While seminarians at St. Meinrad School of Theology study the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, three young men from the school found these virtues invigorated at Portland’s Community Catholic Center, where they volunteered for the last several months.

“I had the opportunity of seeing each virtue lived out with the people here,” said Benedictine Brother Mukasa Theodore, a monk from St. Leo Abbey in Florida who is in formation for the priesthood.

“The families, you see their whole attitude is one of hope,” he said. “Of course, love you see in Sister Barbara (Bir, director of the center) and Bridget (Burianek, assistant director) and in how we relate to each other as community.

“And in Father John Burke, I see faith,” he said of the pastor at St. Cecilia Church, where the center is located.

Community Catholic Center was formed in 2003 after the last Catholic school in West Louisville, Community Catholic School, closed. It serves 29 families, whose children attend DeSales High School and Presentation, Mercy, St. Nicholas and Notre Dame academies in Louisville and St. Anthony of Padua and St. Mary’s schools in New Albany. The center provides transportation, scholarships and support services — such as tutoring — for these students and their families.

Brother Theodore, who is from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad, volunteered at the center along with classmates Dong Uk Kang, in formation for diocesan priesthood in South Korea, and Dennis Makokha, a native of Kenya who is in formation with the Glenmary Home Missioners in the United States. Their curriculum requires that they do a semester of supervised social ministry.

They said they chose the assignment at Community Catholic Center because they wanted to learn how a grassroots organization develops and functions. And they wanted to make a palpable difference in a person’s life.

According to Bridget Burianek, assistant director, they have offered the center a great deal.

“For the kids, it’s opened their eyes to the whole world to have men of faith who look like they do come in and talk to them,” she said.

“They are very dynamic men. One night at our meeting with families, Brother Mukasa (Theodore) prayed with us, and it was beautiful,” said Burianek. “They shared with us who they are so openly. They’ve been a tremendous asset.”

In addition to tutoring, the seminarians also have attended meetings with the center’s families and discussions about poverty and social needs in Portland. They also went around the neighborhood knocking on doors to tell people about the center.

Makokha said he chose the assignment primarily “to be an influence with these kids because they are coming from families that are suffering with so many issues.”

“It’s been good for me to be with these families,” he said. “Working with the kids is so great. They refresh my mind.”

Uk Kang said he has done similar work with young people in South Korea. But in Portland, he learns as much from the children he tutors as they do from him, as he is still learning English, he said.

He noted the experience has mostly been an education in how to run a small and still developing social service organization, he said. He is likely to need those skills in South Korea, he noted. Brother Theodore said that’s one of the reasons he took the assignment, too.

“I didn’t want to work at a long-established organization,” he said. “I had just read Dr. (Martin Luther) King’s last speech. In there, he spoke about relevant ministry.”

In those days, he said, “They had a sense of community that was grassroots — putting something together,” he said. “I felt I could be a part of Community Catholic Center becoming what it is.”

But, he noted, he got much more out of the experience.

“I remember the first time after I tutored, I cried. I have a large family (in Trinidad), and I missed them terribly,” said Brother Theodore.

Noting that he’s not usually given to such emotion, Brother Theodore said the experience at Community Catholic made him feel better about his family.

“I felt connected to a whole circle of love that’s connected to all parts of the world,” he said. He felt that if he worked with children in Kentucky, someone may do the same for his family in Trinidad.

He looked and sounded like a coach during a tutoring session last week with Jon Edds, an eighth-grader at St. Anthony.

“Hey man, an 89?” said Brother Theodore noting a grade on one of Edds’ assignments. “That’s so close to 90. You can get an A next time.”

Edds said he likes the encouragement.

“It gets me ‘in the zone’ working,” he noted. Brother Theodore “has really helped me because he tells me if I’m doing something right or wrong. And then he helps me with it. He’s not just telling me what’s wrong.”