Vocations: August 2009 Archives

Over the years New Haven area Catholics have nurtured the vocations of many men to the priesthood or religious life. In the coming days I am hoping to write more about those who have said "yes" to the Lord in His call to religious life and priesthood. But for the moment let me note here those from the New Haven area that are studying for a religious order or a diocese:

... the character of the Good Shepherd is branded on your hearts.. at ordination. 

Not sure about you but I am getting a bit annoyed by some of the oxygen being sucked out of the "Catholic newsroom" by the multiplicity of stories of how unhappy the many sisters' congregations are that there is a Vatican sponsored visitation of active religious sisters which is focussed on the charism of the particular order and the living the charism today AND a second visitation being done to know what the sisters are teaching and practicing in their convents and schools when it comes to the Catholic faith. The apostolic visitation wants to see what needs to be done to help the active religious order (vs the monastic ones) so that they live their vocation and thrive. The second visitation is to see what Catholic character of the orders; that is, what content is being adhered to. Some religious orders of sisters don't teach the Catholic faith as it is proposed by the Church especially when it comes to sotieriology & Christology, and ecclesiology & sacraments. So, what do the sisters follow in terms of the path set out by Christ and the Church when it comes to unicity of Jesus Christ, the Church as a sacrament unto salvation and the ordination of men to Order? Do they hold so rigidly to their own opinions so as to reject any fidelity to the faith as it has passed down from the Apostles? Some will undoubtedly see doctrinal questions interference and dealing too much with money, power and fame and not to the "true nature of what Christ wanted" or what the Vatican 2 Fathers wanted.

It is about a growth in love, in your life and in the Church. A calling in the Church is never a call to a job or function, but a call to a person. A vocation is an appeal to grow into a relation, a relation with God's love. A call to the three evangelical counsels is a journey of growing in love. This journey begins of course with less of His love, so that more of His love can be given to me. The One, who is more than everything else in this world, must grow in me.