In the following video, Fr. Joseph Eddy, Vocation Director for the Mercedarian Friars, relates his vocation story. As is usual with many if not most vocational stories, he came from a devout Catholic family. As our National Director, Rev. Thomas A. Nelson, O.Praem., states in his vocational CD’s, as the family goes, so goes priestly and religious vocations. With the decline of the traditional family, there are fewer vocations. If we want priestly and religious vocations, we must build up holy family life again, rooted in the sacraments and prayer. We must pray for Catholic family life.

Father also has a list of the 7 quick questions to ask yourself if you want to discern if you have a vocation. This is geared towards religious life and the Mercedarians but it could apply to anyone. Parents could even answer these questions for their children and if one seems to have a vocation, then they can give them the encouragement they need to explore that beautiful calling from God, one that is vital to the Church and her evangelization efforts.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: Parents should respect and encourage their children’s vocations. They should remember and teach that the first calling of the Christian is to follow Jesus. (CCC 2253)

The Vatican has issued new guidelines for the recruitment of seminarians with the aim of increasing vocations to the priesthood. I thought the reasons for the decline in vocations was worth noting:

• having parents who have different hopes for their child’s future;
• living in a society that marginalizes priests and considers them irrelevant;
• misunderstanding the gift of celibacy;
• being disillusioned by the scandal of priests who abused minors;
• and seeing priests who are too overwhelmed by their pastoral duties to the detriment of their spiritual life

The solution as every one knows lies within the family. Children need to be taught to pray and to see the priesthood as a gift. Obviously, too, involvement in good, solid, orthodox activities for boys are important – altar serving, good Catholic schooling, solid CCD, charity work, introduction to good priests and religious men and women.

For more information, see the Catholic News Service.

Imagine yourself …… a Sister!

Watch this video of young sisters joyfully living out their vocations as a brides of Christ. Seeking joy in the world and finding it was not enough, these sisters found that doing the Will of God brought them happiness  and was incredibly freeing.

“Imagine Sisters” is a web and campus-based movement that aims to inspire the imaginations of young women to consider the beautiful call to consecrated life as a sister. With the guiding truth that one sister can change the world, Imagine Sisters strives to connect the world with sisters passionately embracing their call to serve the Lord.

The Web site is coming soon but in the meantime, watch this beautiful video!

On April 29, Pope Benedict XVI ordained nine men to the priesthood. In his Regina Caeli address following the Eucharistic celebration, he provided us with a beautiful image of a vocation:

Dear friends, let us pray for the Church, for every local community, that it may be like a watered garden in which all the seeds of vocation that God scatters in abundance sprout and ripen. Let us pray that this garden may be cultivated everywhere, with the joy of feeling that we are all called, in the variety of our gifts.

Let us pray for all men and women to prayerfully discern their vocation from the Lord. If we do this, we will have strong families, vibrant religious life and a holy nation.

At the 2011 National Meeting, Sr. Marysia Weber, R.S.M., a Religious Sister of Mercy, gave a very popular talk on the effect of the new forms of media on priestly and religious vocations.

Sister made the point that studies have shown that people today are more narcissistic, hardly a good foundation for religious life. There is also more of a blurring between fantasy and reality. One example was that of a youngish priest who spent hours on a social networking site after 11:00 pm each night. As a result, he was late for Mass, lost his prayer life, and could not fulfill his pastoral duties.

And how do people hear the voice of the Lord when they are glued to technology 24 hours a day? Can they really give it up for, say, monastic life?

“The internet is a useful tool, but it can be harmful if not used with discretion or excessively,” she said.

If you want a very thoughtful and insightful perspective on these questions and issues, please visit our website to order Sister’s talks. Three topics are covered: The Church and Electronic Media, Unanticipated Effects of Regular Internet Use, and The Interface of Virtual Reality with Actual Reality. They are available on CD and also in MP3 format.

When Pope Benedict XVI visited Great Britain in 2010, the Press had their pens poised to write stories about the dismal failure of his trip. You didn’t read any stores of the kind because guess what, it was a big success. The crowds were big (even in Protestant Scotland over 100,000 people lined the streets to wish him well) and the critics seemed to disappear in light of the outpouring of love for the Holy Father.

Now comes an article in The Times of London which indicates that the number of women entering religious orders has almost tripled since the Holy Father’s visit.

Laura Adshead, the former girlfriend of the current Prime Minister David Cameron,  entered Regina Laudis Abbey in the USA. A congregation in York, after years of no activity, has six solid inquiries. In another order, three women are entering their novitiate in the fall. Still another has had no novices for twelve years but now has one with two more coming.

Father Christopher Jamison, National Office for Vocation, said, “In the last few years, the number of people applying to seminaries has been gradually increasing and, in more recent years, just in the last couple of years, ever since the Papal visit, the number of women approaching women’s congregations has also been increasing.”

Also, 1 in 5 new vocations are converts. The Lord calls. And women are responding.

Annie Stuhlsatz, now Sr. Mary Lucia, unexpectedly heard the first stirrings of a vocation call when she attended a retreat one summer while in high school and the priest asked those who were interested in religious life or the priesthood to come forward.  She was shocked and “terrified” that she felt strongly motivated to come forward. However, she didn’t know any sisters or what religious life was like so, “I didn’t move.” But when she stayed at convents and monasteries on a journey east, she discovered that “Sisters are real, and they’re kind of fun.”

When she visited a  convent in Wichita, right close to home, she thought, “Why not here?” Now she is a novice with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an IRL Affiliate Community, along with two other novices. Before religious life she was searching and lost but now she says she has joy and contentment and peace. Her mother says, “She’s so happy, so beaming, so much at peace….We’re very proud of her.”

Read the full story in the Wichita Eagle.

On March 20, 2012, Archbishop William E. Lori was appointed to be the next archbishop of Baltimore. Since 2001, he has been the bishop of Bridgeport, CT.

In a CNS News Service story Archbishop Lori said that he expects that religious vocations will be one of his priorities in Baltimore. Vocations was certainly was one of his priorities in his last assignment. During his tenure in Bridgeport from 2001 to the present, 35 priests were ordained and 39 seminarians are currently in formation. Eight orders of women religious and a new religious institute were welcomed into the Diocese including the Missionaries of Charity; the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; the Institute of the Servants of the Lord and Virgin of Matára; and a new religious institute, the Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of the Springs of Bridgeport.

May God bless the new Archbishop and may vocations continue to flourish under his guiding hand with the help of the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the faithful.