By Bob Carrejo
This is the third in a series of profiles of Christian Brothers for National Vocations Awareness Week, Nov. 2-8, 2025. This interview has been edited for length.
Born in Colombia, Brother Juan Manuel Hernandez, FSC, is a member of the District of Bogota. He currently is studying for his master’s degree at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, where he also works in vocation ministry. He is involved with the Instituto Fe y Vida student summer program. In this interview, Brother Juan Manuel shares his thoughts on his vocation and experiences as a young Brother, as well as his observations on living the Lasallian life in contemporary culture.
What is your definition of vocation?
For me, vocation is about what is God’s plan in your life and how do you follow this plan. How do you discover this mission that God has for you in your life?
Saint John Baptist de La Salle described his vocation journey as God leading him “in an imperceptible way and over a long period of time so that one commitment led to another in a way that (he) did not foresee in the beginning.” Tell me a little bit about your vocational journey, and whether any of your experiences were like the Founder’s.
I’m originally from Colombia. My senior year in high school, some Brothers came to speak about vocations. A friend of mine wanted to be a Brother and I came along with him just because he was my friend. The president of my school was a Brother and because I respected him, I thought, OK, maybe I should try. After that, I started to love this vocation and discovered that I really wanted to be a Brother. I didn’t expect that. I had different plans in my life; I wanted to be a lawyer. But then I applied to the Brothers, and that was 13 years ago.
How would you describe what you have found to be the gifts and the challenges of living in community.
Your community becomes almost like your family. I lived with young Brothers in Colombia and now I’m living with older Brothers in the U.S. The common characteristic has been fraternity. The Brothers here in Winona didn’t know me before I arrived, but since the first day have always welcomed me. I feel comfortable with them, and they are always attentive to whatever I need. At the same time, community is not just having your needs met but also offering your talents. For example, I play guitar. I play music for our Mass. It’s an experience of trying to be the goodness of the Gospel, to love everyone as Jesus did. This is our first step and our testimony to the world that fraternity is possible.
What does it mean to you to have a prayer life? Describe what it looks like and feels like to you?
First, what is very important is the community prayer that we have every day. During community prayer we connect with the realities of our students, teachers and staff. We always accompany them, especially in prayer. Then, there is my personal prayer. This is very important to me – how to cultivate my spirituality in my personal prayer. I’m trying to find, in my daily routine, time to keep quiet. Usually, I go to the Gospel to read and reflect.
What do you think are the most valuable and important things that Lasallian education brings to our society?
One element is that people need spiritual and human accompaniment – someone to listen to them, to guide them to Jesus, to God. In Lasallian education, one of the first priorities is interacting with people well. For some people, education is just about rankings or tests, and you are defined by things like that. So, our human and Christian education is very necessary for fostering personal and community accompaniment. And it’s working together and accompanying people as a community, not just as Juan Manuel. Here at Saint Mary’s, one of our Brothers invites every sports team for dinner. They experience everyone in the community serving them and we interact with them, which is how, as a community, we connect with them. Another element is, two weeks ago I attended an event about catechesis and a Brother said that we need to provide quality education to people in poverty, otherwise we are allowing poverty in our society to continue. Our providing the poor with quality education means that we can both help them to overcome their poverty and make a better world.
You spoke about the importance of accompanying students and the young. How do you think this applies to the Brothers accompanying their Partners?
I remember a quote from (former Superior General) Brother Álvaro, that we are the heart of our charism. We need to keep the charism alive with our Partners, and I think this is one of our crucial ministries now. We offer our lives to God by serving as Brothers; how do we share this experience with Partners? It’s a horizontal accompaniment. Brothers offer our consecrated lives, but Partners also offer much: their love for Jesus, their love for the De La Salle, their passion for the mission. They have so many things to share with us, lots of richness, so how can we work together to keep the charism alive? Association means that we work together, Brothers and Partners.
Your journey as a Brother has brought you from Latin America to the United States. What have you found interesting or challenging about what it’s like to live the Lasallian life in the U.S. culture, as compared to other cultures you’ve known.
A challenge is how to continue to tell the story. People who know and can keep telling the story are, for me, a key to how our institutions and our people will keep being Lasallian. Another challenge is how to understand and work with poverty in the U.S. We were founded to work with people in poverty. … So, how we keep alive the vision of working with them and being in solidarity with them is important.
As you look back on your last 13 years as Brother, what are the things that bring you the greatest joy?
Taking care of people is my most important and joyful experience in being a Brother. You can run projects and teach classes, but the end is about what you can do to help people to be better. And what do you offer to the other person? This is most important for me – that I really can love people and support them in difficult moments. These personal connections are my most joyful moments.