Branch, and chose to attend Rutgers University to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science.

As a sophomore at Rutgers, Brother Ray saw an advertisement for a job at the Catholic Center. He applied and began working at the front desk. Through this job, he started to get to know the Brothers of Hope, who he described as “normal, down-to-earth guys.”

“The brothers would do anything to help spread the Gospel to somebody,” Brother Ray said. “They needed someone to work the desk, and they were hoping it would be somebody who could really encounter the Lord there, which is exactly what happened.”

After working there for about a year, Brother Ray said he felt dissatisfied with his lifestyle, and decided to try attending Mass at the Catholic Center. He felt a “sense of profound peace” afterwards.

By the spring semester, he was a regular attendee at Mass and decided to go on a men’s retreat the Brothers were running. He described that retreat as the moment in his life when he first developed a personal relationship with Jesus.

“My faith really started to come alive for the first time in my life,” Brother Ray said. “I started to experience the fruits of the Holy Spirit, you know — peace, joy, love — and I realized that life with Christ was better than life without.”

As graduation approached in 2012, Brother Ray thought about taking a “gap year” to work with the Peace Corp or another organization. The Brothers of Hope invited him to work for them as a missionary and serve the “spiritual poor.”

He accepted and began working as a campus minister at Florida State University, Tallahassee, where he lived with the Brothers.

For the first time, he experienced “their life of prayer, family life together, and their mission in a really personal, intimate way, and I started to wonder, ‘Is this the life for me?’

“What really drew and captured my heart is the charism of the Brotherhood … the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ, which means that Jesus is able to satisfy the deepest wants, needs, and desires of the human heart. As I began to grow with the Brothers, I saw that there was a secret fire that they all had, that motivated them, and I began to experience what that fire was. It was a personal relationship with Jesus, and it satisfied the deepest desires of my heart.”

After six months as a candidate and one year as a novice, he made his first temporary vows as a Brother of Hope in 2015. He renewed his one-year vows for five consecutive years, and made his permanent vows Jan. 2 at the Church of the Annunciation in Orlando, Fla., woth Brother Logan Murray.

Brother Ray is currently the outreach director at Florida State, where he oversees and coordinates the Brothers’ efforts to reach out to students and invite them to grow in their faith.

Brother Ray described his efforts to reach out to people “who are just like I was, who are lost,” and help them grow closer to God. He frequently meets students for lunch, coffee, or to go for a run, and hopes that in getting to know him, they will be pointed toward Christ.

Although living in Florida, far from his family in New Jersey, is a challenge, he loves life as a Brother of Hope.

“Discipleship with Christ is the greatest adventure,” he said. “I have no idea what the Lord has in store for the next 50, 60 years, but I know who I’m doing it with.”