Kern completed his secondary studies in 1915 and then volunteered for the army. Although he had to adjust to life as a soldier, he still found time to maintain a daily devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He attended adoration every day.
On January 1, 1916, as war continued to ravage the nations of Europe, Kern attended adoration in the church of St. Blasé in Slazburg. During a forty-hour devotion there, he asked God to allow him to share in the suffering of Christ.
God answered his prayers by sending him to the Italian front as an officer. While serving in combat against Italian troops, Lieutenant Kern was struck through the chest with a bullet which pierced his lung. The wound was permanent; he would never recover.
During his convalescence, he entered a seminary in the Archdiocese of Vienna.
Following the close of the war and the breakup of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, political events in the newly-formed Czech Republic led to a schism in the Roman Catholic Church with the church there forming its own rite, insisting on modernization of the liturgy among other changes. The new church was infused with Protestant thought and remains in existence today with a membership exceeding 100,000 souls.
For Kern, the schism was heart-wrenching and he offered himself as a living atonement for Isidore Bogdan Zaradnik, a Norbertine canon and doctor of philosophy who broke away to lead the schism.
It was Kern’s purpose to serve as an atonement for those who broke away from Rome.
On October 18, 1920, he took the name “James” when he received his Norbertine habit.
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