NCR: The Coming Vocation Explosion

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DawnInTexas

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National Catholic Register
The Coming Vocation Explosion

Take a look at some of the good news coming from various seminaries across the U.S. and you’ll find that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the Church…

…“A lot of guys … [have] decided that all this stuff they’ve been chasing all of their lives is not as important as they thought it was,” said Father Thomas Knoebel, vice rector for the seminary…

God Bless you.
+Jesus, I Trust In You!
Love, Dawn
 
DawnInTexas said:
National Catholic Register
The Coming Vocation Explosion

Take a look at some of the good news coming from various seminaries across the U.S. and you’ll find that the Holy Spirit is still at work in the Church…

…“A lot of guys … [have] decided that all this stuff they’ve been chasing all of their lives is not as important as they thought it was,” said Father Thomas Knoebel, vice rector for the seminary…

God Bless you.
+Jesus, I Trust In You!
Love, Dawn
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Good News 👍 indeed !!
Thank you for sharing this article, Dawn!
The Holy Spirit would* never** leave the Church and He is** always** at work but not always heard during certain periods.*
*Praise Him :bowdown: **Always *!
 
I’m wondering if the really poor economy – a depression, really, for 20-year-olds – is contributing to the decision to pursue religious life and priesthood?
 
Alan55 said:
I’m wondering if the really poor economy – a depression, really, for 20-year-olds – is contributing to the decision to pursue religious life and priesthood?
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You may have something. There have always been explosions of vocations in times of crisis.

The early heresies gave birth to the monastic life (as we know it) in the East and West

The Middle Ages gave birth to the mendicant and secular orders.

The Protestant Reformation gave birth to the religious congregations

The French Revolution gave birth to the societies of apostolic life

Today, we’re seeing the renewal of the old orders, the birth of new congregations of religious brothers and religious sisters, new institutes of secular clergy and a renewed interest in the secular diocesan priesthood.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Alan55 said:
I’m wondering if the really poor economy – a depression, really, for 20-year-olds – is contributing to the decision to pursue religious life and priesthood?
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Perhaps, but probably only in the awakening that material goods are the foundation of sand, and that it would be better to build one’s future on the foundation of rock that is Christ and His Church.
 
Very hard to exactly distill the uptick in seminary enrollment into 1 prevailing cause. It is more likely a function of several things:
  1. The effect of the economy, particularly on men. Manufacturing out, services in. The absolute advantage of men in the workplace is now gone.
  2. The scarcity of healthy virgins available for marriage, even in the catholic community. Unfortunately, the young women I meet at youth group (the most devout of the devout) don’t take care of themselves physically. I once related to a heavyset young woman at youth group how St. Ignatius stressed the importance of a healthy body in doing God’s work. She didn’t take it well.
  3. The collapse of the consumerist culture. However, any thoughtful man realized how empty this is before the economic troubles began. Love is life. Money is not.
I am 23 years old. I know several guys thinking about the priesthood. They are bright folks, but their employment prospects are not good right now. Their romantic lives are in even worse shape. Freeing oneself from these concerns becomes an attractive option.
 
RoncalliM said:
Very hard to exactly distill the uptick in seminary enrollment into 1 prevailing cause. It is more likely a function of several things:
  1. The effect of the economy, particularly on men. Manufacturing out, services in. The absolute advantage of men in the workplace is now gone.
  2. The scarcity of healthy virgins available for marriage, even in the catholic community. Unfortunately, the young women I meet at youth group (the most devout of the devout) don’t take care of themselves physically. I once related to a heavyset young woman at youth group how St. Ignatius stressed the importance of a healthy body in doing God’s work. She didn’t take it well.
  3. The collapse of the consumerist culture. However, any thoughtful man realized how empty this is before the economic troubles began. Love is life. Money is not.
I am 23 years old. I know several guys thinking about the priesthood. They are bright folks, but their employment prospects are not good right now. Their romantic lives are in even worse shape. Freeing oneself from these concerns becomes an attractive option.
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I don’t believe that it’s ever one single cause. However, I do believe that in times of crisis, God does come to our rescue.

I’m also hoping that these men are entering either the priesthood or the brotherhood because they hear Christ’s voice, not because it’s going to liberate them from the problems of life. We enter a religious order or the diosecan seminary because we have found someone, not because we are running from some thing.

Fraterrnally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
This is great news! 👍 And I just posted about a the highest number of seminarians in over a decade in England!
 
I think this vocation explosion is a result of the conversion explosion first:

catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0252.html
“While a lot of people leave the Church, they tend not to be good Catholics,” says Curtis Martin, president of Catholics United for the Faith, who himself returned to the Church after spending five years as an evangelical Protestant. “The Protestants [now] coming into the Church are the most devoted Protestants, people deeply committed to Scripture and prayer. We’re losing the numbers game but we are winning the quality game in spades.”
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Amen!
 
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