Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, MC, has been Mother Teresa’s driver, her bodyguard, and finally her postulator. Next month he’ll be in Vancouver to share his stories on the life and legacy of St. Teresa of Calcutta.
Father Kolodiejchuk, the Winnipeg-born postulator for Mother Teresa’s canonization cause, will visit Victoria, Vancouver, and Kelowna Jan. 14-16, offering insights on her role as his spiritual mother.
“Mother Teresa is a saint not just to be admired, but to be imitated,” Father Kolodiejchuk told The B.C. Catholic in an interview.
She taught the world: “It’s not the things we do, but the love with which we do them, that gives them value.”
Father Kolodiejchuk actually owes his vocation to Mother Teresa. He was 21 years old and visiting Rome when the two met at Mass and she suddenly invited him to join the Missionaries of Charity. Two years later, after he got over the shock, he returned to Rome to do just that.
“It was a life-defining moment. It changed everything.”
Father Kolodiejchuk became the first man to join the Missionaries of Charity Fathers, and he also served as Mother Teresa’s driver. From buying her a burger at Carl’s Jr., to acting as a bodyguard when crowds were pressing to touch her, he got to know her as a mother, rather than a celebrity.
Two years after her death, he began 17 years of investigation into her life as postulator for her cause. She was declared a saint Sept. 4.
Bishop Ken Nowakowski of the Eparchy of New Westminster is excited about bringing Father Kolodiejchuk to B.C.
“St. Mother Teresa is for all of us,” said the eparch of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in B.C. “Her message of love and charity is relevant for us today, here and now.”
Mother Teresa also influenced Bishop Nowakowski’s vocation.
“I can remember when I first started thinking of the priesthood, I thought of her and her service to the church,” he said. “If you talk to people who were looking at their vocations in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, she probably was an inspiration to many men and women who entered into religious life.”
His church has also composed a short moleben, a prayer service, dedicated to Mother Teresa. Complete with song, Gospel reading, intercessory prayers and a blessing, the short prayer service will be held for the first time during Father Kolodiejchuk’s visit.
The prayers will ask for “the intercession of St. Mother Teresa in our personal lives and in the needs of our community,” Bishop Nowakowski said. Mother Teresa is a “globally recognizable person and a symbol” of reaching out to those who are suffering.
Father Kolodiejchuk’s B.C. tour will begin in Victoria Jan. 14. He will speak in Vancouver Jan. 15 and in Kelowna Jan. 16.
The bishop said the events are an “opportunity to learn more about Mother Teresa and be together in prayer,” as well as to “think of ways that we can be compassionate and what we can be doing in our own neighbourhood as well.”
Tickets are $50. More information is available at www.nweparchy.ca.
