Pastor Rev.. Fr. Levelt Germain

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#006633" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="0c9d6c00ddvuru.jpg"> <div> <IMG SRC="b38b51d0.jpg" border=0 width="181" height="285" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#0066FF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Our Lady of Grace</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#333399" FACE="Arial" >    </FONT> |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Our Lady of Grace"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <B>Pastor  Rev.. Fr.  Levelt Germain</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rev. Fr. Felix Gonzalez "><U>Rev. Fr. Felix Gonzalez </U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id205.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rev. Charles Udokang "><U>Rev. Charles Udokang  </U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id217.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Rev. Fr. Cyprien Emile"><U>Rev. Fr. 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Levelt Germain           <IMG SRC="c8932420.gif" border=0 width="50" height="66" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Palatino Linotype" ><A HREF="mailto: fr.germain@olgbronx.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto: fr.germain@olgbronx.com"><U><I>fr.germain@olgbronx.com</I></U></A></FONT></div> <div> When questions about vocation arose, he found the answers in prayer Growing up in his native Haiti, Father Levelt Germain felt drawn to priesthood and found a lot of support among devout relatives and friends. Later, as a college student in New York City, he encountered different values‹and some challenges from friends.  "That's when I asked myself a lot of questions," he said.</div> <div> Father Germain, 32, was born in Port-au-Prince, the son of Nelly and Leroy Germain. His mother lives in the Bronx; his father lives in Haiti and visits the family on vacations. At age 6 he accompanied his grandmother, Brune Paul, to daily Mass.</div> <div> "It became a habit for me," he said. "It influenced me so much that if anyone asked me, 'What would you like to be when you grow up?' I would say, 'A priest,' without knowing what it entailed."  His mother came to the United States in 1979 to help support the family. Gradually, she brought her six children here from Haiti; Father Germain was a high school student when he came to New York in 1987. The family lived in Manhattan and belonged to Holy Name of Jesus parish. Father Germain recalled that Father Joseph Darbouze, a parochial vicar and now pastor of St. Gregory the Great parish in Manhattan, helped him to become active in the parish as a lector and with the youth group.  After finishing high school he enrolled at City College of the City University of New York, where he earned a degree in philosophy. He found himself in an environment far different from the strongly Catholic culture in which he had grown up. Now he was challenged by secular ways of thinking‹"What the world considers a success," he said. He began to ask himself, "Is this really what God is calling me to? Do I have what it takes to become a priest? How do I respond to the different standard that I'm being exposed to?"  He found the answers.  "Through intense moments of prayer, it became clear to me that, indeed, this is what God is calling me to," he said. "The response was a matter of opening my heart to God's call." His family is very happy about his vocation, but some of his college friends asked him, "Why?"  "The answer is very simple," Father Germain said. "For everyone, there's something that makes them happy...For myself, what I call happiness and success is being a priest. Mother Teresa used to say, 'We are not called to be successful, but we are called to be faithful.' My way of being faithful is to respond to God's call to be his priest." One of his main models of priesthood, he added, is Pope John Paul II.  He studied at St. John Neumann Seminary Residence before entering St. Joseph's Seminary. He served on the seminary retreat team, visited patients at St. Agnes Hospital in White Plains and Providence Rest in the Bronx and taught in the religious education program at Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Elmsford, where he urged students to "maintain a life of prayer."</div> <div> "I explained that prayer is a heart-to-heart conversation with God," he said. "In the silence of your heart you can hear God talking to you."</div> <div> He served summer assignments at St. Philip Neri in the Bronx and Sacred Heart of Jesus in Manhattan.</div> <div> Father Germain also remarked that his experience as an immigrant and his struggle to adapt to a new language and culture make him more sensitive to the plight of immigrants today.  "Now it is my obligation to help others who come and make it easier for them," he said.</div> <div> He especially looks forward to celebrating Mass.  "To actually say, 'This is my Body, this is my Blood'‹I'm still in a state of awe," he said. "It's a blessing and a gift, undeserved, of course."</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>