As the Year For Priests gets underway one of the things that is certain to be discussed is the shortage of priests not only in the United States but also around the world. There is a growing movement on twitter to help solve the shortage by praying for vocations. Twitter users around the world are using the #futurepriests hashtag to pray for vocations.

Early this evening, I wrote a piece on my personal blog about the site that started the movement and the actual movement itself.

I’m surprised that I have not mentioned the fact that this is the Year of the Priest as declared by Pope Benedict XVI. The year officially opened on June 19, 2009, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

As one can imagine, there have been numerous Web sites popping up all focusing on Year for Priests, and I’m sure many more will continue to appear. There is one in particular that I have seen so far that I would like to talk about because of its truly interactive and Catholic nature.

That site is FuturePriests.com

The site was started by Archbishop W.J. Eijk of the Netherlands. The main focus of the site is to encourage prayers for vocations. The site is also connected on twitter. Twitter users are encouraged to tweet their prayers for vocations and include the #futurepriests tag in those tweets so that other users can find those tweets easily. The site also includes pages of information to help people discern their vocation as well as other pages to help connect with priests and seminarians on twitter.

There are two main reasons why I love this site.

First, and most importantly, it encourages prayers for vocations. Given the global shortage of priests, this is very necessary. I could go on and on about this point but I think it can be boiled down to this: prayers for vocations are good, and there really isn’t much disputing that fact.

The second reason I like the site and idea is the way it uses social media and viral marketing. Not only are people praying for vocations, but when they post a tweet and some of their friends see it, then their friends may decide to also pray for vocations. I believe that as time goes on, this movement will continue to grow and grow. As it grows it will lead back to my first reason for liking the site, prayers for vocations. As a Church we certainly can’t have too many prayers for vocations, and the social/viral nature of twitter and FuturePriests will only help the cause.

Please pray for vocations.

Whispers of the Spirit, or Susurrationes Spiritus, is the newest Roman Catholic vocation awareness, support, and information blog on the internet. Whispers of the Spirit will cover vocations stories and thoughts, featuring interviews with priests and seminarians, seminary statistics, in-depth vocation articles from various news sources and commentary on issues facing the church of the future. The site will also include any remarks made by Pope Benedict XVI regarding the Year for Priests.

Whispers of the Spirit will not only cover topics decided by the contributors; the readers will also be able to submit topic requests. If there is something you want covered, a form will be made available for you to fill out. Please know that we will not be able to answer all requests, but we will try our best.

Our hope and prayer is that Whispers of the Spirit becomes one of the tools used by those discerning entering the seminary to become a little more comfortable with the entire application process. We look forward to sharing this site will all of our readers. We ask that you pray for us as we begin this new ministry of support. Please know that all of our readers will be in our prayers. May God bless each and every one of you!