Sadly in the society we live in being a priest or nun isnt “the cool thing”. As a kid i was told by teachers that to be succesful in life you have to make alot of money. This is false, To me having a succesful life is doing God’s will. Kids today have it hard there is so much temptation around them that makes it really difficult to fully follow God. This is the reason for less people becoming priest and nuns.
Love and pray for your enemies and those who persecute you.
Just an observation that applies to everyone. I’m not trying to derail the thread. But does everyone notice how CatholicGuy says “priests and nuns”? This points to another good reason why we do not have enough priests. If I were going to post on both the priesthood and the consecrated life, I would have said, clergy to include deacons, priests and bishops and I would have said religious to include sisters, nuns, and brothers. The point is that today’s Catholic does not always know about the options available to them. We have reduced vocations to priests, nuns and marriage.
Just last night, I was teaching religious education. I teach grade 6. Our one brother who is ordained came by to visit the students. We have seven brothers in a parish, but only one is ordained. In our community all of the friars are called Brother. We rarely use the word friar and never the word Father. We avoid friar because most people don’t know that it means the same as Brother. It’s just the Anglocized version of Frater. We do not call our ordained brothers Father, because it is not part of the original Franciscan custom. The only person who was called Father was Francis of Assisi and he was not a priest.
Anyway, the priest came in to say hello to the kids. The kids engaged with him. My aide, a wonderful lay woman, asked the kids, “Who knows Brother Tony?” Every kid in the room said, “He’s the parish priest.” Those kids know and understand religious life and the priesthood. They know that Brother Tony is a priest, but he is first and foremost a religioius brother along with six other brothers in the parish.
The aid asked them, “Who’s Brother Jeff?” The kids said, “He’s the Guardian.” She asked them if Brother Jeff was a priest and they responded, “No. He’s the superior. He’s Brother Tony’s boss, but he’s not a priest.”
Out of a class of 15 kids (seven boys), four of the boys have come and asked what they have to do to become brothers. One of them asked me if he could become a brother priest. I explained to him that only those brothers whom the Guardian felt are called to be priests are given permission to be ordained. He then asked, what happens if you really want to become a priest. I explained to him that you could opt to be a secular priest and join a diocese, because they do not have a religious superior and it is assumed that everyone who enters a diocesan seminary wants to be a priest. I also explained that only the bishop can tell you whether or not you have a vocation. That you cannot tell if you have a vocation to the be a priest. You can only hope and pray.
The point is that in parishes where kids are exposed to clergy and religious, where the adults know all of the options and where adults explain the options to the kids, and the value of each calling, are you going to get kids inquiring. It becomes interesting to them. These four boys who are asking about being brothers may never become brothers, who knows. But they will leave us knowing that there is such a thing as religious life for men, the Sacrament of Holy Orders with its three orders (deacon, priest and bishop), the difference between the two and how the two are essential to the life of the Church.
The second important point here is that one of them may well become a brother and he may well be an ordained brother, who knows. But if he chooses to join our brotherhood, he will have begun not with some explosive divine revelation, but with a simple curiosity. You cannot be curious if you have never been exposed. Even when you’re exposed, your curiosity is peaked by the beauty of diversity. When you see men and women in different lifestyles you begin to ask questions about similarities and differences.
The first order of the day is for adults to get informed about such matters as Holy Orders and religious life. Adults who are parents, catechists and youth ministers are the ones who have to promote these vocations. But you have to know what the options are and you have to promote them equally and as equal vocations.
I was speaking with a secular (diocesan) priest today. We spoke of this very issue. He said,
“My greatest fear when I deal with you (religious men), is that I know nothing about you. My parents did me a great disservice. They always pushed the priesthood and never mentioned the religious lfie. I’m glad that I’m a priest. But I’m sad that I know very little about religious men. It did not have to be that way. We had religious men in our diocese.”
I thought to myself, how sad it is that the laity doesn’t present all of the options to children, especially at a young age.
I recall my first attraction to the Franciscans was due to the fact that we visited their friary as kids. I was attracted to the fact that they looked, acted and even talked differently from our own priests in our neighborhood. To some that may be a turn-off and that’s ok too. But to me, it was a selling point. I liked the priests in our parish, but the black cassock did nothing for me. On the other hand, the grey Franciscan habit and what I have come to call the disheveled Franciscan look was very attractive, because it seemed very relaxed and very joyful.
Whatever turns kids on is always a mystery. But the fact remains, that it is the duty of adults to expose kids to these different vocations.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
