I’m always a week behind in listening to your podcasts – primarily, I use podcasts as something to listen to on my hour and half drive home.

But that’s not what this note is about. I just listened to this podcast regarding vocations.

What churches here in the states have done for Vocations:

1> Get the congregation involved
Take one of the chalices that you have. Put it in a plastic see-thru container. Ask for parishioners to sign up and take the chalice home for a week. During that week, they are to pray a prayer before the chalice, to God for vocations.
When week ends, the next parishioner (family) takes it for a week. Have this continue. Letting everyone know that the young man (or young woman) who successfully becomes a priest/sister from that parish / diocese will receive that chalice from parish family.

2> Continue with getting the congregation to get them involved, but also turn up the want/intent with God. Start a monthly Holy Hour of Adoration for vocations in your parishes.

3> Things that you are already doing – getting more involved with retreats and the like with young men and women. Also – don’t forget those older 30 or 40 yr olds who may’ve missed their original call.

Those are some things I’ve seen at churches I’ve been to throughout the states.

Peace – and great job!
Mike

On vocations, the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, USA has a program that is called “Called by Name” It is a program where lay people in the parishes are asked to recommend young men that they think would make good priests. These young men are then invited to a program/retreat weekend that introduces them to what priestly life is all about. I understand there is no pressure, just information so that they can think and pray about it. I think it has been fairly successful because I believe we have nearly 30 seminarians in some stage of development studying for the priesthood. Unlike many dioceses in the US we usually have at least two priests for each parish and in my particular parish we have three priests and one in residence who is the chaplain to the local Catholic HS. Just thought I would pass this idea along.

I appreciated your commentary on vocations. Looking at it from the marketing standpoint made a great deal of sense.

I would hope, however, that you would also promote the servant model of priesthood rather than the cultic model. Too many of the young priests that I see these days think that their job is ONLY to celebrate the sacraments and they see themselves as “above” everyone else. Their Roman collars are so stiff and large that they never see anyone, except for themselves.

That being said, priesthood does, in a sense, separate us, but in a good way, much like St. Paul’s writings about many parts, but One Body.

I was born and raised in the downtown area of Kansas City, MO. Some of my fondest memories are of our youth group activities during my teen years. We had three priest that alternated for our weekly meetings. We would gather in the gym of the grade school, dance for an hour, have a prayer/business type hour in one of the class rooms, then we would go back to the gym to socialize for another hour. My brother and I still talk about those happy days of our youth. The three priest at that time had only been ordained for a short while and they were great. During our second hours, we would get into a lot of discussions about dating, marriage, and life in general. We also had a lot of retreats and days of recollection which brought us even more together. Little did I realize how much these sessions would influence the way I ultimately raised my own children. That was close to 50 years ago when we wore saddle shoes and penny loafers.

Now, when I see a younger priest, I am reminded of how plentiful they use to be and how rare it is to even have more than one priest to a parish let alone to have one younger than 50. Thank you for this reminder of how rewarding a vocation can be. Too often we only focus on the sacrifices and not the benefits of the priesthood.