In light of my post about the 20 year high in vocations to the priesthood in these USA, I received this:
Thank you for your Blog.
I saw the article you posted on the increase of Priestly Vocations.
Thanks be to God.
I am in need of a Prayer for Vocations.
I thought you had one on the Blog, but I can not find it. [Ah, yes!]
The one that was on the USCCB’s web site is down :( I am not wishing to burden you with writing one, but am looking for one you may know of or have already.
I am involved with 2 different meetings / workshops this week with Catholic Men. K of C (Council 7027) on Thursday and Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee Men’s Prayer Breakfast on Saturday. I will share this good news on Priestly Vocations with them, pray with them, and wish to leave them a prayer for Vocations. [My greetings to them.]
Thanks again for all you do.
Yes, indeed. At my home parish in my native place – St. Agnes in St. Paul, Minnesota – we prayed for vocations at ever Sunday and Holy Day Mass after the Gospel (everyone knelt) and before the announcements/sermon. That prayer, combined with the effortless efforts of the late Msgr. Schuler, produced 30 1st Masses in the parish in 33 years. I’ll get back there someday, perhaps.
Here is the prayer:
LEADER: Please kneel for our prayer for vocations.
ALL: O God, we earnestly beseech Thee to bless this (arch)diocese with many priests, brothers and sisters, who will gladly spend their entire lives to serve Thy Church and to make Thee known and loved.
LEADER: Bless our families. Bless our children.
ALL: Choose from our homes those who are needed for Thy work.
LEADER: Mary, Queen of the Clergy!
ALL: Pray for us. Pray for our priests and religious. Obtain for us many more.
A friend back home sent me one of the original holy cards, which I prize.
It isn’t mysterious, people.
Hard-identity Catholicism, true, faithful and joy-filled, produces vocations. At the heart of this hard-identity Catholicism is faithful, dignified liturgical worship and the unambiguous fidelity of priests who provide an example.
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Breath of fresh air from fifty years ago! None of the squishy social-justice patter that would soon start giving social justice a bad name.
Amen and glad to hear of the rise in vocations, praise God. My opinion is that good, strong, orthodox Catholic families produce good, strong, orthodox priests. I would love to see a statistics from the States on how many of the new seminarians are from home schooling or strong, independent Catholic schools.
Few bishops are not faced with hard decisions re: closing or merging parishes. I think one
of the criteria used in making the decision should be whether or not the parish in question
has produced vocations in proportion to its size.
The parish of my college years was large (3 priests, usually a seminarian doing his diaconate
year, plenty of full-time staff, including a ‘liturgist’) and had thousands of Catholic students,
faculty and residents of the city to fill its pews. It was also breathtakingly heterodox, and in
the 5 years I attended, produced not one vocation. Contrast that with my present parish,
which hosts an EF Mass every Sunday as part of its regular schedule of Masses. It is much,
much smaller and less affluent than the parish of my college days. Yet our diocese is seldom
without at least one of our parishioners in its seminary.
Luke 13:6-9 speaks of what one might sensibly do with a barren fig tree… just sayin’.
I attend a parish in the St Paul Archdiocese. A few years ago we said that prayer during every Sunday mass. (Last year we said a prayer for the year of Faith). Now with the start of Advent we have begun to say this prayer again. It’s interesting… I didn’t realize the prayer was that old. The copy we have in the pews state that it was written by Archbishop Harry Flynn.
I know of a few vocations recently from our Parish. I hope we have many more!
Great post, Fr. Z.
I teach Religion to about 60 young men a year who are freshmen in high school. Please pray for me and all teachers who try to bring the Light of Faith to our young people.
I always wondered about the origin of this prayer. It is recited at every Mass at the great Mater Ecclesiae in Berlin, NJ (home of the mighty Father Pasley), and I have adopted it for nightly recitation in our family bedtime prayers. Thanks for this post.
Data from Georgetown’s CARA center show a rise in diosesan priests globally since 1985, and a major rise in seminarians and ordinations. The religious orders continue to founder, but it appears the changes put in by JP II and B XVI are bearing fruit -globally. The US data is interestingly showing a rise (off a low base) in ordinations, but a rise in seminarians.
30 first Masses in 33 years…what glory is given to God. Now, compare that to my current parish (not of my choice, but of necessity.) Nothing there happens that’s really heretical in terms of teaching, or abusive in terms of liturgy…but vocations get an honorable mention in the bidding prayers after praying for racial equality, if they get a mention at all. Our Catholic identity ain’t the strongest, either. As far as I know, we have had 1 first Mass in the last decade.
Heavenly Father,We ask you to bless our diocese with selfless hearts that are willing to serve You, by serving Your Church. Lord Jesus raise up from our homes those called by the Father: courageous and humble men to the Priesthood, faithful people to Consecrated Life and holy men and women to the sacrament of Marriage. Holy Spirit, help us to live our universal vocation to holiness, by listening to the Father’s voice and responding with a sacrificial love. Holy Mary, Model of Vocations, teach us to hear and follow your Son. Holy Mary, Queen of Priests, sanctify our priests and obtain for us many more.Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for our families and intercede for our children.
http://www.hbgdiocese.org/clergy/vocations/vocation-prayer/
Well, the prayers are working here in Salem, Oregon!
Our oldest son, Joshua, is hopefully heading to seminary this Fall for the Archdiocese of Portland. He has only been Catholic for 2 1/2 years. He told his dad and me he was being called to the priesthood before he even joined The Church (I am a revert & his dad and siblings came Home at the same time). This was most surprising as he never once thought of going into ministry while growing up as an evangelical. It’s been a very interesting journey we have all been traveling so far, and after reading your post, I feel compelled more than ever to pray for the young men and women all over the world who are discerning priesthood and religious life.
@supertradmum- my kids were all homeschooled, and Joshua is graduating from Thomas More College in New Hampshire this May.
It is no wonder that of the men in seminary in St. Paul MN there is such a disproportionate number of them who claim St. Agnes as their home parish.
We still say it at St. Agnes Fr. Z. Please come back, just for a visit? :) Also, at the parish my sister and her husband attend, St. Joseph’s in West St. Paul, they say the same prayer at Mass and their vocations have been steadily increasing as well.
Same story at Saint Charles Borromeo in Northeast Minneapolis. I was just there this past Sunday for their celebration of the 75th anniversary of the parish, with Bishop Piche (one of the bishops from that parish) celebrating the mass with 6 or 7 of the current and former pastors, both of the deacons, and the parish’s 4 seminarians we have currently stateside. (It is not often that you see gold vestments in Advent.) When compiling a list of parishes ranked by seminary representation, Saint Charles is always up there with Saint Agnes.
Love the good news of this post, and the comments as well.