Our life

The Brotherhood of Hope is a community of Catholic Brothers—we live together, pray together and serve together, under the inspiration of our founding charism that Jesus Christ is All-Sufficient.

What we do

Our primary mission is evangelization on secular college campuses. We are blazing the way for this generation to renew the Church. We represent the Catholic Church on five campuses across the U.S.: Northeastern University, Rutgers University, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida and the University of Minnesota.

We are responding to the Church’s call to share the Good News with the spiritually poor. 

Our charism

Our charism, the All-Sufficiency of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 12:9), informs every aspect of our life together: Jesus alone is enough for us. We live as celibate brothers, because we believe that our consecration to Jesus is enough to fulfill our deepest desires.

Likewise, we are Brother-evangelists because Christ alone can satisfy the lost. The anchor of hope (Hebrews 6:19) is our symbol because only He can give lasting hope to modern man.

Real fraternity

Our life centers around committing ourselves to the Lord in the context of a brotherly common life. 

• We live together: we share our meals, our chores, our recreation and our very belongings. 
• We work together: insofar as possible, our households serve in one, unified apostolate of campus ministry. 
• And we pray together: our prayer life is centered around the Eucharist and the Church’s liturgy, as well as charismatic praise and the celebration of the Lord's Day.

The charity, unity and loyalty we have in the Brotherhood of Hope is rarely seen amongst a group of men. Almost every day of my life with the brothers, a brother will share something from his day that inspires me to be more Christ-like, and to be more generous in offering my life for the good of others.

Our Call

The Lord Jesus has entrusted to our Brotherhood, as our primary mission, the work of the New Evangelization. Since the Second Vatican Council, our Holy Fathers have summoned Catholics to re-present the Good News to a world that has forgotten it—the "New Evangelization."

The new evangelization in which the whole continent is engaged means that faith cannot be taken for granted, but must be explicitly proposed in all its breadth and richness.

—St. John Paul II, Ecclesia in America, no. 69

Our Response

Since our founding, the Lord has called our community to take up the New Evangelization by serving at its forefront. In everything we do, therefore, we seek to foster conversion, both initial and ongoing, to Jesus Christ and His Church. We do this by forming deep personal relationships with those we encounter, and by building communities of vibrant and joyful faith. The Lord Jesus has called us to be evangelists; to give hope to the lost.

Evangelizing means bearing personal witness to the love of God ... it is serving by bending down to wash the feet of our brethren, as Jesus did.

—Pope Francis, World Youth Day homily, Rio de Janeiro

Our primary mission area is evangelization on secular colleges and universities. At these institutions, we help students encounter the Lord Jesus, and we build campus ministry communities that promote lifelong discipleship. We also serve the Church by supporting various men’s ministries, by assisting in the formation and training of seminarians, and by leading mission trips to serve the materially poor.

OUR NEW LEADER

The Brothers elected Br. Patrick Reilly as their General Superior at our Assembly held on Saturday, September 16, 2023. 

Br. Patrick first met the Brothers while attending Florida State University. After graduation he entered our novitiate, professed his first temporary vows in 2002, and then joined our campus ministry team at Boston University. During his eight years at B.U. he received his Masters in Ministry at St. John’s Seminary and in 2005 professed his perpetual vows.

Later in 2010 he joined our campus ministry team at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, where he served as campus minister, and more recently, as Director of Campus Ministry since 2016.
 

 

Every so often someone asks me: “What did you have in mind when you began the Brotherhood; what was your plan?” Well, honestly, I didn’t have one! The Brotherhood was a surprise gift from the Lord, wholly His own initiative!

—Fr. Philip Merdinger, B.H.

In 1980, Fr. Philip Merdinger and five laymen founded the Brotherhood of Hope, consecrating themselves to God through private vows.

Six years earlier, Fr. Philip, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, had experienced a new conversion as he was prayed with by lay people involved in the Catholic charismatic renewal. Out of this experience, Fr Philip called together a Brotherhood built on:

• A personal relationship with Jesus Christ,
• The powerful witness of joyful brotherhood,
• The gifts and promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Our founding brothers were attracted to Fr. Philip's vision for a fraternal common life, to become “a family in the order of grace.” The Brotherhood grew as more men, having experienced the transforming power of Christ, chose to give up everything to live and to serve together.

Fr. Philip’s prior experience as a campus chaplain convicted him of the dire lack of faith on college campuses. He saw the immense potential for college students, hungry for the truth, to be transformed by the Gospel, so he made college campus outreach an integral part of the brothers’ mission.

We began our first apostolate in New Jersey, ministering to students at Rutgers University. Through God’s providence we moved our headquarters to Boston in the 1990s. By the grace of God, we have grown to 27 vowed brothers, serving on five campuses, with five households in four states.  

Today, the Brotherhood of Hope is blazing the way for this generation to renew the Church.