PRAY for VOCATIONS

      This coming Sunday, April 25, 2021, the Fourth of Easter, is known as Good Shepherd Sunday (because of the Gospel reading).  It has also been designated by the Vatican as World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

     The purpose of World Day of Prayer for Vocations is to publicly fulfill the Lord's instruction to, "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest" (Lk. 10:2).  It affirms the major trust in faith and grace in all that concerns vocations to the priesthood and religious life.  All vocations are important, but we focus on ordained ministries (priests and deacons), consecrated life in all forms for women and men, and secular institutes of service to the Church.  This year marks the 58th year of this Day of Prayer for Vocations.  

     Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, issued a statement for this day thoughts on which I will share in my next post.

     Vocations to roles of dedicated service in the Church are much fewer than they once were.  There are countless reasons for this trend, enough to require study and response, much more than we can meet here.

     Just in terms of priesthood vocations in this Diocese (Greensburg, PA):  we presently have less than ten seminarians in our formation program leading to ordination, despite the prayers of the Church and the hard work of our vocations office ...  when I entered the program (high school level) some 60 years ago this year, we had 21 in our freshman class alone [note: of that number there were two ordained as priests, one of whom has left active ministry, and years later two of the class were ordained to the Permanent Diaconate] ... my first pastor as a priest was Msgr. Augustine C. Marzhauser at Immaculate Conception in Irwin, who when he was ordained for the Pittsburgh Diocese had the experience, along with many in those days, of being sent home after ordination until a place could be found for them, sometimes years later  and requiring him to find a job until called to service.  How times have changed.

     And yet the need of the People of Faith continues to develop in numerous ways, and shepherds are needed.  It is imperative that we continue to pray for, promote, encourage and support our priests and those who are listening for the Call.