"My Question Is..."

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Sister_Helena said:
My question is: What have you done in this Year of Priests (it will be ending June 2010)? Is there any one priest who helped you along your life’s way?
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What have I done?

I have traveled around the Archdiocese teaching priests how to hear the confessions of post abortion mothers and what to say.

I have said many prayers for several priests, especially a dear friend who is in serious spiritual crisis.

This was not me, but our community, we gave our ordained friars a ticket to go to Rome for the closing of the year of the priest. It took a lot of work to get those tickets tool.

Is there a priest who helped me along the way?

Not really. I was educated by our friars and we were not allowed to know who was a priest and who was not. They were all Brother. Now I know which ones were ordained. But the time that I was going through my soul searching, they were Brother and there were several who were just the bridge between me and sanity. One of them was a young Cuban Brother, whom I would later find out that he was ordained. He was the most humble and warmest person whom I ever met. He was our school janitor. He always had something funny to say or just a second to ask us why we had a sour face. I remember that he was scrubbing the bathroom and I walked in very upset with my math teacher. He asked me what was going on. I told him nothing. He said, “Well maybe that’s why you’re frowing. Maybe you need to make something good happen.” It was the best piece of advice I ever got. He went back to mopping. At the time, I did not know that he was a priest, because the brothers only had mass inside the enclosure and we were not allowed there.

I didn’t find out that he was a priest until I was a novice and he celebrated the conventual mass, aftewhich he went back to being the janitor. I should not say that he was awesome, because he’s still alive. He is awesome and he’s still a janitor, just at a parish.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Sister_Helena said:
My question is: What have you done in this Year of Priests (it will be ending June 2010)? Is there any one priest who helped you along your life’s way?
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Well, my parish priest had a prayer program where one family a week would take home a statue of St. John Vianney he was given as a young priest along with a set of prayers for the family to pray on for an increase in vocations. My family was the first to take it home and it was wonderful. It was the first time that my family had gathered together to pray like that and while it was abit awkward at first, by the end of the week it was something we all looked forward to. We then gave the staue and prayers to another family at the end of the week, but we found we missed our prayer time together! So we find other things to pray for as a family now. But it was a wonderful program that still continues. I am also a member of our parish vocations committee. I hope in some small way, that my families prayers and my work on vocations have brought somebody to consider their vocation.

I am also discerning whether to take the evangelical vows through the Passionist Congregation and I am being helped and guided by a wonderful Passionist priest. He has touched my life in a special way and whether or not I go on to take the vows, he has helped me to truly move forward in my spiritual life.

I do not know where I would be without two such wonderful priests in my life. I am blessed!🙂
 
I have spiritually adopted many wonderful priests and seminarians, including two very good friends of mine, and have been praying and offering my sacrifices for all priests and seminarians in a special way this year.

JMJ+
~Betsy

Totus tuus Maria! Let’s see what the good God wills.
 
What, in your opinion, is the biggest obstacle to a religious vocation, in this day and age? How to overcome it?
 
Sister_Helena said:
What, in your opinion, is the biggest obstacle to a religious vocation, in this day and age? How to overcome it?
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Wow, that is quite a question…

There alot of obstacles IMHO, but the biggest problem has to be with the modern family. Todays families are much smaller than they were only a generation ago. If you had 6 sons, you hoped and prayed that at least one would become a priest or religious, but today, if you only have one son, a family is unlikely to want to see him become a priest or religious. That is not what a “successful” man or woman does these days. We also have far to few families even going to Church today, so if the parents aren’t going, the kids aren’t going, so most kids have little to no exposure to even consider a religious vocation.

Unless families grow again, which is becoming less likely, and families get themselves back to Church, I have to believe there is little hope in seeing any major increase in vocations…😦
 
The biggest obstacle to vocations to both there clerical state or the religious life is the laity itself. It’s sense of entitlement and its sense of its importance in the Church is over inflated to the point that it sets a very bad example for the young.

On Sunday I attended mass at a parish where I volunteer to do youth ministry. We normally receive the new postulants on Pentecost Sunday. The priest agreed to combine the mass with the reception ceremony. Sixteen men were received as postulants.

We had agreed with the pastor to do this together at the evening mass, which is the mass that the youth attend. The pastor thought it would be a great way to tie in the events of Pentecost in a way that is visibly meaningful to the young and promotes vocations to the brotherhood. This pastor is a secular priest. But he is very close to our community because six of our brothers taught him theology at the major seminary. So he loves religious brothers and is always promoting vocations to the brotherhood.

Everything was going fine. At the end of mass I was speaking to one of the youth who was asking about the postulancy. I said to the young man, “When you finish college, I hope to see you here entering our postulancy program.”

No sooner had I said that when a parishioner stepped right up into my face and snapped, “You brothers have a lot of nerve encouraging these young boys to waste their life and the Catholic people’s money being brothers, when we have such a great need for priests.” I was in awe.

When I recovered my voice I said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t make these calls. Christ calls those whom he wants to where ever he wants them.” She shot back at me, “Christ would never call someone to waste his time as a brother, when we need priests. Just look at all of you. You should be ashamed of yourself. How many years did you spend in school?”

I calmly responded that I had gone through the usual formation program for my community: four years of college, four years of theology and three years for a doctorate in theology. But that’s standard requirement for our brothers because of the type of ministry in which we engage, even though we only ordain enough men to celebrate the sacraments for our religious alone, not for the public sector. We do a great deal of work in moral issues and in care of souls, because of our work preaching and teaching the Gospel of Life and that’s why we require a very good theological education.

She said, “And you don’t think that’s wrong, wasting our money and not putting it to good use?” And she stormed away. I was confused. I was unsure whether to laugh or throw baseball at the back of her head. The boy who was asking the question, a 17-year old, looked at me and siad, “What’s her problem?” Three of the new postulants were standing next to me and one asked, “Do the brothers always get treated so well?” I laughed and said, “It only gets better my son.”

I had another man get very angry at me one time for impersonating a priest. I asked him how he came to that conclusion. He said, “Why do the brothers all call you Father when you’re not a priest?” I seriously thought that he was misunderstanding so I explained, "It’s a very ancient tradition in the Franciscan family to call the superior Father Guardian. But most brothers just say, Father, because it’s shorter, just like many women religiuos just say Mother instead of Mother Superior or Reverend Mother. He just looked at me and said, “It’s a shame to humiliate these men like this.” I was like, “What just happened?”

I shared this with the brothers, who were in shock that someone would speak to the superior of the religious house that way and in shock that someone would assume to believe that they felt humiliated in any way, because they must call their superior Father or Father Guardian. One young brother commented to me that he had always felt that the laity could not be understood. They prayed for vocations, but they seemed to feel that they had the power to decide what vocations and who has a vocation.

I believe that this young brother is very wise. These two events are excellent examples. Other religious men have had similar encounters where the laity have put road blocks up for the young and discouraged them. The worse part is that people do not realize what a grave sin it is to intervene between a call from Christ and the person being called. It’s a deliberate attempt to sabbotage what Christ has begun in the soul.

Those are just my experiences, for what they’re worth. So don’t take them to the bank. LOL

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Quiet a question!

I think the bigger obstacle for vocation is family. Jesus said He didn’t came to bring peace, but He came as a sword to separate mother and son, brother and sister… He also said Blessed those who leave their family for me… I don’t think He wants us to fight with them because He also said we have to Honor our father and mother, and it´s one of our ten commandments, but I think that what He meant is that the Love for the Holy Father is bigger than everything, even bigger than our family. And if He wants us to do something we have to be strong enough and respectfully stand in front of our parents and say I love you but I adore God above everything. I mean, I love my parents because they brought me to life, but who did create me? God Himself! and Who even creates my parents, sister, uncles, brother, aunts, grandma, etc??? GOD DID EVERYTHING! So why should we put family first!

It’s very easy in theory but in practice is not easy at all, I think I’m living this process right now. And what is driving me crazy is that I feel very bad because I know my dad has been doing an enormeous effort for giving me all, but the meanful thing he gave me is my studies, and he have been very patient with me because before my conversion I was a rebeld, and and he waited patiently for me. I offended him in many ways, so I think I feel a little bit more… In my case, I’m thinking about pleased God more than everything and my parents too, I know that Jesus said that we cannot serve two owner, but He knows that by serving my parents I’m amending one of my past and worldly past. So I will pleased my dad which is gonna take two years in college, while I am serving my God by serving my neighbor, and then I’m gonna pleased God by becoming a nun! I think it would be better also because I just convert so I need to growth a little bit more in my spirit to serve God as He deserves.

Marry Jesus is the bigger gift ever, so I think for doing it I have to be completely sure, and right now more than ever because we -from our humble position- should help the Holy Church, more right now than ever because the evil is trying to destroy Jesus’ heritage, and we should stand and defend it! By praying (I think prays is the real atomic bomb, by praying we can win the bigger war), serving the Church and having a life attached to the Holly scripture!

P.D: you know what is funny??? If I read this like two months ago, I would say that who writes this is crazy! 😛 … and God showed His greatness to me, a worldly sinner and I converted and came back home! And now I’m happy than ever! Let me also said that I assisted to the Protestant Church for maybe 2 months before I came back and it didn’t bring the happiness I feel in the Catholic Church, every time that Jesus Body touches my tongue I can feel my heart galloping as horse, so happy! I can’t believe I didn’t realize this before, my mom says I pray too much, and I always said that I have to recover all the time I waste away from God! Every-time I pray the Rosary is like I´m talking with my Beautiful Virgin Mary and Her Divine Son! And it´s unbelievable how is effective, like 2 weeks a girl was robbed in the building is next to the one I live, and my mom heard everything and ran to the window to see what happened, she came to me and said: “somebody was robbed, they took a girl car!” And I said don’t worry I will pray a Rosary and she would find it… I don’t know why I said so sure about it, I guess my faith is even bigger I can think, so I prayed for it, I can tell you I knew My Divine Mother heard me, and 3 days after my mom told me, the girl who was robbed is the niece of one of our neighbor in our building who live in the building next ours, and she recovered the car! isn’t great? many people would think it wasn’t my pray but 'm convinced The Rosary is one of the greatest gun to fight this war, and it was giving to us to the Mother of our Jesus Herself, that’s why all the Priest, Nuns and the Pope are always is my prayers, because I know this is the real Church of Jesus and my prayers help a little bit, which is a lot right?

God blesses you all, and Mary, our Saint Mother protects us and advocates for us in front of Holly Father!
 
JReducation said:
The biggest obstacle to vocations to both there clerical state or the religious life is the laity itself. It’s sense of entitlement and its sense of its importance in the Church is over inflated to the point that it sets a very bad example for the young.

On Sunday I attended mass at a parish where I volunteer to do youth ministry. We normally receive the new postulants on Pentecost Sunday. The priest agreed to combine the mass with the reception ceremony. Sixteen men were received as postulants.

We had agreed with the pastor to do this together at the evening mass, which is the mass that the youth attend. The pastor thought it would be a great way to tie in the events of Pentecost in a way that is visibly meaningful to the young and promotes vocations to the brotherhood. This pastor is a secular priest. But he is very close to our community because six of our brothers taught him theology at the major seminary. So he loves religious brothers and is always promoting vocations to the brotherhood.

Everything was going fine. At the end of mass I was speaking to one of the youth who was asking about the postulancy. I said to the young man, “When you finish college, I hope to see you here entering our postulancy program.”

No sooner had I said that when a parishioner stepped right up into my face and snapped, “You brothers have a lot of nerve encouraging these young boys to waste their life and the Catholic people’s money being brothers, when we have such a great need for priests.” I was in awe.

When I recovered my voice I said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t make these calls. Christ calls those whom he wants to where ever he wants them.” She shot back at me, “Christ would never call someone to waste his time as a brother, when we need priests. Just look at all of you. You should be ashamed of yourself. How many years did you spend in school?”

I calmly responded that I had gone through the usual formation program for my community: four years of college, four years of theology and three years for a doctorate in theology. But that’s standard requirement for our brothers because of the type of ministry in which we engage, even though we only ordain enough men to celebrate the sacraments for our religious alone, not for the public sector. We do a great deal of work in moral issues and in care of souls, because of our work preaching and teaching the Gospel of Life and that’s why we require a very good theological education.

She said, “And you don’t think that’s wrong, wasting our money and not putting it to good use?” And she stormed away. I was confused. I was unsure whether to laugh or throw baseball at the back of her head. The boy who was asking the question, a 17-year old, looked at me and siad, “What’s her problem?” Three of the new postulants were standing next to me and one asked, “Do the brothers always get treated so well?” I laughed and said, “It only gets better my son.”

I had another man get very angry at me one time for impersonating a priest. I asked him how he came to that conclusion. He said, “Why do the brothers all call you Father when you’re not a priest?” I seriously thought that he was misunderstanding so I explained, "It’s a very ancient tradition in the Franciscan family to call the superior Father Guardian. But most brothers just say, Father, because it’s shorter, just like many women religiuos just say Mother instead of Mother Superior or Reverend Mother. He just looked at me and said, “It’s a shame to humiliate these men like this.” I was like, “What just happened?”

I shared this with the brothers, who were in shock that someone would speak to the superior of the religious house that way and in shock that someone would assume to believe that they felt humiliated in any way, because they must call their superior Father or Father Guardian. One young brother commented to me that he had always felt that the laity could not be understood. They prayed for vocations, but they seemed to feel that they had the power to decide what vocations and who has a vocation.

I believe that this young brother is very wise. These two events are excellent examples. Other religious men have had similar encounters where the laity have put road blocks up for the young and discouraged them. The worse part is that people do not realize what a grave sin it is to intervene between a call from Christ and the person being called. It’s a deliberate attempt to sabbotage what Christ has begun in the soul.

Those are just my experiences, for what they’re worth. So don’t take them to the bank. LOL

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Sorry, Brother JR, that is pitiful behavior indeed. I like to think it was more ignorance about the life of brothers. it is true that laity seems to be more encouraging with Sisters and priests than Brothers. I also seem to get the impression that a family is very open to pray for vocations until it realizes that God is asking it of their son or daughter! Too close for comfort!
 
Sister_Helena said:
Sorry, Brother JR, that is pitiful behavior indeed. I like to think it was more ignorance about the life of brothers. it is true that laity seems to be more encouraging with Sisters and priests than Brothers. I also seem to get the impression that a family is very open to pray for vocations until it realizes that God is asking it of their son or daughter! Too close for comfort!
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This takes us back to where I began, the laity. God calls men and women to follow him in either the clerical state or the religious life. But where does he call these men and women from? He calls them from among the faithful.
  • When the faithful begin to put conditions on the call, they become an obstacle. You’ve hit on one condition that the faithful often put on God and I hit on another. Let’s examine what it amounts to.
  • Please send us more priests and religious (meaning sisters, not nuns, monks, hermits, friars, brothers). Deacons are not even mentioned.
  • Please send us more vocations (but not my child).
Then you have the parents, relatives and friends who raise the objections to a son who wants to be a brother, monk or hermit or to the daughter who is called to be a nun, instead of a sister or join a very austere community such as the Missionaries of Charity. This is very discouraging to the person who is discerning a vocation.

The young hear the faithful praying for vocations at mass and as they leave the church they hear criticisms and vitriol about the Church. I have a postulant who came to us after we encouraged him to tell his parents that this was not their concern. After trying very hard to help these parents come to term with the fact that the son felt called to the religious life, we had to tell the young man that the only way that we could accept him was if he stood up to his parents and reminded them that they had no moral right to sabotage a vocation. They wanted him to do it their way. They wanted him to go to the diocesan seminary because if he joined the diocese he would remain in the area. But Christ seems to be calling in another direction.

The bottom line here is that we have to get on the same page with Christ and accept that he’s not going to accommodate to us and our requirements or our needs. He has a bigger plan for the salvation of the world.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Hey,

What exactly do you do in Secular Institutions? I’ve always got the impression that they were more “active”, but in what way exactly?
 
My question is this: If you can give a vocation director an advice on how to attract vocations, what will it be?
 
Sister_Helena said:
My question is this: If you can give a vocation director an advice on how to attract vocations, what will it be?
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I would tell them to concentrate on the altar boys. The local parishes should really get back to looking towards the altar boys for vocations. I know most Church’s have both boys and girls these days, but we cannot forget that these were the young men that the Church once would look to for vocations, are I think this is now a neglected group as far as vocations to the priesthood and religious goes.

There is a program called the Knights of the Altar and I think if it were implemented, it would do alot to make altar boys recognise whether or not they have a calling. It is organised in a somewhat similar fashion to the Knights of Columbus. Young boys can be promoted, given additions to their tunics to show seniority and knowledge and they can actually run this organisation. I think it is a great program and parish’s interested in bringing in vocations, would do well to look into this…

Oh! And show them Fishers of Men! What a great short movie!😃
 
jimcav said:
I would tell them to concentrate on the altar boys. The local parishes should really get back to looking towards the altar boys for vocations. I know most Church’s have both boys and girls these days, but we cannot forget that these were the young men that the Church once would look to for vocations, are I think this is now a neglected group as far as vocations to the priesthood and religious goes.

There is a program called the Knights of the Altar and I think if it were implemented, it would do alot to make altar boys recognise whether or not they have a calling. It is organised in a somewhat similar fashion to the Knights of Columbus. Young boys can be promoted, given additions to their tunics to show seniority and knowledge and they can actually run this organisation. I think it is a great program and parish’s interested in bringing in vocations, would do well to look into this…

Oh! And show them Fishers of Men! What a great short movie!😃
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Jim, I like this idea. However, we must be very careful not to make the mistake that was made during the early 20th century or we will pay dearly again. What I see on these threads is a desire to return to the days when vocations meant priests and religious sisters.

While we want more priests and religious sisters, the religious orders are trying promote religious life for men and we’re trying very hard. At a recent meating of vocation directors one othe concerns voiced by male vocation directors was the priestly focus of vocation work. The discussion addressed the issue that vocation recruitment must be holistic. You need to show the lay faithful that there are: male and female religius, secular deacons and priests, and some who are both, religious and priests.

If you focus only on priests you do religious life a disservice, because it’s not about the priesthood. If you focus on religious life, you do a disservice to Holy Orders. You certainly want to keep the numbers of deacons coming, because we need them too. Let’s not forget the nuns. Yes, we need sisters to run the external apostolates, but we also need the nuns to support the spiritual life of the Church.

The answer is to exercise a more comprehensive vocation ministry. Otherwise we’re gong to end up as we did during the first half of the 20th century. This may have been fine for the person in the pews, but it was not fine for the person in the cloister. We lost many good religious as a result of rampant clericalism. Especially when we tried to put clerics back into their proper place in the community, many rebelled. They did not want to return to the community life. They had enjoyed being very free of community life and had enjoyed running their religious orders, when they should not have been doing either. They should have been living the conventual life with their brothers in communities of equals, not running around the parish 24/7. Even secular deacons and priests are not supposed to run around a parish 24/7.

Each person has to exercise his ministry within the context of his calling: secular or religious. The ministry does not drive the way of life, the way of life drives the ministry. That’s why a Jesuit who is a priest and a Carmelite who is a priest should not look alike. Their respective ways of life should define how they exercise the priestly ministry, where they do so, when they do so and to whom they minister.

The same is true of women religious. We do not want teachers who are sisters. We want sisters who teach and so forth. I don’t want to go to a hospital and have a Carmelite Sister who is a nurse and a Dominican Sister who is a nurse approaching nursing from the same perspective. Neither entered the convent to be a nurse. They entered the convent to be women religious within a religious tradition. When a Carmelite nurse cares for me, I want to feel the Carmelite spirit and the same appleis to a Dominican.

We seem to want to turn back to the 1950s where the only difference between a Carmelite and a Dominican nurse were their habits. That’s why Vatican II called for a recovery of the roots. Prior there was a difference. The Daughters of Charity were the largest nursing community in the Church and the Sisters of St. Joseph right behind them. But prior to 1900 you could tell the difference in their spirituality by the way they did their work, where they worked, whom they served, how they structured their day and many other details. These were lost by the time that Vatican II came around.

Ask Sister. Their community is a nursing community. But it’s a very different approach to nursing than the Franciscan approach. Our nursing sisters do not serve the same population. That’s just a beginning of the difference. The Carmelite nurses are more contemplative while the Franciscan nurses are much more social service oriented, the Missionaries of Charity are much more oriented to the destitute and so forth.

To go back to my point, the vocation ministry must be global. You cannot narrow the focus to priests and some generic image of sisters. That would take us back to 1950. That led us to a lot of trouble. The generation that entered after 1950 was the generation of the massive exodus. In fact, the number of religious men and women, the number of secular priests and secular deacons that leave today is far smaller than that between 1965 and 1980. It’s not just because the numbers are smaller, the proportions are smaller.

That generation lost 60% of their people. Today we lose about 3%. The stronger the charism the less vocations, but also the greater the stability.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
I think one thing that could attract vocation aside from the fine distinction of each communities is having a short talk about religious life through parishes (could be at the end of the mass) not only during vocation month or a talk made especially for parents since a lot of them are not well informed about the life. There are those men and women willing to offer their lives to God but don’t know much about the life so placing a poster with the contact number/s of the community in the parishes really helps.

A religious habit is a source of attraction as well, it should be a necessity to a community to wear a habit. 👍
 
Voc said:
I think one thing that could attract vocation aside from the fine distinction of each communities is having a short talk about religious life through parishes (could be at the end of the mass) not only during vocation month or a talk made especially for parents since a lot of them are not well informed about the life. There are those men and women willing to offer their lives to God but don’t know much about the life so placing a poster with the contact number/s of the community in the parishes really helps.

A religious habit is a source of attraction as well, it should be a necessity to a community to wear a habit. 👍
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There is so much misconceptions and presumptions about religious life out there that it is becoming a priority to really catechize people about religious life. There are plenty of efforts by vocation directors to accommodate demands for vocation talks in parishes but sometimes the demands are just too great for too few vocation directors. That’s why I try to contribute through my blogs on vocation talks and prayers. The participation of religious in forums such as this also helps I think.
 
When someone came across with no one to talk to about religious matters, the internet is just one click away. Having a religious on the net assist discerners so much, it is also a means of consolation.

A sister could give talk right after the homily or before the mass ends I mean ( I wrote “after the mass”… people have gone out by that time :D). Sunday is always the best day since a lot of people from all walks of life come to mass. I really think this is very effective as someone told me about her mother who does not agree that much to the idea of religious life suddenly begun to mention it to her, expressing her yes to her daughter. She believed that it was about a short talk by a sister right after the priest’s homily, she focused more on the parents part which by the grace of God enlightened her mother that day. She was ever so thankful that the sisters visit their parish.
 
JReducation said:
Jim, I like this idea. However, we must be very careful not to make the mistake that was made during the early 20th century or we will pay dearly again. What I see on these threads is a desire to return to the days when vocations meant priests and religious sisters.

While we want more priests and religious sisters, the religious orders are trying promote religious life for men and we’re trying very hard. At a recent meating of vocation directors one othe concerns voiced by male vocation directors was the priestly focus of vocation work. The discussion addressed the issue that vocation recruitment must be holistic. You need to show the lay faithful that there are: male and female religius, secular deacons and priests, and some who are both, religious and priests.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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I certainly didn’t mean to alienate the religious Brother.

I have a special love for the religious myself, and as you know, I visit and make use of a monastery near my home very often. I am both fascinated and drawn to the congregation I visit and worship with there. If I were to choose between being a parish priest or a religious, I would almost certainly choose the religious path. I also agree that we should be teaching the young and the not-so-young, all about religious life. It certanly is not all about the parish priest, I agree.

The idea I presented however, would seem to work best for the parish’s however. The altar boys are definetly a place to seek out future parish priests and I think to many parishes and diosceses do a poor job with the altar boy program. Now I guess a religious order could invite the local Church’s altar boys to come in for a visit, couldn’t they? That way, altar boys would have some exposure to the religious life to! Hmmmm? How about it Brother JR?😃
 
Please allow me to clarify. Jim did not alienate me. But this is a very sensitive issue, especially for Franciscans and many Benedictine communities. We do want to promote vocations to Holy Orders and to the religious life. But during the last couple of years we have found ourselves clashing with lay people who want to return to a time and way that did a great deal of damage to us.

The clash has to do with the fact that most people in the pews and many sisters did not realize that incorrect vocation promoting of priests wrecked havoc on the non clerical orders such as the Benedictines and Franciscans. We’re not the only non-clerical orders, but we are the largest. We are trying to impress upon these good people that in promoting vocations among men, the distinction must be very clear between the call to Holy Orders and the consecrated life. As the popes have been saying repeatedly during the last years, the Church needs both, consecrated religious men and ordained men. A man can be both or be one.

If you look at any Franciscan site on the net, you will find that the focus is the Gospel as lived by Francis. The focus is not the priesthood. We’re not recruiting priests. If they come, we welcome them. But we are recruiting men who will personify the Gospel as Francis did. Look a any Benedictine site and you will see the focus on the Liturgy of the Hours. They’re not recruiting priests. They’re recruiting men who will carry on the great ministry of St. Benedict: stability, prayer, silence and solitude. The operative words have to be consistent with the life that the founders had in mind, not with what we see as a need. God will provide secular clergy for the parishes or clerical institutes that do parish work.

For those who really want to promote vocations please keep in mind that the Church is bigger than the local parish. There are many needs. The greatest need is for men and women who will be true contemplatives in silence, solitude and stability. Without them, the Church will not stand. They are the spiritual backbone that supports the rest of us.

If we want to keep that rich tradition of the consecrated life as lived by males, we have to step back and proclaim it to others. Last night I preached at a mass in a parish where I’m unknown. Afterward, people kept coming and calling us Father. We corrected them. We pointed to our superior who was present and told the people that he was the only one whom they could call Father. One person said, “I didn’t realize that he is priest.” When I told the person that Father is not a priest, but he is the only one who is called Father, because he is the superior, the person looked at me as if I had just spoken in a foreign language. I explained that St. Francis founded a family of brothers and sisters and that our call is to live the Gospel in the manner that he lived it and the manner that he ordered us to live it, not to be priests. There was a young boy, about 10 years old. He said, “I get it. You’re supposed to be Jesus’ brothers, right? And you’re supposed to take care of the poor, the sick and the people who are not yet born, right?” I had to smile and congratulate the little boy. He got the message better than the adults. He truly understood the Franciscan life.

By the way, the little boy and I parted with an agreement. He said asked me how old one has to be to become a brother in our community and how many years of school. I told him that you have to be at least 18 to enter and you have to go through 10 years of college before you can make final vows. If you are called to be a priest, it’s two more years. He was so cute. He used his fingers to do the math. He said, “Well, I want to take care of the sick and the babies. I don’t want to say mass. Can I come I come in eight years?” I gave him a card with my name and number. Today I got a text message from him. He misspelled Francis (Frances), LOL. The secret to getting more men to enter the religious life is to market the religious life. Everyone knows what deacons and priests are. But most Catholics have no clue what makes a male religious different from a deacon or priest. And most Catholics have no clue that priests can be religious. They believe that there is such a thing as a Franciscan priesthood, Carmelite priesthood, a Dominican priesthood and so forth. There is only one priesthood. There are clerical orders and non-clerical orders. That’s the difference. Although, most non-clerical orders do accept priests. These men simply do other ministries that most priests do not do: cleaning, cooking, shelters, soup kitchens, teaching, street ministry, pro-life, nursing, and more.

We had a talk with a sister at one of the local Catholic schools. She really means well, but she does not get it either. Our superior had to speak to her about it. She kept pointing the boys to the Franciscan Fathers. Our superior had to explain to her that we are neither Dominican nor Carmelites, who were founded as clerical institutes. Therefore, we’re not the Franciscan Fathers, but Franciscan Brothers or Franciscan Friars. She was a little miffed that Father would tell her that we’re not recruiting priests, we’re recruiting religious. She was even more miffed when Father (who is not a priest), told her that she should also mention the permanent deacons in her vocation talk and the nuns. She did not understand why Father was promoting the deacons and nuns, since we do not allow men to be permanent deacons. The nuns did not register in her head. I’m not sure why not. That one is a mystery to me. Maybe I wrongly assumed that all women religious understood the difference between a nun and a sister and would promote both ways of life for women.

Vocation ministry has to promote the life and work of each call, because it has to draw in men and women who will fulfill the mission and vision of the Church.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
I have this case. A woman who longs and can only find fulfillment in life by being a religious sister is paying her debts for many years. My question is: if she is indeed called by God and she felt really called why would she be in such obstacle that would make her suffer spiritually and physically? This debt is not forever, she could still be a sister one day but why would the call fall too early why not after so she wont be able to suffer much, some might acquire illness that would put end to their dreams. Is this some kind of test or this is the will of God? To try reaching the dream but in the end never reached it. I’m just wondering…
 
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