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General interest

Siblings Following Path to Priesthood, Religious Life

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The following uplifting article was recently posted by Patricia O’Connell, a correspondent with the Catholic Free Press, serving the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Meaghan Boland first felt the call to religious life at age 16. She was preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

“It was just kind of the whole preparation,” she said.

Also, in high school, she went on a youth retreat, where she spent time in the presence of Our Lord.

“That drew me into the adoration piece,” she explained.

Meaghan’s faith continued to deepen.

So her parents, Thomas and Virginia Boland, were not surprised by Meaghan’s recent announcement that she wanted to join a convent.

But there was an unexpected twist three years ago when Meaghan’s older brother, James, discerned he had too a vocation. Continue reading Siblings Following Path to Priesthood, Religious Life →

General interest

Holy Vocations, Paths of Love

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This past weekend, awakened by a persistent thunderstorm, I starting browsing Catholic sites and came across two excellent vocation-related blogs not previously mentioned here.

The Holy Vocations blog is primarily geared to those who are considering the priesthood or religious life. If you are discerning a possible vocation as a priest, nun, religious sister, monk, or consecrated virgin, or if you are currently in formation, then this blog is for you.

I also came across the Paths of Love blog, which had a variety of posts, including homilies, photos from recent ordinations, and articles on interesting topics such as how to interpret religious statistics and why consecrated virginity is not itself a sacrament.

The blog is part of the Paths of Love website, which  is dedicated to imparting information and discussion about vocations through the lens of Catholic tradition, drawing upon the Fathers of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis de Sales, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and the popes, particularly Pope John Paul II, with a particular emphasis on vocation discernment.

Check them out!

Resources

Glorify God in Your Body

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Blessed John Paul II has given the Church a great gift in his profound teaching on the theology of the body. The Holy Father emphasized that traditional Catholic teaching on marriage and the family is not in any sense rooted in a contempt for matter or for the body, but on the Incarnate love of the Trinity. This teaching not only helps us understand the Church’s teaching on hot-button issues such as divorce, contraception, and homosexulity, but also the gift of consecrated virginity or celibacy for the sake of the kingdom, as a complete gift of self to God. 
 
On this subject, the Institute on Religious Life highly recommends this 3-CD audio set by Fr. Brian Mullady, O.P.  Father convincingly shows that Church teaching on human sexuality offers profound spiritual insights for deepening one’s commitment to live with “an undivided heart” and to serve God as an eschatological witness of His Kingdom.

General interest

Cardinal Burke: From Wisconsin to Rome

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Cardinal Raymond Burke said he thinks often about his humble upbringing in rural Wisconsin and where his Catholic faith has taken him during his lifetime.

“You just keep doing what you believe the Lord wants you to do, and who knows where it [may lead] you eventually,” Cardinal Burke said during a recent interview in his Rome residence. “That’s the only way I can describe it.”

Cardinal Burke, a long-time friend of the Institute on Religious Life, has now served for three years as the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest court in the Catholic Church. In this article from the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, he talks about the unfolding of his vocation, from growing up in the heartland of the United States to serving such a vital role in the universal Church.

General interest

Successful Chef Enters Franciscan Community

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Dennis Narlock has cooked for Hollywood stars and built a well-known local catering business throughout the past three decades. But Narlock plans to walk away from his business and his cooking career at the end of the year. He says he will also give up his personal wealth and all his worldly possessions after joining a recently established Franciscan monastery in the Diocese of Fargo.

For the full story, check out “Leap of Faith: Grand Forks businessman gives up wealth to join religious order,” courtesy of the Grand Forks Herald. Hat tip to The Deacon’s Bench.

News

Vatican Meeting Discusses Religious Life

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According to a Catholic Culture report citing Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli, Pope Benedict XVI called a meeting with the leaders of the Roman Curia earlier this week to discuss several concerns about the state of religious life.

According to the report, the discussion included “the importance of maintaining separation between men’s and women’s religious communities; the limits of lay leadership (especially over priests); and the pitfalls of excessive devotion to the founder of a religious congregation or to an apostolic movement.

“In discussing the excesses that should be avoided in religious communities, the dicastery leaders reportedly emphasized that the commitment to a religious congregation or movement should never work against the unity of the universal Church, the authority of the teaching Magisterium, or the conscience of the individual member.”

News

New convent supports contemplative life of teaching sisters

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Last Sunday the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia (aka the “Nashville Dominicans“) opened a new convent in the Baltimore area. The event generated very favorable coverage in the Baltimore Sun.

The convent is adjacent to Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, which the sisters have helped staff for the past quarter of a century. Not surprisingly, the school has flourished under their watch:

“The academy’s student body is also expanding. Founded in 1852 by Visitation nuns in Georgetown, the school has seen its student population expand under the Dominican Sisters, a teaching order. It had 201 students in 1984, and will open its doors this fall to 507 girls.”

Reflection

Loving God First

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In a Homiletic and Pastoral Review article that was recently reprinted at www.CatholicCulture.org, Fr. Basil Cole, O.P. offers “nine signs of steady growth” when it comes to the formation of priests and religious. While all nine signs are very important, I thought I would reprint here what Fr. Cole had to say about having “an undivided heart”:

“The eighth sign is traditionally called an undivided heart. What does this mean? At first glance, someone might come to the erroneous conclusion that all loves and desires are to die except for the love of God. Grace is supposed to deny nature or uproot it rather than elevate it. This is not so: all of one’s loves and desires are to be ordered properly among themselves with an orientation to and caused by the love of God. A person’s friends, love of food, music, or sports are to be joined with a love for God. This, then, is the undivided heart: loving God first and all else in him. All legitimate attachments to this world are thus properly ordered by reason and faith to God. This is evident by a person’s disposition to let things in his or her life go when they are either taken away by death or sickness or become an obstacle to one’s union with God.”

Read the entire article here. Also at Catholic Culture, Jeff Mirus applies Fr. Cole’s article to everyone’s growth in the spiritual life in this companion post.

Reflection

Vocation or Job?

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Fittingly on today’s feast of St. Anthony, the following is taken from the “Q and A with Fr. Anthony” feature at www.vocation.com. Fr. Anthony’s response provides sound analysis of the difference between pursing one’s vocation versus one’s job or profession. Enjoy!

There is a distinct difference between vocation and profession, although they are not mutually exclusive and do in fact overlap. Profession is a much more restricted term, which we use to indicate a career or a particular ability we develop, usually with the purpose of earning a livelihood and contributing in some way to the good of society, but always considered in a horizontal dimension. You don’t need to believe in God to choose a profession and exercise it in an outstanding way, doing much good to and for others in the process. A person can pick, choose and switch professions freely since the principal point of reference is his preferences, his own benefit and the opportunities he has.

But when we use the word vocation we introduce a vertical dimension into our life, especially into our thinking process and decisions, since the point of reference when we talk about vocation is God’s will–what we believe he is calling us to do with our life, the purpose for which he created us as it relates to the salvation of our own soul and the salvation of others. Continue reading Vocation or Job? →

General interest

Vatican II on Fostering Religious Vocations

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In paragraph 24 of Vatican II’s Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life (Perfectae Caritatis, 1965), we find this summary of what we might call “vocation ministry”:

“Priests and Christian educators should make serious efforts to foster religious vocations, thereby increasing the strength of the Church, corresponding to its needs. These candidates should be suitably and carefully chosen. In ordinary preaching, the life of the evangelical counsels and the religious state should be treated more frequently. Parents, too, should nurture and protect religious vocations in their children by instilling Christian virtue in their hearts.

“Religious communities have the right to make themselves known in order to foster vocations and seek candidates. In doing this, however, they should observe the norms laid down by the Holy See and the local Ordinary.

“Religious should remember there is no better way than their own example to commend their institutes and gain candidates for the religious life.”

Three things jumped off the page to me when I recently reread this document:

(1) Vatican II encourages more preaching on the evangelical counsels and the religious state, yet how often do we hear anything from the pulpit on the splendor of consecrated life?

(2) Parents not only nurture but protect their children’s vocations by instilling Christian virtue. One wonders how many religious vocations have been lost by parents’ failure to foster Christian virtue in the home through their own words and actions, and through the appropriate exercise of discipline.

(3) Religious have the right to promote their community, but in the end the most effective means of attracting young men and women is through their own personal witness of lives completely and joyfully given to the Lord.