We don’t have a lot of altar boys…or kids that serve in general. I’ve heard of the Quo Vadis Days though. I’m very encouraged that our seminary has one of the biggest groups starting this fall in a long time. But I think it will be a very long time before we have more then one priest…
Yes, each bishop in the world has information on what seminarians indicate what are their major inspirations to investigate a vocation. It is part of the discernment process. This information is thus known to the bishops and provided to the Congregation for the Clergy.
I have: I served, my eldest son is servering, my second son is 8 months old, so I’ll give him a few more years
Since it can only come from boys, and priests have indicated that altar service was a major influence on their vocation, it would seem you are wrong.
We have been doing something similar in our parish for years. Every year, all the altar boys 12 and older, along with their fathers, go to the seminary for a Saturday.
) and the boys have a pizza dinner, followed by saying the Divine Office with the seminarians.How many boys that are of age are at Mass? If they are not serving, has anyone asked 'WHY?"
Why any more selfish than parents not discussing a veterinary career?
It may be that they wish for both a priestly and a paternal vocation. Those are not logically incompatible.
Good for her.
I have no idea, as I don’t know her.
Good for you.
OK, I don’t know anyone who beats them into serving. Is beating them the only solution you can come up with?
Why would it not work well in other parishes or diocese? Are Catholics in our parish, or in my Archdiocese really that much different from the ones in your city, your diocese?
I have shown you a way to get boys and young men to step up, but you seem resistant to it.
I agree, prayer is an excellent choice. And I’m all for letting the Holy Spirit do His Work. But as Christ taught in the parable of the sower; everything works out better when the ground is fertile and the seed doesn’t get tampled or choked off.
IMHO…a lot of the reason probably comes from the priest, and some may come from the liturgy. When you have more traditional vestments and liturgy, the altar boy’s role has a different feel to it.
adoremus.org/CDW-AltarServers.html
Unfortunately, the link doesn’t work, because I would really like to see it.
A vocation to the priesthood and a vocation to family life are not incompatible. My own father was called to the priesthood in his teen years. He was a parish priest for eight years before he became a Catholic. His priestly vocation was compatible with fathering four children, who have all turned out well!
So you are saying that a boy could be called to be Anglican, then get married, and then get ordained as an Anglican minister ( which really isn’t a priest, Anglican orders are not valid), then convert to Catholicism and apply to use the papal pastorl provision.
Brendan, are you calling my father’s priestly vocation into question? That’s breath-takingly ignorant and arrogant of you, considering that you know nothing of him at all. As a Roman Catholic theology professor, he worked during his forty-year university teaching career with many bishops and archbishops. Not one of them over four decades has breathed even a hint of disapprobation of the genuineness of his priestly vocation, as you have so flippantly done.
You do realize that there are married Catholic Priests that never departed from union don’t you? there are provisions in Canon Law that allow for married men to be ordains, as that’s all it’s a matter of, Canon Law, there is no doctrine or dogma that prevents it, just a couple of Canons within Canon Law, that the Holy See can do away with any time they wish.
Personally, I have no doubt that your father’s calling was real. That said, he was also called to the Roman Catholic Church, which did not allow the ordination of married clergy from other denominations. So, clearly God had a plan for him that required that he leave the clergy.
We have 1200 families but not nearly that many boys of age to serve that’s why. Oh and nor do we have the room. It’s a small parish…space wise that is. The altar servers (2) as it is can’t fit in the sanctuary space.
Ya…a EF Mass is not going to go over well here…not in our parish…or really probably anywhere in our town.
But we just don’t have the number of children that are old enough to serve nor would we honestly have space to put them. But quite honestly I don’t think our priest sees the altar connection. I don’t. My brothers served because they were expected to by our parents…I can see that it led them anywhere. It’s a cause/effect that I am just not buying (unless the Pope is selling it (making it mandatory)). We have boys and girls serving and we have the bigest group starting seminary ever…even bigger then any of those years that girls weren’t allowed.Exactly! That’s part of the dicernment process - to divide the real message from the static. The Holy Spirit does not call one to the impossible. (In an effort to stay more-or-less on topic), if a young woman thought she had a calling to the priesthood, that is a clear sign that there is something wrong with her discernment process in the same way that a man would know there was something wrong if he felt a vocation to the religious sisterhood or if a man felt called to live as a hermit but be ordained in an active order of priests.
Brendan, I have stayed out of this thread for a while because I was tired of people spouting opinion as fact and not backing anything up with data.