St. Monica's Parish in Whitefish Bay hosted a special Vocations Mass and talks on Sunday, November 18th. Fr. Luke Strand, the energetic director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, said Mass
, and then spoke briefly after Mass about his own vocation story and his work with the young people in the Archdiocese as vocations director. His talk was followed by three beautiful
Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary who shared their own personal call stories. Finally, yours truly was asked to speak about a parent's perspective regarding my son, John, who is a college freshman at St. Joseph's College Seminary at Loyola University in Chicago which will be followed by four years at St. Francis de Sales Seminary in Milwaukee. The text of my talk is below.
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| John, on the right, with Domenick, one of his brother seminarians |
When I tell people that my son is a seminarian, I am
often met with mixed reactions. The
majority of people congratulate me and I can genuinely feel that they think
it’s wonderful for a young man to give his life to God. But sometimes, I get questions that are
tinged with disdain, such as “You’re son wants to be a priest and you’re ok
with that?” By their reaction I get the
feeling that they disapprove of my encouraging John to the priesthood.
Have you ever heard the saying “No priest, no
Jesus?” Who else can bring about the
transformation of a simple piece of bread into the very Body of our
Lord Jesus but the priest at the altar? And
who am I to prevent this from happening by trying to hold back the hand of God
when he chooses a young man to service in the Church? If my son is called to the priesthood, then I
am also called to support and encourage him.
But, I don’t intend
to make it seem as though giving your child to the church is a terribly
difficult situation, because really, all of our children are destined to grow
up and move away, aren’t they? Letting
go can be difficult for everyone, regardless of the vocational call that our
children receive.
I’ll never forget
when my fourth son, Jack, was born. A
woman from church came to the hospital to give me communion and she commented,
“You poor dear! Four sons! They are all going to grow up and leave you
when they get married!” Shocked at the
negativity of a stranger during a moment of great joy in my life, I shot back,
“Well, maybe they’ll all grow up to be priests and leave me anyway!” And I think it was at that moment that I
became more aware of the need to be open to God’s will, not only in my life,
but also in the lives of my children.
They belong to God, after all, and He has graciously seen fit to share
them with me for a little while, to entrust their upbringing to the greatly
unskilled hands of my husband and I. And
so I never prayed for my children to be healthy, successful, smart, or
happy. My constant prayer for all of my
children has been “Please God, make them holy.
Help them to know You and Your will for them and let them follow
it.” I’m not saying that I don’t want
all of these other things for my children, but just that God’s will always has
to be first, and then everything else will follow according to His plan.
And so I look back at
my son John’s life up to this point with a careful eye to the will of God and I
wonder about so many things...
When John was two
years old I picked up a book on a sale rack at Kmart of all places, about the life of St.
Paul. Despite the fact that it was written in a fairly dry fashion, this book became
one of John’s favorites and he asked me to read it to him over and over again
which I did, even though I would have rather read something
entertaining like Dr. Suess’ Cat in the Hat.
Could it be that God was planting the seeds of his vocation even
then? Had I insisted on reading Dr.
Suess instead of the life of St. Paul, would that have thwarted God’s plan in
some small way?
And when he was in
the fifth grade and first began to talk about an interest in the priesthood,
Paul and I listened and offered encouragement, happy that he had a deep
interest in his faith. And we smiled on the sidelines as he became increasingly involved in the Church as an altar server, choir member, lector, member of the Respect Life Committee, Youth Committee and Vocations Committee, and as he spent more and more time at the seminary participating in every program that they offered for youth. We could see that he had a fire burning brightly in his soul and he eagerly participated in every opportunity that came his way. But what if we would have discouraged his involvement in so many church activities? Would he have tried to stifle the voice of
God that was speaking to him so clearly?
When it was time for
him to enter middle school and he insisted on being enrolled at our parish school rather than continue in the public schools, we were astonished at
his bold request, but we allowed him to attend the Catholic School where he
felt closest to God. Had we insisted that
he remain in public schools, would that have dampened his zeal for the Lord?
I may never have the
answers to those questions, but I do know that John was feeling the subtle tug
of God for most of his life and he was making his love for his Catholic faith
known to us and like any parent who loves their child, we tried to support his desires
which stemmed from our own values, and to encourage them.
After years of watching
John grow ever more deeply into his faith and ever more involved in the church,
the day to release him to God’s providence finally arrived. We drove him to Chicago to begin his seminary
career. I am extremely proud of my son, despite any
fears that I may have about how this long and difficult road will play out for
him. I don’t know if he or any of our
seminarians will make it all the way through the eight arduous years of
seminary life culminating in ordination to the priesthood, but I do know that
they all have a much better chance of success with the support of our prayers
behind them. As a mother, all I can do
is let go and trust that God has John exactly where He wants him and to thank
God for allowing John to respond so beautifully to His call, and to continue to
pray for him with all I’ve got.
And you can do the
same thing for your children, as well as for the children of your friends and
family members, that is, you can
encourage them to listen to the voice of God speak to them and to respond in
love. How can you do this?
Pray for them! Pray for the young people you know; encourage
them whenever they show any interest in the Catholic faith. And pray with
them! Lead them to holiness by your own
example. Teach them to pray those prayers that have been passed down through
the centuries as well as in their own words. Invite them to spend some time in
silence before our Eucharistic Lord to hear God speak to their hearts. Take
them to Mass, not just weekly, but can I be so bold as to suggest daily? Try it for just one day a week. See if you can’t make it work into your
schedule and then watch how God works not only in the hearts of your children
but in your heart as well.
In regards to encouraging and praying for an
increase in vocations for all young people, I want to share a passage from one
of my favorite authors, Caryll Houselander, from her book The Passion of the Infant Christ:
"A young priest was celebrating his first
Mass. In the front of the church his mother and his young brothers knelt. It
was easy to know them by their likeness to him-a family of dark, golden-skinned
boys, and the mother like them.
When the Mass was ended, and the new priest came back into the sanctuary
for the blessing and the kissing of the consecrated hands, the family hesitated
shyly, almost paralyzed by wonder and love; and before they could go first (as
they should have done) to the altar rails, the crowd had pushed past them,
strangers had taken their place. The faithful were flocking around their new
shepherd, and his mother and his brothers had become part of the crowd, waiting
their turn until the end.
For one moment the young priest looked over the bowed heads into his
mother's eyes, and his face shone.
"My mother and my brethren are they who hear the word of God and do
it."
Because the priesthood had made him the Christ of the people, he belonged
to them; he was their kith and kin, their son and brother, their Christ, their
priest at the altar.”
I like this passage because it clearly shows that
every new priest who reaches his ordination day is a son to us all, a member of
our own families. Shouldn’t we all take
an active part then, in helping to foster vocations to the priesthood and
religious life, in giving all of our
sons a helping hand to the priesthood? We’re
all responsible for the growth of our Church.
So, here’s a few ways that you can help:
The MonthlyPrayer Request for Priests is a website where you will find all of
the priests of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee listed in alphabetical order and I
ask that you pray for each priest on his specific day. You will also find the priests names listed
in the Milwaukee Catholic Herald. Some
parishes also list the priests in their bulletin and if your parish doesn’t
list them, perhaps you could ask them to begin!
Rosesfor Our Lady is a lay apostolate that has been
active in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for over 30 years. Our main purpose is to promote Marian and
Eucharistic devotion. We hold a monthly
holy hour for vocations on the second Sunday of every month at St. Francis de
Sales Seminary at 2 PM and everyone is welcome and encouraged to join us and to
pray with us for an increase in holy vocations to the priesthood and religious
life. Our next holy hour will be on
Sunday, December 9th and we will be led in prayer by Bishop Don
Hying, our spiritual advisor.
Finally, if you’d like to add some practical work to
your prayer, please sign up to volunteer to help the vocations office with
mailings, phone calls and preparing food for special vocation office
events. If you sign up to help with the
practical work, I will be contacting you from time to time to help with events
as needed. (Dear reader: Send me an email if you're in the Milwaukee area and want to help with this! I'll be happy to include you!)
I thank you for coming here today to this special
Vocations Mass and for your interest in helping to promote and increase
vocations to the priesthood and religious life in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee
and I particularly thank the vocations committee at St. Monica's for inviting me to share my story, my heart,
with you. May God richly reward you
always and may He bring about the increase in vocations for which we pray!
