With the encouragement of Bishop Burns, we recently established a Vocations Committee here at St. Elizabeth to promote vocations to the priesthood, consecrated religious life, diaconate, and marriage. Our first meeting was very fruitful, and I’m grateful to our Committee members for their willingness to assist Fr. Francis and me in this task, as I think you all know this is an important responsibility, and one very near and dear to my heart. 

I’ve shared my vocation story with y’all in the past, and rest assured I will do so again. In brief: I felt the call at an early age, but it took the practice of the faith in my home, the prayers and encouragement of my family and parish community, and finally a joyful and robust Catholic environment in my parish youth group and then college for me to answer that call. Without all these, my life would almost certainly have taken a different course, and I would have missed out on the amazing gift that is the priesthood! 

We need to raise up a new generation of priests to minister in our parishes, preach the Gospel and give us the sacraments. As much as the priesthood has been a blessing to me personally, it is first and foremost a gift to the whole Church and all the Faithful. (The same is true, in different ways, for all the ecclesial vocations.) We should recognize the role we all have to play in fostering vocations in our family and communities, to model self-gift in our own lives, so that we might all the more credibly encourage young people to dedicate their lives to the service of others. 

On a related note, we had a training session for new altar servers recently, as we typically do at the beginning of each school year. Serving at the altar can be a good way for boys and girls to earn service hours and get a closer look at the actions of the Mass. But it is also an important way to cultivate priestly and diaconal vocations in boys. Would you please encourage your son or grandson to serve at the altar? It may play a role in fostering his vocation. 

(We have another training session scheduled for new altar servers on Sunday, September 29th, after the 10am Mass. The training is open to both boys and girls, 4th grade through high school.) 

Please join me in praying that our parish may be blessed with many ecclesial vocations!