UPDATED: A great Father’s Day note from a reader

UPDATE 19 June:

Today I have received notes from readers saying that they have spotted this Prayer For Vocations in a couple other places as well.  A comment in the combox, below, speaks of one of them. To wit:

[T]he Diocese of Fall River (MA), at the direction of Bishop da Cunha has specified that this prayer, along with the Leonine sequence, be prayed after each Sunday obligatory Mass before the recessional hymn…and there are prayer cards in the pews to help jog the memory.

The place where it was done, with great effect, at St. Agnes all those years was after the Gospel and before the announcements and sermon.  But, hey!  Once this prayer is prayed often by a full and kneeling church, I’m confident that it will obtain many graces and vocations.

And let it be prayed as is.

And the Leonine Prayers!  Do I hear an “Amen!”?

It is such an easy thing to implement.

___ Originally Published on: Jun 18 2017

Here a great message for Father’s Day.

Happy Father’s Day. Thank God for your spiritual fatherhood.

I’m writing to report good news. Some weeks ago, I shared with my pastor your most recent post about your home parish of St. Agnes’ regular recitation of Archbishop Brady’s Prayer for Vocations (HERE). He was receptive, having had just preached on vocations. He asked for my help with the endeavor, and I agreed, but then I didn’t hear any more and assumed nothing would materialize.

At this morning’s Mass, not only did Father express his desire for 24 hour Eucharistic Adoration in the parish, but he also lead us in the Prayer for Vocations and said we will pray it every Sunday. This is also significant because our parish has a high number of visitors from across the country who will now be exposed to the prayer.

Attached as proof is a picture of the prayer, which was printed and affixed to the inside cover of OCP’s Music Issue (making it the most useful part of the entire book). Hopefully I can assist with a more permanent, dignified solution.

Thank you again for your ministry. Family, friends and I made the trip from Estes Park to Littleton when you were preaching the 40 Hours devotion at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in January. Unfortunately we weren’t able to meet; perhaps another time.

Here is the pic of the prayer.

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The original holy card, which I prize.

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About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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4 Comments

  1. abasham says:

    Here’s another cool vocation prayer story you may enjoy. Back when I was in college in the Diocese of Stockton, CA (a liturgical wasteland) I was lucky to find the ONE parish in the city with solid priests and teachings (the pastor has, unfortunately, in the true Spirit of the times, since been banished to the peripheries of the diocese). What they had at that parish was pretty neat: the parish had a large, ornate crucifix, beautifully carved wood if I recall correctly, which was on a stand so it could be placed on a table, desk, etc. Each week after the main mass it was given to a family that promised to pray for vocations, and each week the previous family would pass it on to the next one and receive a blessing. Innovations surrounding mass aren’t generally a good thing, but I thought this was a very creative and excellent idea!

  2. CaliCatholicGuy says:

    Abasham – we have something similar at our parish – there was an old chalice left behind by a deceased priest from many years ago. If I remember correctly the parish restored it and then families can “check it out” for a week at a time to take it home and pray for an increase in priestly vocations.

    I think it would be cool if a future priest from our parish receives it as an ordination present.

  3. Noting in passing that the Diocese of Fall River (MA), at the direction of Bishop da Cunha has specified that this prayer, along with the Leonine sequence, be prayed after each Sunday obligatory Mass before the recessional hymn…and there are prayer cards in the pews to help jog the memory.

    Yes, some people left before the recessional (rude…)…but the majority stayed and heartily joined in. Would that more bishops have the fortitude to do this. (St. Anne’s Shrine is an old French-Canadian parish…sadly eviscerated in terms of attendance…down from hourly Masses on Sunday morning to one at 10AM and staffed by single diocesan priest instead of the cloister-full of Canadian Dominicans), but still alive and kicking (helps that the parish is on the National Register of Historic Places…you can see the building to the south on the top of the hill as you cross the bridge into Fall River on I195).

    Pray for vocations…and thank your spiritual Fathers, our gracious host included!

  4. LuisaP says:

    all of this is very, very good and wonderful……. my only addition would be to say marriage is also a vocation; it was first one, in fact. While we pray for and surely need priests, we also need to pray that when a Catholic marries he or she will only be willing to marry another practicing Catholic. And yes, I am aware of how “..I know a case where a ‘mixed’ marriage worked out…” stuff. Nonetheless, I pray that Catholics marry Catholics for reasons which are painfully obvious if one checks the environment.

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