Recently in Vocations Category

The Rome seminary considered the West Point for U.S. priests has its largest incoming class in 40 years.

The Pontifical North American College is welcoming 61 seminarians in its fall classes beginning in mid-October, according to Catholic News Service.

The school, on a hill overlooking the Vatican, opened in 1954 with room for more than 200 students, but has not been full in recent years.

Monsignor Robert Gruss, vice rector for student life, told CNS that the college, which is sponsored by the U.S. bishops, will have 208 seminarians total this year.

BOSTON--When he was playing professional soccer in Chile, Chase Hilgenbrinck would seek comfort in the churches to satisfy his spiritual needs and remind him of childhood Sundays spent at Holy Trinity in his hometown of Bloomington, Ill.

Even after moving back to the United States last Christmas to play Major League Soccer--a dream of his, but just one of them--Hilgenbrinck felt the pull of his religion.

"I felt called to something greater," Hilgenbrinck said. "At one time I thought that call might be professional soccer. In the past few years, I found my soul is hungry for something else.

"I discerned, through prayer, that it was calling me to the Catholic Church. I do not want this call to pass me by."
Hilgenbrinck accepted the calling on Monday when he left the New England Revolution and retired from professional soccer to enter a seminary, where he will spend the next six years studying theology and philosophy so he can be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest.

"It's not that I'm ready to leave soccer. I still have a great passion for the game," he said in a telephone interview. "I wouldn't leave the game for just any other job. I'm moving on for the Lord. I want to do the will of the Lord, I want to do what he wants for me, not what I want to do for myself."

A nice story on Archbishop Burke and the Kenrick-Glennon Seminary.

"The walks," as the seminarians call them, are opportunities for young men to have heart-to-hearts with a man who regularly meets with the pope, a heady prospect for a young priest-in-training. The conversations are usually casual, and the seminarians get to see a more personal, human side of Burke - like when he gets a little skittish around off-leash dogs.

Kenrick officials organize the walks using time sheets. When the sheets are posted, there's a rush to sign on.

"It's like when you throw pellets at the Japanese fish at the Botanical Gardens," said seminarian Edward Nemeth, 26. "Guys falling over each other to get their names on the list."

On Saturday, Nemeth and eight of his colleagues at Kenrick will be ordained as priests in the St. Louis Archdiocese - the largest St. Louis ordination class in 25 years and one of the largest in the U.S. It's also the same number of ordinations in St. Louis as the last three years combined.

Since the 1980s, declining interest in the priesthood has been a growing crisis for the Roman Catholic church in the U.S., a situation that was compounded by the clergy sex-abuse scandal earlier this decade. One church study suggested that 80 percent of parents whose sons are considering the priesthood try to dissuade them, fearing their child is entering a life of loneliness and unhappiness.

Burke is credited for helping to address such concerns at Kenrick. He is active in recruiting priests and knows the seminarians, their names, their life stories, their joys and their fears. He's also a frequent visitor to the seminary, sometimes dropping by unannounced for lunch with the students.

"He's the center and the core of this whole thing," said the Rev. Michael Butler, the vocations director for the archdiocese.

The student body at Kenrick-Glennon, which includes the undergraduate Cardinal Glennon College and graduate-level Kenrick Theological Seminary, is 112 students, the largest enrollment in two decades and a 50 percent increase over last year.

We all know the story of when Moses returned to his people in Egypt to lead them to the promised land. The Pharaoh being annoyed at Moses' request decides that the Jewish people have it too easy and so decides that they must gather their own straw in addition to cranking out the same number of bricks as per the normal quota . We all see the unfairness of this of requesting the same amount with smaller resources.

But do we see this unfairness when it comes to vocations to the priestly and religious life? We have smaller families and have no more children than is average among the secular culture and yet we wonder why the number of priest and religious are reduced. We demand that we have the same percentage of vocations to the priestly and religious life as when Catholics showed much more generosity when it came to having children.

Now I realize this criticism is an oversimplification and that there are many factors involved when it comes to men and women answering their vocations, but surely this is a factor. Just looking at history we see so many that answered the call to their vocations were often not the first or second born. Now I am not just talking about the rare cases like St. Catherine of Sienna who was the 23rd out of 25 children, but as a generality. Surely the contraceptive culture and the culture of death has had a toll on vocations? Though of course we can't limit God in what he will do in answer to our own selfishness when it comes to vocations.

There is also just the psychological aspect where parents of smaller families are going to be much less likely to encourage a priestly or religious vocation since they might be more focused on grandchildren or their children having a career. This does not mean that to be a good Catholic you must have a dozen children or so since their is valid discernment in spacing children using legitimate means based on serious reasons to do so.

So while much of the so-called vocation crisis is people with vocations to other than the married or single life not answering the call, is this not a factor? God does not give us statistics (a perfect being would have nothing to do with statistics) on this or anything else so we can never know for sure what the effect is since God is very generous even when we are not.

If Vince Fiore had any doubts that he was being called to the priesthood, they ended when he saw Pope John Paul at World Youth Day in 2002.

The Sault Ste. Marie man attended a papal mass at Downsview Park, in Toronto’s north end. An estimated 800,000 people were there, but the St. Mary’s College graduate felt the Holy Father directed his homily straight at his heart.

“Do not be afraid to follow Christ on the royal road of the cross,” he said.

That’s all Fiore needed to hear.

“I thought, ‘All right, no more hesitating. I’m going to go for it,’” he said.

“Now here I am.”

Jean-Louis Plouffe, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie, will ordain Fiore on Friday at St. Gregory’s Catholic church.

Fiore, 35, is the first Sault man to be ordained in more than a decade.

“It is my way of saying, ‘I love you, Jesus. I am totally yours,’” said Fiore.

“Becoming a priest is an expression of my love for the one who spared nothing by laying down his own life for love of me.”

You can read the rest here. There have also been several stories of men contacting seminaries and diocese in the wake of Pope Benedict's visit here.

Here is an excellent article Why I became a nun, by former tennis star Andrea Jaeger

Moniales OP has a good post Thinking of becoming a nun? Check the website

Here is a beautiful conversion story of Brother Martin Ervin who went from being a singer in a punk rock bank and the drug lifestyle to joining the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Bob Ervin calls his brother's conversion and vocation to the religious life a "miracle."

" I'm really proud of him," he said, adding that he believes the struggles his brother experienced were necessary for him to be the kind of person he is today. "He's very charismatic. It's just an absolute miracle."

One day in the office, Brother Martin overheard his brother talking about vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and he said he felt something stir within him.

" As I was standing there, all of the sudden this little fire kind of burst in my heart and I felt myself say inside my heart, 'You're going to do that someday,'" he said.

Bob Ervin credits the Holy Spirit with inspiring his brother.

"I don't think I was on a mission to change him at all. It was the Holy Spirit. That's the thing about living the Catholic faith - if you actually live it, you can't really predict what's going to happen with it," he said.

"I do remember one talk we had when he told me he was thinking about his vocation. We talked for like four hours about how awesome it is to live with Christ."

As they say "read the whole thing." This also reminds of something that I heard Father Groeschel say once about about seeing a punk rocker with one of those notable haircuts, that you just never know and that they could be the next Saint Paul.

Down Under

Here is another nice article concerning Belmont Abbey.

A burning sensation started in Anthony Swofford’s chest.

“It felt like my whole chest was on fire,” Swofford said. “I was at my house in my driveway. I felt like somebody reached inside my chest and was holding on to my heart.”

That was the day Swofford promised God he would not drink or take drugs again.

Swofford was born and raised Catholic. He grew up in Chesnee, SC, where his Catholic family was the only one in town.

“I had very good parents that had very good ethics and morals,” Swofford said.

He struggled with drugs and alcohol for about 20 years.

“I kind of got angry with God,” Swofford said.

Eight years ago he went to rehab and started praying.

“I’ve been praying ever since,” Swofford said. 

...After visiting the Benedictine monastery at Belmont Abbey, he knew he’d found the right place.

“I’ve always said that for 27 years, I did everything that I wanted to do,” Swofford said. “I decided I was going to do whatever he (God) wanted me to do.”

Most of the article is pretty good as it discusses monastic life, but I found this a little off.

What’s the difference between priests and monks?
“The priest celebrates mass and administers the sacrament,” said Father John Oetgen. “A monk doesn’t.”

Well not quite.  Correct me if I am wrong but isn't a monk someone who lives within a community of men within a monastery and are normally made up of both priests and brothers. I think many monks that are priests would be a little surprised to find out that they don't celebrate Mass or administer the sacraments.  I bet this is a misquote.

SACRAMENTO, CA (CNS) - Rosalind Moss, an author who is an Eternal Word Television Network TV host and one of the network's radio hosts, announced Feb. 13 that she is starting a new community of sisters in the Archdiocese of St. Louis with the permission of Archbishop Raymond L. Burke.

The new group will be called the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel's Hope, she told an audience of more than 200 at the Catholic Breakfast Club of Sacramento.

Moss, 65, said she hopes to move to St. Louis within a few months, intends to fulfill as many of her scheduled speaking engagements in the coming year as possible, and plans to continue her radio program from St. Louis.

She is working now on designing a floor-length habit, along with a basket to hold religious articles which sisters will distribute both in the poorest areas of the city and the richest.

"The purpose of this religious community is to flood the world with holy habits as signs to God," said Moss, who is also a staff apologist with Catholic Answers, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the Catholic faith through all forms of media.

..."I want to tell the world that God hasn't left. He is still here. We are loved by the God who made us for himself. I want to show there is no such thing as secular and religious. There is no division. All is from God," she said.

Moss said her group will be an evangelistic, teaching community following in the spiritual tradition of St. Francis de Sales, whose writings and sermons inspired many to convert to Catholicism. She already has a few women who plan to join her, she added.

"I'll come back to Sacramento one day in a habit," said Moss. "Hold nothing back from God."

This is great news.  I often listen to Rosalind Moss on Catholics Answers and she has such a deep spirituality and a great empathy for others in being able to give them spiritual direction.

Rich Leonardi posts on a Cincinnati television station which reports on the diocese there uptick in vocations.  He has links to a video and a transcript which are well done and quite positive.  The Archdiocese has really put a lot of emphasis on their vocations program and Fr. Kyle Schnippel is an excellent vocations director.

Fr. Kyle Schnippel also has a blog which I follow called Called by Name.

John Allen Jr. in today's daily column.

As part of a broad initiative to promote Eucharistic adoration, the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy is proposing that religious women “spiritually adopt priests” through prayer before the Eucharist, and, more generally, that Catholics from every corner of the world spend time before the Eucharist to pray for vocations to the priesthood in an era of priest shortages.

Concretely, the Congregation for Clergy is proposing that each diocese appoint a priest whose full-time job would be to promote Eucharistic adoration, and that special “Eucharistic shrines” be created that would resemble the well-known Marian shrines that dot the Catholic world.

Eucharistic adoration is a practice in which the Blessed Sacrament, meaning a consecrated host believed to be the Body of Christ, is exposed publicly for prayer and adoration. When this adoration is carried out continuously 24 hours a day, the practice is known as “perpetual adoration.”

The congregation also suggests that parishes, dioceses and religious orders seek donors to fund the construction of these shrines, as well as to pay for monstrances (a decorated vessel containing the consecrated host), liturgical vestments, and educational materials explaining the purpose of the devotion.

The congregation asks that Eucharistic adoration be introduced in parishes, seminaries, religious houses and other Catholic facilities. Bishops are requested to fill out a form indicating their intention to cooperate.

Consecrated women in particular are urged to "spiritually adopt priests in order to help them with their self-offering, prayer and penance" by engaging in Eucharistic adoration, following the example, Vatican officials say, of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The proposals come in a letter to all the bishops of the world, along with an accompanying leaflet outlining the project, to be released tomorrow, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The letter is signed by Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation for Clergy, and Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, the congregation’s secretary.

Hummes says the idea is to stress the “ontological link between the Eucharist and the priesthood,” as well as “the special maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary for each priest.” The initiative is styled as a response to a call from Pope Benedict XVI in his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, released last February as the concluding document from the October 2005 Synod on the Eucharist. In that text, Benedict urged wider practice of Eucharistic adoration.

This is a great initiative and the obvious one, but it seems so often in diocesan vocations programs one that is missing. I love the idea of having someone dedicated to the promotion of Eucharistic Adoration in a diocese. Eucharistic Adoration is back on the rise, though it would be great for more parishes to offer it more frequently or even to have perpetual adoration especially under the guiding connection of the Eucharist in the priesthood. The spiritual adoption of priests by women's religious is also nothing new as is evident by the practice of the Missionaries of Charity, Saint Therese, and many others throughout history, but it is something that needs once again to be emphasized and to be put back into wider practice. I think we should also spiritually adopt seminarians within our diocese.

One thing I find odd about John Allen's Jr. column this time is his thinking that he has to explain Eucharist Adoration and what a monstrance is. This isn't exactly an obscure part of Catholic teaching or practice. Though I guess maybe he knows better the audience of the National Catholic Reporter.

There is a new Norbertine Vocations blog run by the Canons Regular of Prémontré in the Canonry of Corpus Christi.

By Rebecca Howerton

One of the Catholic clergy’s newest members, Michael Cassabon of Simpsonville, said he looks forward to serving joyfully, following the example of his parents, Michael and Mary Cassabon, as well as others such as Mother Teresa, who have given their lives in service to others.

Cassabon, who was ordained July 27 in Columbia and celebrated his first mass July 29 at his home parish, St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Simpsonville, said he first felt the call to the priesthood during confession while he was a senior at St. Joseph’s High School.

“It was in that sacrament that I really experienced God, not as a concept but as someone who was in love with me and had a plan for me,” he said.

After studying political science at Furman for two years, Cassabon transferred to the Pontifical College Josephinum to study philosophy. He taught religion and led a campus ministry at Bishop England High School in Charleston before continuing his studies in Rome at the suggestion of the Bishop of the Diocese of Charleston, the Most Rev. Robert Baker.

Cassabon lives at the Pontifical North American College, the national American seminary in Rome, which was established in 1855 and is considered an extra-territorial part of Vatican City. He attends classes at the Pontifical Gregorian University, a Jesuit University founded in 1551 by St. Ignatius of Loyola. He received a degree in theology in 2006, and will complete another graduate degree in canon law in 2009. All of his classes -- except Greek -- have been taught in Italian.

“Being a priest for me means preaching the truth of God’s mercy and the reality of the resurrection in people’s lives that are so often marked by heartbreak and disappointment,” he said. “Letting them know God is there, and that He loves them, that’s where my heart is.”

...Cassabon said he and other young priests feel that by living lives of honesty and integrity they can facilitate healing in the wake of abuse scandals, while helping parishioners find the path to true fulfillment.

“We’re scandalized by it, too,” he said. “The hearts and minds of my peers are on restoring the hope, faith and trust among people. We’re also very concerned about bringing people back to the church. People are trying to fill an emptiness in their hearts with consumerism, with a frenzied search for more and more, with relationship after relationship. Nothing can bring peace and make them joyful and happy but God himself.

As for the shortage of priests, Cassabon related it to a societal fear of commitment, including reluctance to commit to a spouse.

“We also need men and women to commit to good marriages,” he said. “There’s no shortage of vocations, just a shortage of responses.”

Cassabon said that while giving up the chance to marry and have children to become a priest can be seen as a loss, it can also be viewed as a gift and gain, as the desire for family is filled in many ways by the parish family.

“It’s a timeless Christian paradox that to find life, you have to first lose it,” he said. “The responsibility and burdens are huge, but the honor of sharing in people’s lives at births, funerals, weddings, at confession, just being there for them; these are moments of extraordinary intimacy.”

Fr. Powell, OP posts on The Mistakes We Make with Priestly Vocations and what he sees of the problem of appointing Parish Life Coordinator (PLC). I think he makes some great points in that as a stop gap measure this will become something much more permanent and will do little to spur vocations. I think the danger he speaks of when priests start becoming "traveling Sacrament Machines" is not to be taken lightly.

Shouts in the Piazza displays an ad in my diocesan magazine St. Augustine Catholic.

It takes a community to raise a priest; from families who talk about vocations, to parishioners who pray for and champion religious life, to priests themselves, who through their lives of compassion and sacrice, reveal Christ's abundant love. If you know somebody who would make a good priest, tell him. And ask him to call our Vocations Office. Your encouragement could make all the difference.

(904) 262-3200, ext 101 wwww.dosafl.com email: vocations@dosafl.com

This is a great ad. In other news my diocese is ordaining three men this month.

There is a pretty cool news story on two Palm Beach County residents choosing the monastic life via Moniales OP.

...At the same time, one of those worldly distractions - the Internet - has become a prime recruiting tool for religious orders, with Web sites for religious orders, FAQs, vocation blogs and "come see" weekends for the curious.

Sister Diana Marie gravitated toward the religious groups that had Web sites and away from those with no online presence.

"One convent, it took up to a month for the novice mistress to contact me. It was just too slow," she said.

Many of Angela Rivieccio's belongings still reside in her mother's Boynton Beach house, in suspended animation until the day when she takes her final vows as a Dominican nun.

Angela Rivieccio became a novice, Sister Diana Marie of the Most Blessed Sacrament, on Feb. 11, joining the 801-year-old religious order called the Nuns of the Order of Preachers, founded by St. Dominic.

Among the abandoned belongings is her collection of "Star Trek" books, a remnant of her childhood.

"That's like a whole lifetime ago," she said with a laugh. "It's dropped off my radar screen."

The other story is about a retired parish priest Seamus Malvey (sounds like a character name in a Flannery O'Connor novel) who entered the Cistertian Abbey of Gethsemani made famous by Fr. Thomas Merton.

A friend of a reader made this remix using a song from Kutless. For myself I prefer the original, but making it into a music video works pretty well also.

Kansas City Catholic has some wonderful photos of the Solemn Pontifical Mass and Ceremonies of Public Profession and Investiture of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles where 11 nuns made public profession.

The USCCB posted a large list of answers from the Priesthood Ordination Class of 2007 to the question Some of Our Ordinands Respond to the Question: “People would be surprised to know that I…” which is rather fun to read. Some of my favorites were:

...was named a vice-president at an advertising agency just as I finally realized that my true vocation was to the priesthood…Once I stopped resisting God's will for me and began to trust, I found peace. I have never been happier.

…never really thought that I was called to be a priest…[I] wanted to work in law and politics…Through prayer and a devotion to the Eucharist, I realized that I had to set aside my own good intentioned plans for life, and follow God's promptings.

…was not sure if I was going to remain Catholic when I first entered college seminary…after Theology 101, Introduction to the Catechism, spending time in Adoration, and a homily on John 6, I then KNEW that the Catholic Church was the true Church and that I could never leave Her.

...came to the United States for a vacation, to have a good time. God's sense of humor is so great that He only changed one letter so that vacation turned out to be a vocation; and the best time of my life is yet to come – as His priest!

And one of which I wonder the connection.

…never thought about seriously about being a priest until my first semester at Harvard.

And here is a priest Tom at Disputations would love.

…was an olympic hopeful in the sport of Curling.

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE -- It was during the chanting of the litany of saints -- 23 minutes of kneeling on the marble floor of St. Patrick's Cathedral -- when the Rev. Brendan Gormley asked God to help him and his sore knees make it through.

"That's when I realized that's what the priesthood will be," the Grant City native and former marathon runner said afterward. "I'll be relying on God's grace."

Father Gormley, 43, and the Rev. Kevin Malick, 27, formerly of New Springville, were among 14 men ordained by Cardinal Edward Egan yesterday morning.

Seven priests were ordained for the Archdiocese of New York; the other seven were ordained for the Community of the Friars of the Renewal, a Franciscan order celebrating its 20th anniversary.

"Our young men are commissioned, mandated, assigned, appointed the way St. Peter was, as a witness to proclaim the Gospel," the cardinal said during the three-hour mass and ordination ceremony.

It is rather interesting that half of the priests ordained in the Diocese of New York were part of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. The only advertising they have is of course themselves. It seems doubtful that anybody entering this order is under the illusion that it is something other than a sacrificial life given for others. Though living of sacrificial life of holiness is of course a good reminder to all of us.

Today is world day of prayer for vocations. We have long believed that the best advertisement for vocations are happy religious.

Go to Live + Jesus for just some examples of this.

Though I would go farther and say the best advertisement for vocations is joyous Catholics, whether they be ordained, consecrated, or of the laity.

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI ordained 22 men on Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica, including the son of the man who has been the Vatican's official photographer for decades.

Juan Carlos Mari was ordained as a member of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order, the order said. His father Arturo has been taking photographs of pontiffs on pilgrimages and during ceremonies for decades for the Vatican's official newspaper L'Osservatore Romano. The elder Mari was among the faithful in the pews on Sunday.

Benedict called for prayers for the new priests to persevere in their ministry and remain faithful.

He also asked for prayers for more vocations for the priesthood. The Catholic Church has seen candidates for the priesthood decline in parts of the West, and far-flung parishes in developing countries are sometimes short of priests.

Papal Message for Day of Prayer for Vocations "Consecrated Life Is at the Service of This Communion"

From Bishop Vasa's latest letter.

...There is no doubt in my mind that some of the young men in this class have considered and are considering a possible vocation to the priesthood as an option for them. Whether their initial hearing of that gentle call will ultimately result in a definitive affirmative response depends upon parental support, pastoral encouragement and prayers; lots and lots of prayers.

Vocations do come from families but vocations also come from Parishes. It often happens that several vocations will come from the same Parish several years in a row. It often happens that small rural Parishes produce three of four priestly vocations in a span of as many years. It often happens that a number of religious vocations will spring from the families of one Parish. It is, in part, a mystery of God's grace but it is also a sign that, in those Parishes where vocations are prayed for, esteemed and actively encouraged young men are more likely to hear and heed the Lord's invitation to be priests and young women are more likely to hear and heed the Lord's invitation to serve as Religious. The promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life needs to be a routine activity of every Parish, a routine activity of every parishioner.

....Like it or not, full-service parishes will soon perish.

All 231 parishes in the Cleveland Diocese will soon change. The diocese will organize all parishes into groups that will share resources and priests.

I can see the bishop flipping through a thesaurus to find the right word to describe what he will do with the churches to combat the dwindling priesthood.

Hmm. Let's see . . . Reorganize. Reconfigure. Reconstitute. Merge. Consolidate. Collaborate. Cluster.

That's it.

Cluster sounds much better than Share A Priest, which is what clustering amounts to. It also sounds better than closing churches, which is bound to happen next.

We should've seen it coming. The trend has swept the nation as fewer men join the priesthood and more priests die and retire.

I still remember the letter from the bishop more than a decade ago addressing the shortage of priests. Our pastor read the letter and said we were to have meetings and talk about how to get along with fewer priests.

When he told us we were not allowed, however, to discuss the issue of married priests or women priests, you could feel a breeze as heads shook collectively in disgust.

We all knew there was a solution. Actually two of them:

Women priests.

Married priests.

End of shortage.

Unfortunately, every pope is deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other when it comes to ordaining women and married clergy.

Ryan Duns, SJ gives a fair critique of this article by Regina Brett of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

What always gets me about articles like this where the answer to any priesthood shortage is always married priests and priestesses. They never ask the obvious questions and seem to see this problem without addressing the past. Just exactly how did the Catholic Church continue to grow and be around for 2,000 years without priestesses and married priests in the Latin Rite? They never notice that this is a modern problem. There were no stories about a vocations crunch forty years ago, but now there are more and more of them. They also never want to analyze just what it is in our culture that is suppressing people from responding to their vocations to the priesthood or the religious life. In fact I can't recall one of these articles ever talking about the shrinking number of nuns and brothers in the religious life. If is always focused just on priests and for them the lack of access to the sacraments. The contemplative orders that are holding up the Church in prayer - and their declining numbers does not seem to be a problem for them. In fact prayer just never seems part of their vocations strategy. Praying to the Lord of the Harvest to send workers in the vineyard to them is an outdated strategy regardless of the fact that this was the vocations strategy in the Gospels.

There are surely many factors in the suppression of the response to vocations. A society that focuses on pleasure and extreme selfishness is not exactly one that encourages a total giving of yourself to others and to the greater glory of the Church. Smaller families also contribute to the problem. Just how many of the great saints were the first or second born? Somehow we think we can both cut the number of children and at the same time provide the numbers of people in the priesthood in religious life as before. Isn't it less likely that Catholic parents of a small family are going to encourage vocations in the first place? Most of us parents have all kinds of plans for the successful career of our children and the idea of losing access to them in a convent or to the busy life of a priest doesn't fit most of our agendas. Few of us are like Louis Martin , father of St. Terese, who are willing to lose all their children to religious life. Relativism and modernism are certainly factors involved in this, yet their answers always seem to involve more relativism and modernism. Fighting viruses with dead viruses works in some cases, but is there a dead strain of relativism to fight relativism with? The vaccine to relativism is of course proclaiming and living the truth in the first place and this is a vaccine we can all produce.

While there are certainly factors that have lead to this decrease this does not mean we throw our hands in the air and just complain about these root causes. Our job is to pray for those who have vocations for the priesthood and religious life to respond with generosity and faithfulness. To encourage those we meet to discern whether they have these specific vocations. To fully live the Gospel and to not become a stumbling block to those who have been called.

Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP is a great preacher on vocations and recently on this topic preached.

The witness of the lay faithful is needed now more than ever! If the faith is to center our vocation efforts, then we need daily witnesses, daily teachers, and the everyday faithful. That’s you, folks! Ask one young man this week to consider the priesthood. Just one. Tell him he is needed. With Christ on board, put your nets into deep water and pull for all you’re worth. And do not be afraid! They are waiting to hear your word of encouragement, your invitation. Trust me! They are waiting to be caught. Fish long and hard and fish faithfully. But whatever you do: FISH!

A reader sent me this story from Fr Greg Shaffer.

As you may or may not know, we started a basketball team of Washington priests and seminarians two years ago called “DC ‘Hood” (short for DC priesthood). We have played 11 games against 8 different parish teams of coaches, teachers, and teens. Thanks be to God, it has been growing and growing, averaging about 200 fans a game. The games have been great nights of fun for families while promoting vocations.

The Catholic Standard wrote an article about DC ‘Hood a few months ago. The sales manager of the Washington Wizards read the article and generously called the Archdiocese to see if DC ‘Hood ever wanted to play at the Verizon Center after a Wizards game. Umm, yeah! Thanks, Wizards!!

So DC ‘Hood will be playing at the Verizon Center (against CYO coaches after the Wizards 3:30 pm game versus the Chicago Bulls) on Sun., April 15. After our game, there will a game b/w CYO 11th and 12th grade co-ed all-stars; the winners of the two (16 minute) games will play in a “championship” game.

This event is intended to a) promote vocations, and b) raise funds for the CYO / OYM (Catholic Youth Organization/Office of Youth Ministry). We are helping CYO to sell tickets to the Wizards game; they receive a generous portion of the proceeds.

I personally will be purchasing a large amount of tickets the week of Feb. 11. Can you help me? The tickets are $ 25 (Upper Level B), $30 (Upper Level A), and $85 (Lower Level). Buying two $25 tickets, for example, would help greatly! Even if you’re not able or interested in going, can you make a donation to our cause? The more tickets we sell, the more we promote the priesthood and raise funds for our youth.

You can order tickets online at www.verizoncenter.com/cyo or, for donations only, mail a check to me directly at: Fr. Greg Shaffer, St. Andrew Apostle parish, 11600 Kemp Mill Rd., Silver Spring, MD 20902 (I will give your tickets to kids in the school or parish).

CANTON Sister Mary Ishmael of the Eucharist grew up in Bankston, Iowa, just seven miles from what would become the "Field of Dreams."

Growing up in that idyllic Midwestern community, she did all the things she was expected to do. A devout Catholic, she married at 20, became a mother of three, and enjoyed a career as a registered nurse.

But life rarely goes according to plan. After 12 years of marriage, her husband sought a divorce, leaving her to raise their three sons as a single mother and the first member of her family to be divorced.

For 35 years, she devoted herself to nursing; then, she said, God informed her that he had another plan in mind.

HEARD THE WORDS

Sister Ishmael said she was engaged in adoration of the Eucharist in 2001 when, "I heard the words, 'I want you to be my bride.' There was a definite (prompting) from the Holy Spirit that½ God was calling me to be his bride. My immediate 'yes' was a surprise."

...At 10:30 a.m. Friday, Sister Ishmael, 55, will undertake her solemn profession as a member of the Order of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration at the Sancta Clara Monastery Church at 4200 Market Ave. N.

...Sister Ishmael describes her feelings about her decision as a "deep and abiding" joy.

"I had a full life. I was happy with what I was doing," she said. "When God gives the call, he also gives that exuberant joy that makes you want to follow him.

"I am so deeply joyful. The Lord has given me a lot of joy this past year. ... I'm coming to know the beauty of the Lord and the depth of his beauty."

Sister Ishmael said that prior to seeking a religious order, Clares, she consulted with a spiritual adviser. Her adviser recommended that she seek a monastery that emphasizes Eucharistic adoration, wears habits and is unified with the pope.

"I asked him to pray for me. For 10 years, I had never said anything to him about being a nun," she said with a smile. "Six months later, I was here.

...beacons of light

Sister Ishmael said the flip side of an article given to her on the Holy Trinity, bore the name and phone number of a nun who recommended that she contact Sancta Clara Monastery.

"God led me to the Poor Clares," she said, noting that many religious orders don't take middle-aged women.

Upon arriving at a religious order, a woman undergoes several steps to make certain her decision is right, not only for her, but for the order. They include aspirant, postulancy, novitiate, or "junior professed" and the final profession.

"In the church, we (monastics) are called to be the beacons of light in the heart of the Church," Sister Ishmael said. "It is an environment that fosters love. It can't be contained, it reaches out. It draws people to the church."

Sister Ishmael said each step taken in a faith journey should be accompanied by prayer for spiritual direction.

"Trust in God," she said. "He is never outdone. He will always give you more than you're expecting."

I just love reading stories like this one.

Though I could totally do without reading stories like this one.

A reader sent me a link to the following article:

Vocations to female contemplative orders in Italy are booming, according to the Italian bishops’ conference.

In 2005, 300 women took their solemn profession of vows, bringing the number of contemplatives in the country to 6,672.

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Italian bishops’ conference, welcomed the increase at a prayer vigil in St. John Lateran Basilica last October, noting that it is part of a wider trend.

“The number of contemplative religious sisters is growing throughout the world, but — and this is more significant — this is also happening in Europe and in our own Italy, which often seems so hardest hit secularization,” he said.

Others, such as Church statistical expert Brother Giovanni Dalpiaz, a Camadolese monk from Bardolino near Venice, Italy, caution that the trend is only a start.

“It is not good to deceive ourselves that all of the problems have now passed and a new spring has arrived,” he said, pointing out that there have been only incremental increases from 2001 to 2004.

But Brother Giovanni added that the recent increase “is good because it encourages hope that the Lord is still capable of bringing about strong and generous answers to his call.”

Cardinal Franc Rodé, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, told the Register Jan. 13 that Italy is the exception with regards to women religious.

PHILADELPHIA - Put the CD-ROM into the computer and you're greeted by images of stained glass, heavenly music, and two video screens.

Click on the left screen, and the white-haired bishop of Trenton, N.J., appears, smiling and beckoning. "I welcome you with an open heart as you begin your journey of discernment," Bishop John M. Smith says. Click on the right screen, and you meet the Rev. Mick Lambeth, the diocese's vocations director. He also makes a plea.

In person, Lambeth jokingly calls himself a "hound for heaven" who will walk right up to any young man in a Catholic high school jacket and ask: "Have you thought of becoming a priest?"

These are anxious times for most of the nation's 175 Catholic dioceses, where the supply of priests has plummeted 25 percent nationwide over four decades, even as the U.S. Catholic population has swelled by 30 percent. Most are resorting to some combination of mass media, the Internet and software to woo vocations.

In the Philadelphia Archdiocese - where about 20 priests die each year, and about five new priests are ordained - priestly vocations have become a "super priority," according to the Rev. Christopher Rogers, the archdiocese's vocations director.

This year's drive to raise awareness "is more ambitious than anything we've done in a while," Rogers said last week. There are nearly 1,000 active diocesan and religious-order priests in the archdiocese. In 1990, the archdiocese had about 1,200 such priests.

On Thursday, the archdiocese placed billboards on Interstates 95 and 76 featuring a smiling young man in a Roman collar.

"Some calls are meant to be answered," they read, and invite anyone who feels called - or merely intrigued - to visit the archdiocese's vocation Web site at www.heedthecall.org.

Their vocation website looks pretty good with lot's of solid suggestions including Novena prayers and a set of suggested prayers for the prayers of the faithful at Mass. Combined with Eucharistic adoration and the showing of the excellent Fishers of Men video this is pretty solid. Though I think a true vocations program has to be more than a yearly event for a week, but something that needs to be emphasized continuously. The vocations director probably has the best of the ideas by pretty much encouraging any young man he meets about considering if they have a vocation to the priesthood. Advertising campaigns and billboards are fine as they go, but it is the personal encouragement by people who know them that is going to elicit a response for those who have vocations to the priestly or religious life.

SAGINAW, Mich. — Seminarian Rich Budd, 25, knows exactly how to reach Bishop Robert Carlson if he has any questions or concerns.

“On my cell phone — on speed dial — is the bishop’s cell phone number,” said Budd. “And there’s definitely been nights where I’ve had to call him.”

He noted that seminarians elsewhere are unsure if their bishop is as accessible.

“We have a real personal relationship,” Budd. “Not every seminarian has that gift.”

Budd is one of 19 men from the Diocese of Saginaw who are discerning a call to the priesthood. That’s a big increase from just three years ago, and given Bishop Carlson’s emphasis, that comes as no surprise to Budd.

“He’s said from Day 1 that he wants to create a ‘Culture of Vocations,’” the seminarian said. “It starts with the bishop, but it goes all the way down the line. We all have to be ‘vocation aware.’”

Bishop Carlson recently became chairman of the U.S. Bishops Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry. He had been chairman-elect for a year, familiarizing himself with the job.

But he already had a reputation as being a bishop with a successful approach to vocations. When he became bishop of Sioux Falls, S.D., in 1995, the average age of priests in the diocese was 60. When he was appointed to Saginaw in 2005, that age had dropped to 48.6. By then, Sioux Falls had 25 seminarians, while Saginaw, with about the same number of Catholics at 135,000, had four.

When he was installed in Saginaw, he announced that he would “personally work to build up the priesthood” in the diocese and named himself director of vocations. That action convinces young men that vocations are a top priority, said seminarian Ben Moll.

“Bishop Carlson is very outgoing in supporting vocations,” said Moll, 27. “He goes out to search for young people to consider a vocation.”

According to Bishop Carlson, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is crucial to the vocation of the priesthood.

“We must abide in Christ if we are to bear fruit. This means that we must be holy,” said Bishop Carlson. “Without personal holiness it will be possible to hold the office, but the fruitfulness of the ministry will be compromised.”

Read the whole article which includes mention of Operation Andrew named after the first apostle that Jesus called that allows young men a chance to discuss vocations with the bishop over dinner. I am sure this will work much better than Operation Judas which seemed to have been in effect in many places in the seventies and beyond.

Threshing Grain links to a nice video done by the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity.

They also maintain a blog at Future Priests of the Third Millennium.

The National Catholic Register has a great interview with Msgr. James McDonald who was appointed rector of the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception earlier this year. Here are some great snippet, but please read the whole thing.

...How do you do this modeling?
I have encouraged many boys and young men to become priests, so encouraging seminarians to persevere is a natural thing for me.

And how many of these men have become priests?
I’m not sure of the total, but three from my last parish since going there in 2000.

Three priests from one parish in six years?
I have the best job in the world. I like to talk about it.

...How does the immediate short-term look?
Bishop Murphy asked me how we are going to get more priests. I told him, “From the Blessed Mother, who gave us the first priest.”