This week the Church in the United States celebrates National Vocation Awareness Week; a week that the Bishops have set aside in which all Catholics are asked to pray for an increase in vocations. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston who is the current chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations said that, as Catholics, “it is our responsibility to encourage young people to be generous in their response as they discern the possibility of a call to service in the Church.”
As we begin this week, it is fitting that the Gospel reading from Mass this morning was on the call of the Apostles: Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Jesus asked all of them to leave everything they possessed behind to “Come after me.” Sometimes we don’t understand or we can’t clearly see where the Lord is calling us. In these instances, we must put all of our trust and hope in the Lord , asking Him to show us the path He wants us to follow that will best serve the church.
On other occasions, we clearly hear where the Lord wants us to go and we are fearful to respond to his call. In these times, it is important to remember the life of Mary, who, though filled with fear at the message of the angel declaring her to be to virgin Mother of God, answered with a yes. Let us not forget that, in Mary’s time, women who were not married and became pregnant were literally stoned to death. However, despite all of this uncertainty, Mary trusted that God would take care of her. Read the rest of this entry »
Over the last couple of years, the number of seminarians throughout the United States has been growing tremendously. Those men who begin the discernment process are entering into a conversation with God that most young men never open themselves up to because they are afraid of going against the grain of society. There is a lot of noise out in the world that tells these young men that they can do whatever they want, whether it pertains to relationships, drugs, alcohol, etc. When the young men enter seminary, this noise does not stop; in fact, the noise seems to get louder.
The biggest challenge seminarians face today is the act of giving their entire self over to the will of God. This is difficult for any Christian to do because it requires us to leave everything we have known in order to follow Christ. However, this does not come without reward. In The Meaning of Vocation, John Paul II writes: “Do not be afraid of the radicalness of his demands, because Jesus, who loved us first, is prepared to give himself to you, as well as asking of you. If he asks much from you, it is because he knows you can give much.”
Being a seminarian (in actuality, even being a Christian) is counter-cultural! Often times people wonder what drives a young man to enter the seminary. The common questions include: “Don’t you want to get married and have children? “Don’t you want to have a successful career and make a lot of money?” All of these questions make the discernment process more real because these are questions the seminarian MUST face. While in the seminary, a seminarian must practice a life of celibacy, prayer, and relative simplicity. In this modern, materialistic world, these are not always easy.
This generation of seminarians are facing problems that previous generations never had to deal with. Television and movie screens depict a life of sexual freedom and pornography has taken over the internet, making it more difficult for young men to live truly chaste, celibate lives. Young men are torn between following their desires and impulses or following the plan God has in store for them. In order to do this, we need to set aside time to develop a deeply personal relationship with God. However, a relationship with God grows in silence. With modern society becoming increasingly “connected” as a result of Blackberry devices, iPhones, iPods, MP3 players, WI-FI connectivity, etc., listening to God in the silence is even more of a challenge.
Every young man who is discerning God’s will for their lives has to deal with each of these challenges. The minute we believe we have conquered our struggles, a disaster strikes and we fall miserably. However, there is hope! We can all take an example from the lives of the saints. Even the saints had difficulties overcoming the challenges that faced their time. When they thought they had persevered in their struggles, they fell back into a life of sin. The only difference is that they knew how to pick themselves up. Through the Sacrament of Penance we can return to a life of following God’s will for us. All we have to do is approach God, continually opening ourselves to his healing love.
“Confidently open your most intimate aspirations to the Love of Christ who waits for you in the Eucharist. You will receive the answer to all your worries and you will see with joy that the consistency of your life which he asks of you is the door to fulfill the noblest dreams of your youth.” — John Paul II, The Meaning of Vocation
No matter what God calls us to do with our lives, he awaits for us to pick up our cross and follow him. “Take heart young people! Christ is calling you and the world awaits you! Remember that the Kingdom of God need your generous and complete dedication…Act like those fisherman who, called by Jesus, immediately left everything behind and became fishers of men.” (JPII–The Meaning of Vocation)
The Whispers of the Spirit team sincerely apologizes for our absence in posting new topics, videos, etc. over the last few weeks. Being in seminary can get a little chaotic sometimes. Last week the seminary community was on mid-semester break. Now that we are back in session, we will try to post some new topics about vocations.
Throughout the month of October, Whispers of the Spirit is going PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Have you thought about donating your blog or website to going PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness Month?
Over the last several months, the contributors to Susurrationes Spiritus have been coming up with unique ways to reach those young people who are discerning the Lord’s call to Diocesan Priesthood. Until now, we have neglected to mention anything about religious orders, which has been a disservice to some. So, today, Susurrationes Spiritus expands its coverage to include vocations information for Religious Orders. In the near future, a new page will be added to the site to include contact information for various orders within the United States, including the Passionists, Dominicans, etc.
We cannot do this without your help! If you would like to help us in this endeavor by providing us with contact information for various religious orders, please email info@susurrationes.com.
From the Catholic New Agency:
Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sep 17, 2009 / 10:27 am (CNA).- In an audience this morning with bishops visiting from Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI advised them on how to respond to the lack of priests, emphasizing that the shortage cannot be solved by having lay people substitute for the clergy.
The Holy Father began his address to the Brazilian prelates by pointing out the difference between the identity of priests and the laity. While the lay faithful share in the “common priesthood,” they are not ordained ministers of Christ and His Church. “Hence,” the Pope cautioned, “it is important to avoid the secularization of clergy and the ‘clericalization’ of the laity.”
Fulfilling the lay vocation, he explained, involves working to “give expression in real life – also through political commitment – to the Christian view of anthropology and the social doctrine of the Church.”
On the other hand, “priests must distance themselves from politics in order to favor the unity and communion of all the faithful, thus becoming a point of reference for everyone,” Benedict said.
When dioceses are faced with a lack of priests, the Pope emphasized that they should not resort to “a more active and abundant participation of the laity” since it could take away from their own calling.
“The truth is that the greater the faithful’s awareness of their own responsibilities within the Church, the clearer becomes the specific identity and inimitable role of the priest as pastor of the entire community, witness to the authenticity of the faith, and dispenser of the mysteries of salvation in the name of Christ the Head,” Benedict XVI stated.
“The function of the clergy is essential and irreplaceable in announcing the Word and celebrating the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist,” he insisted, saying that for this reason it is “vital to ask the Lord to send workers for His harvest; and it is necessary that priests express joy in their faithfulness to their identity.”
Looking to the future, the Pope made it clear that “the shortage of priests must not come to be considered as a normal or typical state of affairs.”
He exhorted the bishops resolve the crisis by combining efforts to “encourage new priestly vocations and find the pastors your dioceses need, helping one another so that all of you have better-trained and more numerous priests to support the life of faith and the apostolic mission.”
As the Church celebrates the Year for Priests and the 150th anniversary of the death of the “Cure of Ars,” Pope Benedict pointed to the French priest as a model for priests, “especially in living a life of celibacy as a requirement for the total giving of self.” This total gift of self is “expressed through that pastoral charity which Vatican Council II presents as the unifying center of a priest’s being and actions,” he reminded.
The Holy Father ended his address on a positive note, assuring the prelates that “many signs of hope” exist for the future of particular Churches. This future, he said is one that “God is preparing through the dedication and the faithfulness with which you exercise your episcopal ministry.”
From Zenit:
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut, SEPT. 14, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A couple of years ago, when Benedict XVI visited with some students, two of them asked him a question that could have come from anyone, Catholic or non-Catholic alike.
They asked: “Is there someone or something by means of which we can become important? How is it possible to hope when reality negates every dream of happiness, every project of life?”
I think many people share these questions. The poor, the elderly, the sick, the immigrant, the stay-at-home parent or the 9-to-5 worker — nobody wants to be dispensable or to feel worthless or trapped. Unfortunately, many people feel that way in different areas of their life. And I think it’s a dangerous symptom that we can’t overlook. It’s a symptom that something about our culture is so unhealthy that its people lose hope.
But although the two students asked what seemed to be a secular question, the only good cure is returning to one’s original vocation: the call to love.
Often, when speaking about youth and the future of the Church, people bring up the “vocation crisis.” However, in order to respond to the crisis it is vital that we respond in a way that underscores the underlying sameness of the vocations.
However different each vocation is — priesthood, marriage, consecrated life — they each have the same goal. All are different manifestations of the vocation we all have in common: the vocation to love.
Each vocation requires a total gift of self. Each vocation endures for a lifetime. Each is a path on a journey by which we become more like God who is love. Each has a component that is loving toward each other, manifesting God’s love.
