Vocation Formation - Preparation for the Sacrament of Marriage

PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR THE FAMILY
PREPARATION FOR THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

Vatican City State, May 13, 1996

Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo President of the Pontifical Council for the Family
+ Most. Rev. Francisco Gil Hellín Secretary

1. Preparation for marriage, for married and family life, is of great importance for the good of the Church. In fact, the sacrament of Marriage has great value for the whole Christian community and, in the first place, for the spouses whose decision is such that it cannot be improvised or made hastily. In the past, this preparation could count on the support of society which recognized the values and benefits of marriage. Without any difficulties or doubts, the Church protected the sanctity of marriage with the awareness that this sacrament represented an ecclesial guarantee as the living cell of the People of God. At least in the communities that were truly evangelized, the Church's support was solid, unitary and compact. In general, separations and marriage failures were rare, and divorce was considered a social "plague" (cf. Gaudium et Spes = GS, 47).

Today, on the contrary, in many cases, we are witnessing an accentuated deterioration of the family and a certain corrosion of the values of marriage. In many nations, especially economically developed ones, the number of marriages has decreased. Marriage is usually contracted at a later age and the number of divorces and separations is increasing, even during the first years of married life. All this inevitably leads to a pastoral concern that comes up repeatedly: Are the persons contracting marriage really prepared for it? The problem of preparation for the sacrament of Marriage and the life that follows emerges as a great pastoral need, first for the sake of the spouses, for the whole Christian community and for society. Therefore, interest in, and initiatives for providing adequate and timely answers to preparation for the sacrament of Marriage are growing everywhere.

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Read the rest of the document HERE.

"How Does a Vocation Begin?"

Fr. Stephen at Southwark Vocations posted the following:

"Somebody asked me recently how a vocation begins. At first I thought it a strange question - a vocation begins in the mind of God. But it is proper to ask how we perceive that vocation. In my experience, for many people a vocation presents itself initially as a series of little moments of a certain inner restlessness. You want to do something great with your life. You feel that God wants something more of you. You're concerned about the suffering of men and women - spiritual as well as physical. You enjoy the life you are living now, and yet you feel that there is something lacking. These feelings come and go, like waves on an inner ocean. Like distant whispers of a call that will become more clear in time.

How does a vocation begin? With these movements to love that prepare the soul to desire generosity and commitment. They could well be signs of a vocation moving us to awaken our hearts to God's will, urging us to struggle to conform our life to the dignity of a child of God, to pray, to listen attentively to what God may be trying to tell us. Our response is important. We have to try to ensure that we are not spiritually asleep when he calls - that his call doesn't fall on deaf ears.

Perhaps that is why our Vocations Retreats are so effective. They give us space to put ourselves in God's presence and to listen more attentively to his call. Next weekend we have another retreat coming up. This time it is for girls who are considering a vocation to the Religious life. No one, least of all me, can tell the participants they have that vocation. All we can do is offer them the possibility of time for a more attentive listening to those divine whispers."

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Vocations eLetter

February 2009 Vocations eLetter from the Friars - Click HERE.

Benedict XVI: Religious, imitate St. Paul in following Jesus

"The other vocation crisis - marriage"

From FaithMag.com

By the Most Reverend Earl A. Boyea, Bishop of Lansing

We have a vocation crisis in America. This is not what you think. It is a vocation crisis in marriage. Many are no longer getting married – and too many do not see their marriage as a sacrament, a means of grace for themselves and their families. Yet marriage and family are the natural heart of our society and the spiritual core of our church. Pope John Paul II stated in St. Louis in January 1999: “As the family goes, so goes the nation!”

Now, most of us know the solutions to this difficulty since we have seen very healthy marriages and thus know what they look like. I think of my own parents, who have been married for 58 years. They are not perfect. However, they do exhibit that fidelity, commitment and love which are the hallmarks of a good marriage.

Marriage is a communion of persons wherein new life is the fruit of love. The two purposes of marriage are the unitive (love of the couple) and procreative (blessings of children). Sexual expression is to be the deepest manifestation of these two purposes. Unfortunately, for the past 50 years, there has been growing not only a division between these two, but a chasm. It began with seeking to have marital relations without having children. Soon, however, sexual relations became completely separated from both love and children.
How do we get out of this mess? I would suggest five things.

First of all, we, married and single, need to know better who we are as created by God. Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body is vital to that process. Fundamentally, this means that we see ourselves as created in the image of the loving Trinity, where we really become human only in the total gift of ourselves, imitating the gift of Christ to us. The Trinity and the cross must be the center of every Christian’s life. This will give meaning to marriage, as well as to religious and priestly vocations.

Second, we need to counter the contraceptive mentality of our society, which has helped to create this gap between sexual activity, and love and children. The best way to do this is to promote Natural Family Planning. We know that commitment and companionship, based on hard work and dedication, are the solid bedrocks of a successful marriage. NFP supports this completely, and clearly invites into the marriage that one partner who is most needed: God. NFP is simple, satisfying and effective; and it engages the couple more completely in the family planning process. NFP does not change our bodily nature nor our bodily relationship; rather, it respects what is God-given.

Third, we need to recognize that marriage is good for us. Marriage “helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one’s own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1609) Marriage also can teach us the equality of men and women and their clear differences and complementarity by working toward a loving unity.

Fourth, we need to recall that marriage is good for children. Children in intact families are more likely to be successful and less likely to experience a myriad of evils that surround us. The roles of mother and father and their healthy interactions are important for the development of boys and girls and show them the beauty of faithful and eternal love. This is the best gift that a husband and wife can give to their children.

Finally, we need to pray and to celebrate the sacraments. Praying as a family, and praying as a couple are vital. Recourse to reconciliation and the Eucharist are essential for ourselves and for assisting our spouse and our family on their journey to heaven. Jesus commanded us to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Not doing so would mean that we would have no life in us. How can we share life, our life or any life, with our spouse or children if we do not have that life within us.

Marriage is essential for our society, for our church, and mostly for our salvation. Let us work and pray for the building of this great sacrament of service.

"More Seminarians Than One Stage Can Hold"

"40-year peak in seminary enrollment celebrated at S.O.S. dinner"

From The Catholic Key Blog
By Jack Smith
Catholic Key Editor

Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey led nearly 700 voices in a round of “Holy God We Praise Thy Name” at the Downtown Marriot January 30. “We bless and we thank you Lord for countless blessings,” Abbot Polan prayed as he opened the annual S.O.S. - “Support Our Seminarians” dinner and auction in support of men studying for the priesthood from both sides of State Line Road and for Conception Seminary College.

As he has every year, KMBC-TV anchor Larry Moore served as master of ceremonies at the event which was the brainchild of Moore and his wife Ruth. Recalling the humble beginnings of the effort, Moore said in 1994 there was only one seminarian from the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph. “Things got even worse the next year,” Moore said, when there were none.

This semester, Conception Seminary College has 110 men enrolled – a 40 year record according to Conception Seminary Rector Father Samuel Russell, OSB. Father Russell shared the great news that 26 men are currently in formation for Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph and 21 are studying for the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas. Not all are studying at Conception, so the great numbers there indicate an increase in vocations from many dioceses.

Kansas City – St. Joseph Bishop Robert W. Finn was celebrating the loss of seminarians that night though. “In June we lost Doug Langner,” Bishop Finn said, “to priestly ordination. And in December we lost Angelo Bartulica to ordination.

“As God is good, we look forward to losing another two seminarians in May,” Bishop Finn said. “And the following year, if all goes according top the plan that we would pray for and hope, we’re going to lose another four seminarians to priesthood.”

Bishop Finn told the crowd, “We have to replace these men . . . This is a dilemma we’ve prayed for and worked for.” Bishop Finn thanked all those who work to support the formation of men to the priesthood and urged the audience to pray and “do everything you can to encourage your sons, your grandsons to listen carefully to the call of Almighty God.”

Kansas City, Kansas Archbishop Joseph Naumann said as a bishop, he receives a lot of “interesting” mail. But the mail “that brings the most joy” to his heart is from parishioners who take the time to relay “the difference a priest is making in their lives.” A letter that particularly touched him recently was from a woman he remembered from a youth group in his first parish. She wrote, “If there is a debt that we can never repay, it is the priesthood that serves us so faithfully and brings us our greatest gifts in the sacraments.”

Archbishop Naumann thanked God “for young men today that are open to that call to the priesthood,” and thanked all present for supporting them.

Larry Moore also thanked all those who help to make S.O.S. a success, in particular, Mike and Marsha Keenan who served as co-chairs of the event for the second time in a row this year.

Preliminary reports show $68,000 was raised this year from the auction and marketplace and $98,000 from ticket sales.

(pictured above: More seminarians than one stage could hold. One hundred ten seminarians from Conception Seminary College climbed to the stage for a round of applause at the annual Support Our Seminarians dinner Jan. 30. Most are not pictured because of the stage’s small size.)

"Pope discovered vocation in culture of death"

"The pope said in 2006 that it was a clash with the brutality of the Nazi system, "this anti-human culture", that confirmed in him the vocation to the priesthood."

From Spero News

By Asia News

It was the "brutality" of Nazism, of this "anti-human culture" that helped the young Joseph Ratzinger discover his vocation for the priesthood. "It confirmed to me that the Gospel shows us the right road, that we must help so that its road will triumph", said Benedict XVI. He was responding to one of the questions put to him by five youth of the diocese of Rome, who took part in a meeting to prepare for the upcoming World Youth Day.

A vocation that grew with the "beauty of the liturgy" and with "love of knowledge", that is, with theology.

Replying to a question about his vocation, the Pope said: "I grew up in a world very different to the present one, but at the end, things come together. At the time, on the one hand, it was still normal to go to church and to accept the Revelation; on the other, there was the Nazi regime that was telling me the new Germany would no longer need priests. But it was precisely this clash with the brutality of this system, of this anti-human culture, that confirmed to me that the Gospel shows us the right way, that we must help so that its road will triumph. My vocation grew almost naturally with me, without great conversion moments. Helped by my parents and by the parish priest, I discovered the beauty of the liturgy which, in a certain sense, opens up the heavens.

"In the second place, I was helped by the beauty of knowledge, understanding the Sacred Scripture as much as possible, entering in this Dialogue with God that is theology. Naturally, difficulties could not but be present, I asked myself if I would be able to live in celibacy for all my life, and I was aware that loving theology was not enough to be a good priest; one also needed to be always available for sick people, the poor and youth. To be simple with the simple. I asked myself if I would be capable of living all this. I was helped by the company of friends and good priests.

There was a spontaneous festive atmosphere in a meeting that swiftly turned into a celebration, with at least 30,000 Roman youth present. However there were also flags of Poland, Czech Republic and Mexico waving among the crowd in St Peter's Square, around Benedict XVI. A meeting that re-evoked memories of John Paul II, who came up with the idea of World Youth Day and who gave youth, in the now-distant 1984, the cross that the youth today carried inside the basilica, going to pay homage at the tomb of Wojtyla with Benedict XVI.

Choirs, dance and music welcomed Benedict XVI into the square, as did the words of Maddalena Santoro, the sister of Fr Andrea, who read some writings of the murdered priest, including: "I feel I am a priest for all, because they are sons loved by God: God loves Jews, he loves Christians, he loves Muslims." The pope embraced her and Fr Andrea's mother, Maria.

The questions posed by youth inevitably included one about the family, marriage and sexuality, asked to the Pope by Anna, aged 19 years.

His reply was that loving was often understood to be something egotistical, that consumeristic culture had emptied of meaning, whereas it was really letting go of oneself and therefore self-discovery. In the Bible itself, right after creation, "the sacred author gives a definition of marriage, following the other, so as to become a sole existence, flesh born of communion of love that unites and thus creates the future."

With time, all cultures became stained by the mistakes of mankind and thus the original plan of God was obscured, even if man could never completely forget or wipe it out. Thus it is with monogamy. Thus, marriage and affection become possible even if they appear impossible in the climate of our world. Notwithstanding all other models of life, there are many Christian families living with joy, according to the model indicated by the creator, We know that to achieve great success, in sport for example, training, discipline and renunciation are called for. This is how it is with life too: becoming men demands renunciation that is not negative, but which helps us become truly men, and if there is a consumeristic culture that does not want us to live according to God's plan, we must create islands of Catholic culture, in which to live according to the creator's plan.

And to the question "what is expected of us", Benedict XVI replied: "Making God present in society".

"To All Parents of Religious"

From CatholicExchange.com

By Rachel Watkins (no relation)

So, your child has vocation. Congratulations! He or she has told you about the desire to enter a seminary, cloister, order or monastery. This is wonderful news. You thank God for this gift to the Church; you make telephone calls to family and friends to announce the news. You find yourself busy with all that this decision entails. Eventually, in the days and weeks that follow you also find yourself pausing over a cup of coffee, lingering over your rosary beads and you find yourself saying to yourself, “What does this mean to me?”

I know exactly how you feel as I am one of you. My oldest daughter wears a simple gold band as an outward symbol of her promises to poverty, chastity and obedience. She is a bride of Christ. Her vocation is a source of great joy for our family but it does cause for some awkward moments, the first of which may come from our own hearts and souls.

We find ourselves wondering because, while our child has been given the blessing of a vocation, we aren’t sure where that leaves us. Not that we are asking for anything specifically but understanding is always welcomed. The particular vocation known as “parent of a religious” is rarely discussed, so in a spirit of solidarity, I offer you my thoughts on our mission.

Who are we as parents of religious? I have some familiarity with this role as do my parents. My youngest brother is a priest, now serving as an Army military chaplain. I remember the joy in my hometown when he came to celebrate his first Mass there over 8 years ago. An older parishioner took my mother aside, giving her a hug, she said, “You must be so happy. You are guaranteed a place in heaven for this!” My mother thanked her for her sentiments. Later alone with me, she laughed at the opinion offered, “Great, now I can begin that life of crime I always wanted!” Little did I know, back then, that I would join my mother in this challenging role.

While I am still learning how it all works, I already know parents of religious are guaranteed nothing — not even a seat in heaven. We will share the same feelings and concerns most parents feel but in a different way. We miss our children deeply and worry about them. This worry is especially true of parents whose children are missionaries abroad. And while their needs are taken care of by their orders or dioceses, we have concern for their wellbeing and support them financially with as much as our incomes allow. Our lives can seem almost easier with the care they receive from their dioceses or orders but that is not always the case.

In truth, ours can be a difficult lot. This is not to discourage anyone from encouraging their children to listen for God’s call. My daughter does not know about what concerns me. I say it only in an acceptance of the fact that our child’s choice is atypical, making us as their parents also uncommon. Our children have chosen Christ first and foremost for their lives and their loves. We could not be more proud, could we? However, we know that this choice comes at a cost rarely understood. We often find ourselves at a loss. We may stumble when trying to tell others what our children are doing. A teacher, a plumber, an at-home mom, even a tattoo artist, is easily understood but a monk, a nun, consecrated? These often require an explanation that extends longer than the line at the deli will allow.

The current secular atmosphere can make our children’s vocation suspect and our acceptance even more so. Even those who sit in the pews with us can question their decision in light of the scandals a few years ago. Their questions can range from the humorous, “Is there much a future in religious life?” “Eternal”, we want to reply.

“There certainly can’t be much money in that work,” rude folks may comment. And even the perplexing, “Don’t you think she should get a degree first so she has a back-up plan if it doesn’t work out?”

Doesn’t work out?

We do our best as parents to answer all the questions. However, quite honestly, after a while, it can become distressing. Some of the questions and concerns we can receive are so negative. My husband and I joke darkly to each other that we might have had a better reception if we had announced her decision to join a traveling band of jugglers rather than a recognized order in the Church. In the end, all these questions come down to this: Why would anyone choose religious life?

Why, indeed. Perhaps we have these questions ourselves. How did this call come to our family? While people may tell us we are holy for having a child with a vocation we know otherwise, don’t we? Their call from Christ came even with our failings as parents. Their “yes” to God came despite our many “no’s”.

Some of us may have rejoiced with the news, having prayed throughout our marriages for a religious vocation. Truthfully, though, for others it may have come as a shock or even a disappointment. For these parents, perhaps there is some shame in recognizing those feelings but perhaps not. These parents often find it hard to support their children in their call.

For those who are not parents of a vocation it may be hard to even understand this, but it happens; I know it does. My daughter tells me of her sadness in having companions who never get phone calls or letters from home. The perseverance these vocation “orphans” display despite the silence from home gives her additional strength for her own call.

In some families, such as my own, our children’s vocations were less of a surprise. While it may have come along without any real prompting on your part, you are pleased. In some instances, your child has always had a love for Christ and the Church that set him or her apart, like Samuel, hearing the Lord call his name when he was young. Their vocations seem more like an obvious choice. It is much like the parents of the gearhead who aren’t surprised when their child announces a decision to be a mechanic. Finally, he will be getting paid for all that he did for free, every chance he could. Finally, what he loves is also what he does.

So, here we are, parents watching them leave for seminary or college or the mission field. We packed them up, depending on their order, with many things or nothing. Depending on where they are located and their mission, we might hear from them every week or only a few times a year. There might be access to the Internet for e-mails or we may have to rely on erratic snail mails. They may be sent far from home or preach to us from a pulpit in our own dioceses.

Whatever your child’s call, they didn’t write about it in the parents’ books or magazines. There isn’t an article titled, “Now That You’ve Become the Parent of a Religious” to be found. As a result, much of what you learn comes as you go along. You come to know and accept the rules and norms of your child’s order. But honestly, some of these are easier to accept than others.

As much as I complained about shopping when my daughter was younger, I miss the fact that I don’t buy her clothes anymore. Her clothes are given to her and while I contribute to the costs of these through our donations, I don’t have the small pleasure of seeing a sweater that I know she would look great in and sending it to her “just because”. It is a silly thing I know, but one I take to prayer regularly.

Money as a whole is so different now. I am like so many other parents of a young adult, as I get letters requesting money, but mine come as those formal donation letters many receive. However, unlike so many other parents who might wonder where all their money goes, I know the money I send is never going to be spent unwisely on a weekend bash but on such necessities as milk and heating bills.

I worry about her daily, not with concern about what decisions are being made but more in regard with loneliness and acceptance. My daughter faces the rejection that Christ did during His life here on earth. I know people close the door in her face both figuratively and literally. I know they are really refusing Christ as they dismiss her, but I can’t stand the thought of anyone not liking her. She’s a great person. She’s beautiful, smart and funny. How could anyone not love her as I do? But they don’t, just as they don’t love God. I feel a closeness to Mary that I never had before, from the moment my daughter spoke her vows. She knows, more so than I, how painful it is watching your child be rejected.

But these are minor struggles and our lives are a blessing. As parents of religious, we all have peace knowing our children have found their vocations at a time when so many young people are still wandering. We miss them, but knowing where they are — a rectory, mission field or chapel — gives us a peace many parents lack. We also have a closeness that texting cannot replace. We join hands and hearts through the Tabernacle. Whenever my family communicates with my daughter, we close with the reminder that we’ll “see each other at the altar”. Every Mass reminds me of her and as I receive Christ I can imagine her doing the same though far away. We both say goodnight to the Blessed Mother and ask her to watch over us as we sleep.

So, there should be no complaints should there? However, if I could beg for a little latitude, I would like to grouse a bit without sounding ungrateful. A friend of mine told me of a recent visit to Italy to spend some time with her son who is a priest. As they walked about the city, her son in his collar, they were often greeted quite warmly. She blushed with pride as she told of the small items placed in her hand by shopkeepers and the kind words of thanksgiving given her. “The mother of the priest deserves great blessings!”, she was told repeatedly.

I do not often hear such words except from other families with religious. I get awkward smiles and “Oh, that must be nice!” before the subject is quickly changed. Or I will be subjected to the barrage of prying questions that reveal a dislike or distrust of the Church. I will openly admit that I wish my daughter’s vocation generated the same respect and pride that other professions do, such as doctor. The vocation of a religious should be seen to have equal value if not more. While a doctor may save the body, a religious is trying to save a soul. The body will eventually die; the soul, with good care and formation, will live forever. However, I know this adulation doesn’t often come and probably shouldn’t, as all praise and glory remain God’s and God’s alone. He called and my child answered; I am but a very small part of the picture. But, honestly and humanly, a more frequent favorable reception would be welcome.

Therefore, in companionship of a fraternity created by our children’s calls to serve Christ — Congratulations (again)! — you are not alone in your role. We may not have a weekly support group but we are in very special company, are we not? We have role models in the recently beatified Louie and Zelie Martin, parents of the Little Flower, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and her religious siblings as well as the Blessed Mother herself. May they watch over all of us and grant us the graces and comfort we need on the tough days. I also offer the prayer below, written together with my husband and with my daughter’s approval. May it give you comfort just as it does us:

PRAYER FOR OUR CHILDREN WITH RELIGIOUS VOCATIONS

Lord, I thank you for my child’s vocation. Never cease watching over him/her. Grant him/her all the graces necessary to fulfill his/her sacrificial call; especially strength, dedication, and fidelity. Though we are not together, allow my prayers to give him/her comfort and strength. May he/she never regret his/her gift of self, despite the cost. Keep us united through the Eucharist and the love of our mother, Mary.

Grant us the courage to continue to be open to his/her call and to help spread our generosity to others. Allow us eternity together with you where we will rejoice forever for the gift his/her vocation is to the Church and to our family. Amen.

Rachel Watkins is wife of Matthew, mom to 11 kids, creator of the Little Flower's Girls Program (http://www.eccehomopress.com/), and a weekly contributor to Heart, Mind and Strength Radio with Dr. Greg and Lisa Popcak and a frequent blogger at their site, http://www.exceptionalmarriages.com/.

"Catholic Church Turns to Internet to Combat Priest Shortage"

From ABC 7 News in Alexandria, VA

If the embeded video fails to load, go to the link above to watch it.

"English nun who hid Jews from Nazis could become a saint"

From the Daily Mail

By Simon Caldwell

Photo at left: Mother Ricarda Beauchamp Hambrough let Jews hide in the Casa di San Brigida convent in Rome during the Second World War

A little-known English nun who helped to hide Italian Jews from the Nazis in wartime Rome is being considered as a possible saint.

Mother Ricarda Beauchamp Hambrough is credited with playing a vital role in saving the lives of more than 60 Jews by smuggling them into her convent.

The Bridgettines, the order to which she belonged, have now applied to the Vatican for permission to open her cause for sainthood.

If granted she will become one of four British women whose sainthood cases are under consideration by the Church.

The early stages of her cause will involve the examination of her life for evidence of ‘heroic virtue’, before two miracles will be sought to confirm her saintly status.

But if it progresses swiftly, she could become the first British woman saint since 1970 when Pope Paul VI canonised three women among 40 English and Welsh saints who died as martyrs in the Protestant Reformation.

Mother Ricarda was born Madaleina Catherine in London on 10 September 1887 and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in Brighton when she was four years old after her Anglican parents, Windsor and Louise, converted to the faith.

Little is known about her childhood but as a young woman she fell under the influence of Father Benedict Williamson, a London-based Benedictine monk, and in 1912, at the age of 24, she travelled to Rome to become a nun.

She was following in the footsteps of a group of three other English girls who had set out a year earlier wanting to join the Bridgettines, a 14th century order which had all but died out until it was re-established in 1911 by Blessed Mary Elizabeth Hasselblad, a Swedish convert from Lutheranism.

She took the religious name Ricarda and was soon chosen as the assistant to Blessed Mary Elizabeth, the abbess.

In the following decades she was at her superior’s side as the order won canonical approval from the Pope and, attracting a large number of vocations, began to open religious houses in Sweden, England, India and Italy.

The order also secured a mother house in Piazza Farnese in historic Rome, a grand building standing on the site of the house of the order’s original founder, St Bridget, a patron saint of Europe.

But within years of moving into new home war broke out and the activities of Mother Ricarda and her fellow nuns were soon concentrated on helping the victims of the conflict.

Pope Pius XII secretly ordered the religious houses of Rome to shelter Jews after the Gestapo seized 1,007 Jews during a sweep of the city on 16 October 1943.

He had protested vigorously to the Germans about the round-up but none of those arrested was released.

Mother Ricarda and Mother Mary Elizabeth then willingly gave refuge to scores of Italian Jews, Communists and Poles fleeing in terror from the Nazis.

A source within the Bridgettines has confirmed that Mother Ricarda was at the heart of the enterprise in hiding refugees.

She said: ‘We were helping many Jewish people during the war and Mother Ricarda was helping Mother Elizabeth to hide them.’

Mother Ricarda’s efforts to save Jewish lives is bound to feature strongly in persuading the Vatican that she is a saint – as it was also a factor in her abbess’s own swift elevation to beatification.

This was apparent when Pope John Paul II beatified Blessed Mary Elizabeth in 1999, noting in his homily the ‘care and concern’ Ricarda’s former boss had shown to ‘the persecuted Jewish people’ and ‘those who suffered because of racial laws’.

A year after the war, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Israel Zolli, a friend of both Ricarda and Blessed Mary Elizabeth, converted to the Catholic faith – partly because he was so impressed by the efforts of Catholics to save Jewish lives. He took as his Christian name Eugenio – after the Pope Pius, the previous Eugenio Pacelli.

Pope Pius was severely criticised after his death for not speaking out directly against the Holocaust, but he was convinced this would have backfired both against the Jews and Church.
However, his policy of opening up the churches to those fleeing persecution was that an estimated 85 per cent of Roman Jews were able to escape the Nazis.

Blessed Mary Elizabeth died in 1957, and Mother Ricarda succeeded her as abbess until her own death on 26 June 1966 at the age of 79.

The pair are buried in the same grave in the convent church where they hid so many people from persecution.

Once the nuns have established that Mother Ricarda lived a life of heroic virtue the file on her life will be passed over to the Vatican.

Two miracles are then needed be fore she can be made a saint – the first for her beatification when she will be declared Blessed and the second for her ultimate canonisation.
A file is also being prepared on the cause for sainthood of Katherine Flanagan, a Londoner who joined the Bridgettines a year before Ricarda.

Father Ray Blake, the parish priest of St Mary Magdalen Church in Brighton, where Ricarda was baptised, said he was ‘terribly excited’ at the prospect of having a saint associated with his church.

"A monk's life... but just until Monday"

Another article on the same story as before. This is an outstanding use of free advertising!

From BBC News
By Yvonne Murray

With Britain becoming an increasingly secular society, the number of people devoting themselves to the monastic life has been in freefall.

But now several monasteries and convents are fighting against the trend by offering taster weekends in the hope of bringing fresh members into the fold.

With little more than a crucifix on the wall and a Bible by the bed, the guestrooms at Worth Abbey are designed to resemble the monks' quarters.

"They have a comfortable bed, which they'll enjoy for the night," says the weekend co-ordinator, Fr Luke Jolly. "6:20am is our first monastic prayer," he says.

That is the first of five prayer services that visitors are asked to attend each day in the modern circular church, its interior bathed in natural light from the glass-domed ceiling.

At lunch the food is plentiful, with lasagne, tomato soup, cheese and salads.

No talking is allowed at any meals and instead the monks listen to a reading - today it is from a biography of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But there is plenty of time for a chat afterwards, over coffee and chocolates or while taking a walk.

The quiet garden is set amongst the rolling hills with a bridge over a reflective pool, where weekenders go to contemplate life in a religious order.

The Monastic Taster Weekend is designed for men who want to explore whether a life of obedience, stability, poverty and chastity could be for them. Meanwhile, both young men and women can come on the Compass Project - a series of nine weekends. Neither has a specific charge to attend, although donations of up to £70 are accepted.

Worth Abbey is one of a number of monasteries and convents which have decided to address the decline in their members by advertising their way of life - in the religious press, on the internet and even in in-flight magazines - and by inviting potential recruits to try it for themselves.

In 1982, there were 217 novices in the Catholic Church in England and Wales but by 2007 that figure had dropped to 29.

"Britain's become really a secular society... we advertise because we are aware that there are lots of options offered, particularly to young people," Fr Luke explains, "and the voice of God can get drowned out. So we're putting that option back before them."

One of the weekend visitors, Lisa Paget, is a Catholic convert. With her highlighted hair and facial piercing she perhaps looks like an unlikely candidate for convent life.

In fact, she spent some years as an atheist, dabbled with Hinduism and at one point was engaged to be married.

"When I first started coming on the weekends," she laughs, "the services seemed really boring and I couldn't wait to get through the booklet!

"But over time I really got into the rhythm of it and the idea of consecrating time which is a gift from God."

"I came to a crossroads in my life," she adds, "and decided I needed to explore where God was calling me to. And coming here is making me think more about becoming a nun."

A former weekender, Brother Robert Verill, has already taken the plunge and become a Dominican friar.

For many years, he was interested in religious vocation but was not sure if he was quite ready to swap his career as a software engineer for a life in the church.

"I was rather frightened of approaching my parish priest," he says. "Somehow, I imagined he might present me with a form for me to sign on the dotted line and he'd snatch me up!"

Now he returns to Worth to talk to the new Compass members about the commitment he has made to a life of celibacy.

"It's try before you buy, isn't it?" says Ric Slatter, a recent media graduate who is wondering if the priesthood is his real calling.

"I still can't quite make my mind up," he says. "A lot of the preconceptions I had about how difficult obedience and celibacy would be are kind of being answered by these weekends. At the same time the idea of marriage and kids is still very attractive."

With the financial markets in turmoil and unemployment on the rise, Fr Luke wonders if they might see more inquiries from people considering religious vocation.

He says: "I think they will be looking for a way of life that is different from the one the world's been offering so far."

For many who are used to the fast pace of modern life, the prospect of years of quiet contemplation could seem a little boring.

But the Abbott of Worth, Christopher Jamison, strongly disagrees.

"This is a rivetingly exciting life," he says. "I put it this way: modern life often looks very exciting from the outside but like some glitzy magazines there's not much in it. Whereas here in the monastery it's the opposite - the outside is very calm but what's going on inside is pulsating with life."

People might be convinced of that, the monks believe, if they come to stay and that, they hope, will help to prevent this 1,500-year-old tradition dying out.

"Goodbye beer, hello Brothers"

From the Bolton News
By James Higgins

HE enjoyed a beer in the pub with his pals and loved the occasional biscuit.

But Peter Berry’s life in the fast lane is well and truly behind him — as he has become a monk.

The 46-year-old from Farnworth became the first person in nine years to join the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey at a ceremony in Hereford.

Mr Berry, who is now known as Brother Andrew, said: “I felt the call to Belmont in 1998. For me, it was inevitable. I’m very happy and content. Belmont is where God wants me to be.”

When asked what he would miss most about everyday life, Brother Andrew said: “Being free to go the pub with my mates and being able to eat the biscuits I choose, instead of those I’m given.”

Brother Andrew first arrived at the monastery in 1998 but after a few months he left, feeling unready for a monastic life.

He returned in 2004 and, by monastic tradition, changed his name. Now he has joined the monk’s community following a “solemn profession” ceremony.

His fellow monks have welcomed him to the fold — and not just for his faith. He also has a wealth of experience from the computer industry and most of the 40 monks at Belmont regularly use information technology.

Brother Andrew also has a degree and a master’s degree in theology, and is taking a further theology qualification. He hopes to be ordained to the priesthood and is training at Oscott College, a seminary linked to Birmingham Archdiocese.

More then 30 students and staff from Oscott College attended his ceremony at a packed Belmont Abbey church.

It was witnessed by his grandmother, Marjorie Berry, aged 86, from Farnworth and Brother Andrew made his vows to the Rt Rev Paul Stonham, the Abbot of Belmont.

Brother Andrew sang his commitment in Latin and then carried out symbolic rituals.

It ended with him undergoing three days of silent retreat — which meant he couldn’t enjoy the reception afterwards!

But grandmother Mrs Berry said: “It was a wonderful ceremony. I was so proud of Andrew — but I’ve been proud of him all his life.”

The Abbot said: “We are absolutely delighted. Men with vocations are now often older with a career behind them. They are much more stable.”

"Monasteries offer taster weekends"

From BBC News

Religious orders in Britain are giving people the chance to "try out" becoming a nun or a monk for a weekend.

The Roman Catholic church is hoping to slow a decline in people choosing monastic life by arranging the weekends at Worth Abbey in West Sussex.

In 2007, Catholic orders had just 29 novices in England and Wales, compared to 217 in 1982.

This weekend's offer is solely for men but women and men can attend all other weekend sessions.

During their time at the abbey, they pray five times a day and eat meals in silence.

The weekends do not have a specific cost, although donations are accepted.

The rooms are designed to look like the monks' quarters and visitors are expected to follow the rhythm of their daily life.

This means rising at dawn, eating in silence while listening to a reading and walking to the church for prayers five times a day.

Ric Slatter, a media graduate who is on a series of weekends, said the weekends would help him decide if the priesthood was right for him.

"It's far easier to come on this try-before-you-buy, no-strings-attached event, than to knock on the doors of a monastery and say 'I think I might want to join'," he said.

"For a long time the celibacy thing was one of the biggest things in my head, like 'could I actually do that'. But the input we've had has helped to say 'well actually, if that was what I was meant to be doing then yes, I could'."

"A View into the Life of the Institute of the Good Shepherd in Rome"

L'Institut du Bon Pasteur à Rome
by KTOTV

H/t to New Liturgical Movement

"Sisters in Silence - Pueblo's Capuchin Poor Clares spend life in work, prayer"

I have no idea why "Ñ" appears throughout the article. And for some reason I am unable to post pictures with the article - it's causing my computer to lock up.

http://www.capuchinpoorclares.org/

From The Pueblo Chieftain
By Loretta Sword

Time has a different rhythm here, following the cadence of silence and prayer. Clocks exist only to signal the hours when sewing machines hum, and when it's time to eat and sleep.

The value and purpose of life for the Sisters of Poor Clare are measured primarily by the time they spend on their knees in the tiny chapel of their monastery in Pueblo's Grove neighborhood.

Alone and together, they pray. Every minute of every day.

"Our mission here is prayer for all the people of the world Ñ even if they don't know us," explained Sister Francis, abbess of the Monastery of Our Heavenly Father. Located near Mount Carmel Church, the monastery was established about seven years ago in a home next door to the old Mount Carmel School.

The seven nuns who live here are unaware of life outside the tiny monastery's walls, including the recovering alcoholics and addicts who meet day and night in the lower level of the old school.

The lone TV and radio at the monastery are silent except during the week after Christmas, when the nuns are allowed to indulge in religious programming. Members of this cloistered sect leave the monastery only for medical appointments and business with the Catholic diocese.

Sister Francis occasionally travels to a shop in Colorado Springs to buy the specialty fabrics for altar cloths, vestments for priests and other religious items that are made by the seven nuns who live here.

All such outings require permission from Bishop Arthur Tafoya, who says Mass for the nuns every Saturday. Other priests say Mass during the week.

Proceeds from sales of the items they make Ñ to churches throughout the region Ñ are the only compensation the nuns receive from the Pueblo diocese. They pay no rent, but are expected to buy their groceries, pay utilities and handle other expenses with that revenue "and what God provides to us," Sister Francis said.

"We work by our hands. The work dignifies our lives," she said.

Like most of the others here, Sister Francis was born in Mexico. One young postulant (the first step before entering the novitiate and receiving the habit) is from Peru.

The women spend most of their time in silence, although necessary conversation is allowed in the sewing room.

"Oh, we may talk during recreation. We even laugh," Sister Francis said with a smile.

The nuns arise at 5:30 a.m. for morning prayers Ñ the Liturgy of the Hours recited aloud, followed by an hour of silent prayer, and then Mass. They gather as a group again at midday, and in the evening.

During "work" hours, two at a time pray in the chapel, taking turns through the daylight hours. They rotate one-hour shifts through the night, Sister Francis said.

When women enter the Poor Clare order, she said, they can bring no personal belongings and agree not to accumulate any from that point on, except for their habits and personal hygiene items.

"When we make our vows, we renounce our families and any inheritance, as well," she said, adding that families can't even leave money to the order itself, or to a particular monastery.

When neighbors or other benefactors donate food or cash, "we accept it if we have a need. If we have no needs, we distribute it to other orders. We live by providence alone."

The nuns here range in age from 31 to 74, with tenure in the Order of Poor Clares ranging from one month to 54 years, said Sister Francis, 38.

She entered the order at a monastery in Amarillo, Texas, when she was 16. She said she knew when she was 4 that she wanted to dedicate her life to Jesus, and started applying to convents when she was 11.

She was turned down because of her age and was told she should at least have the experience of dating before deciding for sure that she didn't want to marry and have a family.

So, she "started a different life" in her tiny village near the Texas border. At 14, she said, she helped establish a medical clinic that was open on weekends in a rented, run-down, vacant building. She kept patient records and did all the other work of an administrator while volunteer nurses and doctors staffed it on a rotating basis, she said.

Today, that clinic occupies its own new building, has a full staff of paid doctors and nurses, as well as a psychiatrist, and is open throughout the week, offering mostly free care.

By the time she was 15, she was dating a young man who asked her to marry him. Before she said yes, she had a conversation with Jesus.

"I said, 'Jesus, I am waiting for you to tell me if you want me. I will wait one year. I want you to give me a sign. Knock on my door, call my name, and ask me if I will be a nun, or I will marry. I will wait one year.’Ê”

Then she told her boyfriend she would marry him unless Jesus answered her request before the wedding Ñ even if it was just hours before.

"The months began to pass and I was planning my life. Six months before the wedding, my fiance said we need to sign permits for the wedding. But I know in my heart something will happen before," she said.

The day she had agreed to take care of the licenses, she came down with chickenpox, and spent more than a month in bed. One afternoon, a young nephew told her someone was knocking on the door. She told him to answer it. He returned to her bedroom a few minutes later and said there was a strange woman asking for her by name.

"I went to the door and she said my name, and she asked me if wanted to join a religious order in Texas Ñ in Amarillo. I said yes."

The next day, she was on her way, despite her fiance's broken heart, and vehement protests from her parents.

Having always been a gregarious person, Sister Francis said she had envisioned being a missionary nun who would work with children and spread the word of the Lord in foreign lands as a teacher, perhaps.

"I was always talking and laughing. People in my village said I was more popular than the Coca-Cola," she said, her cheeks flushing with color and rounded by her smile.

Until she arrived at the monastery in Amarillo, she had no idea that she had agreed to join a cloistered order.

"I went in with my eyes closed. I panicked at first, but the next day, I saw the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament again Ñ just like the first time, the only other time I ever saw it when I was 4 and tears came to my eyes and I knew in my heart even then that I wanted to serve Jesus Ñ and I said to him, 'Jesus, you win. My life is yours.’Ê”

Even so, she said, the adjustment to silence was a difficult one and "for the first six months, I was always fighting inside of me. But then I understood that I could be a missionary in a different way."

That way is prayer.

Aside from the proscribed prayers that are a part of every day, the sisters pray for world leaders and the legions of anonymous individuals who suffer from illness or loss, or within the prisons of their own hearts because of greed, hatred and guilt.

Anyone may bring written prayer requests and deposit them in a box just inside the door of the monastery. Those who wish also may pray with the nuns each day between 9 a.m. and noon, and from 3:20 to 5 p.m. The nuns also will answer e-mail requests for prayer and intercession.

Despite her early doubts, Sister Francis said she can imagine no other life for herself now. On the rare occasions when she ventures into "the world out there" to buy fabric or conduct business at the diocesan headquarters Downtown, she said, "I come back and I am so tired. The world is too fast and too noisy. And here there is silence, and comfort and peace."

"Churches' struggles mean fewer full-time pastors" - A Presbyterian Perspective

Yet another article in recent days about the shortage of ministers in a protestant congregation. Not to beat a dead horse, but Presbyterians also allow married clergy and are facing a severe shortage of pastors...

From The Virginian-Pilot
By Steven G. Vegh

From his pulpit at Coleman Place Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Fred Archer has seen attendance drop and the average age of his congregants rise during the past 10 years. It's a familiar scenario in mainline Protestant churches, and the consequences are already being felt.

"They will not be able to afford a pastor when I leave," said Archer, who is expecting to retire from the Norfolk church. "We're in a precarious situation."

Dwindling in membership and top-heavy with elderly worshippers, congregations such as Coleman's face shrinking revenue that undercuts the tradition of having full-time ministers.

Instead, small churches must sort through options ranging from paying a minister to preach just on Sundays to hiring lay people trained to lead congregations.

"The days of the full-time pastor, except in the very largest churches, are coming to the end," the Rev. Art Jensen said. His former church, Ocean View Presbyterian, now worships under Gary Combs, a part-time commissioned lay pastor.

Demographic trends made this clerical "day of reckoning" predictable, said the Rev. Richard Short, who oversees the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

"Two men hope to become tools of God as Carmelites"

From The Catholic Sentinel
By Ed Langlois

Photo: Fr. Matthew Williams, Carmelite Provincial Superior, blesses newly professed Br. Mark Kissner, left and Br. Mark Silva. Sentinel photo by Gerry Lewin

MOUNT ANGEL — A former Silicon Valley executive and a former electrical engineer have made lifetime commitments to an ancient way of life that balances prayer, ministry, solitude and community.

Brothers Mark Silva and Mark Kissner professed solemn vows last month in the Discalced Carmelite Friars. St. Mary Church here was full for the rite, during which the men bound themselves to a tradition that reaches into the 13th century.

Brother Silva, 46, was a successful risk management chief for computer and insurance companies in California. But since high school, he had felt a tugging at his heart toward priesthood and religious life.

“I kept putting God on call waiting,” he says.

A native of Glendale, Ariz., he went to a Jesuit high school and then on to Santa Clara University where he studied finance. He landed jobs in Santa Clara and then San Jose and enjoyed the life of beach, mountains and friends.

He was happy, but something seemed inadequate. He felt God calling gently but doggedly. He consulted a vocations book, put the idea on hold for years once again, but then met with a vocations director.

During that session, a spiritual spigot turned on inside him and he articulated his heart’s desires. The priest knew enough to direct him to the Carmelites, whom he joined at age 39.

“I just really felt at home,” he says.

Superiors expected the usual struggles that men with established lives have when making the transition to religious community. But Brother Silva seemed beyond that.

The Carmelites’ primary ministry is prayer, but they serve in parishes, retreat houses, hospitals and prisons. Brother Silva is open to any of those.

“I hope I can be an instrument of God so he can use me to bring souls to him in a loving embrace,” he says. He’ll be known officially as Brother Mark of the Sacred Hearts.

Brother Kissner, to be called Brother Mark of of the Most Precious Blood, was a 30-year-old electrical engineer working in San Diego when he joined his parish’s group for young adults. He learned more about his faith and dated, hoping to be married and raise a family.

“Over time, through prayer and study, I grew more and more in love with Jesus Christ and His Church,” Brother Kissner writes in an e-mail interview. “I had also been influenced by several holy religious priests and nuns over those years. At some point during this period of deepening my faith, the idea of becoming a religious priest entered my mind.”

He struggled with the idea for years, because his vision for himself had always been as a husband and a father. But the more he tried to put the idea of religious life out of his mind, the worse he felt. He describes his decision to truly consider the life as “a surrender” that yielded much peace.

“God made the path to enter the Carmelites fairly easy after that,” writes Brother Kissner, a 42-year-old native of Dayton, Ohio and a graduate of Purdue University.

He read St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, 16th-century Carmelite mystics and leaders. They changed his life. He began attending Mass with some Carmelite nuns in San Diego. At age 35, he entered formation. Those who become Religious give people a witness that the Kingdom of God exists, Brother Kissner says, and show “that there is more to life than what you see, that there is a who God loves them.”

Carmelites look to the gospel story of Martha and Mary to seek a balance between service to the world and simply sitting at the feet of the Lord.

Carmelites have their roots in the 13th century, when a band of European men gathered on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land. They wanted to help build up the Church through a simple life of prayer and witness to the Gospel.

It was on Mount Carmel that Elijah the prophet contemplated God in prayer. Carmelites look to him as a source of inspiration.

Among Carmelites, the spiritual writer St. Thérèse of Lisieux stands out for her ardent desire to “be love in the heart of the Church.” The young nun died in 1897 at age 24 and has a massive following.

In 1999, the Western Province of the U.S. Carmelites decided to establish its house of studies near Mount Angel Seminary.

Young Carmelites generally spend six months in provisional membership and then enter a year-long novitiate, a time to learn the ways of prayer and the basics of Carmelite life. Those early periods take place in San Jose, Calif.

Then come temporary vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and about six years of study at Mount Angel. Permanent, or solemn, profession of vows follows. If the brother is to go on to become a priest, which most do, ordination comes after more study.

"The Diaconate and the Military Archdiocese"

This is a follow up to my previous post HERE. Not sure why I didn't think to check the Military Archdiocese website for information, but Charivari Rob did, and he put a link to the appropriate page from their website in the combox. I post the webpage in its entirety below..








From the Military Archdiocese website:

"The Diaconate and the Military Archdiocese"

This statement is intended to reply in a general and informal way to those who have requested information about the status of Catholic deacons wishing to be of service to the Archdiocese for the Military Services.

The present situation

The Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) does not provide a training and education program for deacons nor does it fund such a program. With few exceptions, all training and education is carried out under the auspices of a civilian (arch)diocese in the United States. It should be noted, however, that not all (arch)dioceses conduct such programs. Military members wishing to learn more about the diaconate should contact the nearest (arch)diocese in the U.S. to inquire about its diaconate formation program.

There are two ways in which deacons presently serve the AMS: (1) on active duty in uniform or (2) in a civilian capacity. Deacons on active duty function on a full-time basis in their primary military occupational specialty while providing support to a local military Catholic priest-chaplain as deacon on a part-time basis.

No deacons are ordained for service to the Archdiocese for the Military Services. A man is ordained a deacon for service to a specific (arch)diocese, even though he may be on active duty in the military or supporting the military in a civilian capacity. The presumption is, in each case, that a deacon on active duty in the military will report to the (arch)diocese for which he is ordained upon completion of his military duty unless the local Ordinary determines or permits otherwise.

Every deacon who wishes to minister within the Military Archdiocese— whether on a U.S. military installation or at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center, must first receive written permission from his Ordinary before applying to the Military Archbishop for faculties. Additionally, his ministry must be specifically requested by the senior priest-chaplain of that installation who, in turn, will act as the deacon's supervisor.

The duties carried out by deacons in the Military Archdiocese are essentially the same as those performed in civilian parishes. The deacon may be authorized to preach, carry the Blessed Sacrament to the sick at home or in hospitals, distribute Holy Communion during Mass or at other times; baptize, witness marriages, provide religious instructions, prepare individuals and couples for marriage, coordinate or direct programs for religious education and engage in various other activities under the supervision of the senior Catholic priest-chaplain.

Some of his ecclesiastical responsibilities may parallel, complement or be complemented by the work of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion (EMHCs), lay leaders, lectors, Directors of Religious Education and others.

The deacon in military uniform ordinarily will not be financially remunerated for his work. A deacon serving the military community as a civilian may receive financial remuneration, but this would be an arrangement made by him through military or VA channels.

Finally, in answer to questions concerning deacons serving as "chaplains" in the AMS, only ordained Catholic priests may minister with the title "chaplain" since they enjoy the faculties proper to the priesthood and, therefore, can celebrate Mass and provide the faithful with all the sacraments.

_____

Who am I to argue with the policy of the Military Archdiocese? I also took the time to look at Canon Law with regard to "Chaplains". In reading Canons 564-571, it is clear, and I stand corrected, that from a Roman Catholic Church perspective, Chaplains must be Priests.

Can. 564 A Chaplain is a priest to whom is entrusted in a stable manner the pastoral care, at least in part, of some community or particular group of Christian faithful, which is to be excercised according to the norm of universal and particular law.

Can. 566 - 1. A chaplain must be provided with all the faculties which proper pastoral care requires. In addition to those which are granted by particular law or special delegation, a chaplain possesses by virtue of office the faculty of hearing the confessions of the faithful entrusted to his care, of preaching the word of God to them, of administering Viaticum and the annointing of the sick, and of conferring the sacrament of confirmation on those who are in danger of death.

The two canons above pretty much eliminate the possibility of Permanent Deacon "Chaplains" at least from a Catholic standpoint. However, it is still hard to believe that a Permanent Deacon, particularly one who may have spent a number of years, if not his entire career, in the military could not serve in some full time capacity to help eliviate the severe shortage of Catholic "Chaplains" in our armed forces. These men would have a unique ability to relate to the men they were serving. And would it not be in the tradition of the diaconate for these men to serve those who are not currently being served? I have heard countless stories of military men and women months without seeing a Priest. Inevitably many of them end up going to protestant church services. Imagine the nominal Catholic that decides he really needs God in his life. Looking for someone to talk to he goes to the protestant chaplain, because there is no Catholic chaplain. I'm sure you can play out the rest of the scenario.

I am certainly not suggesting that Permanent Deacons replace Priests as chaplains. I am suggesting that Deacons might be able to handle many elements of ministry that they can do in order to free up our priest chaplains to do what only they can do - hear confession, celebrate Mass, annoint the sick and confirm.

"Nun, 72, tells of mugging"

From the Telegraph
By Richard Savill

Photo at left: Sister Lorna at St Mary's Convent, Wantage, Oxfordshire after being mugged in the street speaks of her ordeal Photo: SWNS

Sister Lorna, 72, was just yards from the door of her convent when the robber stole her handbag in broad daylight.

But the man, in his 20s, only escaped with an umbrella and a bus timetable because Sister Lorna had hidden her purse, which contained £12 for the collection, in her habit.

She said: "I was shocked. I am 72 years old and I cannot walk very fast any more. I was frightened he might come back."

She added: "Luckily the thief did not get my purse. Years ago I would put it in my handbag but because muggings are becoming common I started putting it in my pocket. I suppose it is a sign of the times that even nuns are not safe."

Sister Lorna has been a nun at St Mary's Convent, Wantage, Oxon, for 37 years helping drug addicts, homeless people and reformed criminals in the community.

Last Tuesday she went for a walk in a park and sensed she was being followed.

"As I walked through a small wooded area I was aware that someone was watching me. I held my bag a little tighter and walked on.

"I didn't look round but decided to cut through to a main road between a row of houses. I was a few yards down the snicket when I felt someone come up behind me and snatch my bag from my arm.

"I let go immediately and watched him run off down the path and round the corner."

Sister Lorna, who once worked as a missionary nurse in South Africa, said of the robber: "I just feel sorry for him and wish this chap no ill-feeling.

"What I find the saddest part of all this is that the man who mugged me was probably the sort of person I try and help."

"Why Is There a Minister Shortage?" - A Baptist Perspective

The next time someone tells you that the shortage of Priests in the Roman Catholic Church could be remedied if "the Vatican" would simply changes its "rules" and allow women priests and married priests, ask them why this solution has not remedied the vocations "crisis" in protestant denominations? While you are at it, ask them why many religious communities and Dioceses, especially those that tend to be more "traditional", have so many vocations - in some cases more than they can handle from a housing standpoint (CASE IN POINT - CLICK HERE). Below is another piece about the shortage of ministers Protestant communities are experiencing...

From Smyth&Helwys.com
by Paul A. Baxley

During the last thirty years, the number of young people entering the ministry has greatly declined. Recently, the Baptist General Association of Virginia announced that for every three retiring pastors, only one young person entered the ministry. In most Christian denominations, the percentage of ministers under age thirty-five is about 6 percent, while clergy above the age fifty-five account for more than 40 percent. Thomas H. Graves, President of Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond announced several years ago that “the most serious problem facing the church today is the declining number of young people who understand themselves as called to ministry and the declining quality of that number.”

Why is this happening? Why are fewer of our young people discerning a call to the ordained ministries of the church? There is no single answer; the problem is intensely complex. For the purposes of this brief article, I want to suggest that cultural, theological, and congregational factors contribute to our present crisis.

The last three or four decades have witnessed dramatic cultural changes in the United States. An era dominated by the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and a series of political scandals has caused Americans to trust institutions less. The fact that some scandals involved religious leaders has certainly affected the way people view the church, and the church has not always responded prophetically or courageously to these larger challenges. At the same time, the position of the church in the culture has changed. Fifty years ago, the church occupied the physical and social center of communities. Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, and even Wednesday evenings were protected times. In their book Resident Aliens, Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon argue that the world as they knew it changed on a Greenville, South Carolina, Sunday evening in 1963 when the Fox Theater opened for business. It was the first intrusion into the church’s sacred space. Now, several decades later, almost no space is protected; recreational soccer leagues hold games on Sunday mornings. The church has been pushed away from the center of community life, creating a new situation that is not likely to change. How does that relate to the decline in the number and quality of people entering the ministry? In the 1950s, being pastor of the church was one of the most respected positions in town; the pastor was the leader of the institution at the cultural center. Now the church matters less, culture values the church less, and ministry has lost its prominence, making it less attractive to many people.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

"Rural Churches Grapple with a Pastor Exodus" - The Protestant Minister Crisis

Apparently allowing a married clergy will not necessarily solve the vocations crisis...

From Time.com
By David Van Biema/Crookston

Carol Porter, 63 and no word mincer, sits in her modest kitchen in Euclid, Minn., and recalls the day her 118-year-old church was burned to the ground. "I was baptized, confirmed and married there," she reports. Her family had moved two lots down from Euclid's First Presbyterian, so she was able to watch through the kitchen window a few years ago as fellow parishioners knocked down the church, buried its fixtures and then put a match to what remained, sending a thousand Sundays of memories up in smoke.

America's rural congregations, thinned by age and a population drain that plagues much of farm country, have gotten too small and too poor to attract pastors. No pastor means no church. And losing one's church--well, Porter has a vivid memory of that, living as she does in an area where abandoned buildings are control-burned for safety. The flames were taller than a man, she remembers. "In plain English," she says, "it looked like hell."

The ticktock of farm auctions and foreclosures in the heartland, punctuated by the occasional suicide, has seldom let up since the 1980s. But one of the malaise's most excruciating aspects is regularly overlooked: rural pastors are disappearing even faster than the general population, leaving graying congregations helpless in their time of greatest need.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

"When pastors divorce" - A Lutheran Perspective

There is often discussion these days (in some circles) about allowing Catholic Priests to marry and how it would help end the vocations "crisis." I've posted about this before and the fact that protestant congregations which allow all forms of ministers (single, married, male, female, openly homosexual, "married" homosexuals, etc.) are facing the same problems that the Catholic Church is, if not worse. Below is another side of the issue that is rarely mentioned when discussing a change in the discipline of a celibate Priesthood - what happens when Priests' marriages fail? To say that it won't happen is naive. We're talking about human beings - we are all weak, we all fail, and we all sin. Sadly some marriages, for any number of reasons, do fail. I do not present this as THE reason why the Church should not allow married priests, rather I present it as a single point that is rarely mentioned in the discussion, and the article below does a decent job of highlighting the effects...

"A congregation may feel betrayal, sadness, anger or guilt"

From "The Lutheran"
By Barbara Sharkey

The end of a marriage can be sorrowful and distressing, a private time with details revealed to only the most trusted friends. But when pastors divorce, not only does previously undisclosed information suddenly become very public, but feelings of betrayal, sadness, anger and even guilt can deeply hurt a congregation.

Parishioners may feel caught between two sides, abandoned by their spiritual leader, or sometimes even powerless as the consequences of a church affair play out to a devastating conclusion.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

"Pope Benedict XVI to Consecrated People: Imitate the Life of St. Paul"

From Vatican Information Service:

VATICAN CITY, 3 FEB 2009 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon in the Vatican Basilica Benedict XVI met with members of religious congregations, institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life, at the end of a Mass marking the thirteenth Day of Consecrated Life, an annual celebration established by John Paul II.

At the end of the Eucharistic celebration for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, presided by Cardinal Franc Rode C.M., prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Holy Father greeted those present.

In this year dedicated to St. Paul the Pope focused his remarks on the Apostle "who", he said, "has always been recognised as father and master of those who, called by the Lord, have chosen to dedicate themselves unconditionally to Him and His Gospel. ... Imitating him by following Jesus is the best way to respond fully to your vocation of special consecration in the Church", he said.

St. Paul's lifestyle "expresses the substance of a consecrated life inspired by the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. In the life of poverty he saw a guarantee that the Gospel would be announced gratuitously. At the same time, such a life is an expression of real solidarity towards brothers and sisters in need".

"Accepting God's call to chastity", noted the Holy Father, the Apostle of the Gentiles "gave his heart entirely to the Lord in order to be able to serve his brethren with greater freedom and dedication. Moreover, in a world in which the values of Christian chastity enjoyed little popularity, he offered secure guidelines of behaviour".

On the subject of obedience, Benedict XVI recalled how St. Paul was "under daily pressure because of his anxiety for all the churches'', and how this "inspired, shaped and consumed his life, making it a sacrifice agreeable to God".

"Another fundamental aspect of Paul's consecrated life was that of mission. He was entirely for Jesus in order to be, like Jesus, for everyone. ... In him, so closely bound to the person of Christ, we recognise a profound capacity to unite spiritual life and missionary activity. In him, these two dimensions support one another".

The Pope told the consecrated people of his hope that the Pauline Year may "give you further encouragment to welcome the witness of St. Paul, meditating daily upon the Word of God through the faithful practice of 'lectio divina', and singing 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts'. May the Apostle help you to accomplish your apostolic service in and with the Church, with an unreserved spirit of communion, making a gift of your charisms to others and bearing witness to the greatest charism of all, which is charity".

"Spanish bishop: Lack of radical dedication amongst religious explains vocations crisis"

From Catholic News Agency

Madrid, Feb 2, 2009 / 10:18 pm (CNA).- In a pastoral letter published to mark the World Day of Consecrated Life on February 2, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Bishop Demetrio Fernandez of Tarazona, Spain, said the lack of radical commitment in consecrated life is one of the main causes of the vocations crisis.

“Christians are already consecrated through baptism, but the consecrated life is a new title of consecration that brings baptism to its fullness,” the bishop said. “Consecrated life is a prophetic cry in today’s world (and always), which reminds us what the definitive values of the Kingdom are, those that Christ lived out in the beatitudes and those that He invites others to live out when He calls someone to follow Him more closely.”

“We live in times of crisis in the consecrated life as well,” Bishop Fernandez underscored. “Secularization, that is, living as if God did not exist, adapting oneself to the opinions and ways of the world, has also filtered into the consecrated lifestyle.”

“It seems like a contradiction, but unfortunately this is the way it is. A consecrated life in which one is not willing to live a radical commitment to Jesus Christ, with a fanatical love like that of St. Paul, is a life that is not very attractive or exciting to the young people of today. This is one of the reasons for the lack of vocations,” the bishop stressed.

Bishop Fernandez acknowledged that the “issue of the scarcity or lack of vocations among young people is very complex and cannot be reduced to a single cause, but the institutes of consecrated life that live coherently ‘having lost everything for Jesus Christ’ are getting vocations.”

“On the other hand,” he added, “the institutes that have adapted to this world do not have vocations and are slowly dying out.”

“The World Day of Consecrated Life is an occasion to pray to the Lord for those who have consecrated their lives totally to the Lord, that they may be faithful to the first love that led them to leave everything for Jesus Christ,” Bishop Fernandez stated.

Commitment to the Family

Pope Benedict XVI on the family.

"Ask the Lord for Many New Vocations to Consecrated Life"

From Pope Benendict XVI:

VATICAN CITY, 1 FEB 2009 (VIS) - Following the Angelus, the Pope recalled the fact that tomorrow marks the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. "Forty days after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph took Him to Jerusalem, in accordance with the norms of the Law of Moses. Indeed, according to Scripture, each first born belonged to the Lord and had to be redeemed with a sacrifice.

"This event", he added, "makes manifest the consecration of Jesus to God the Father and - associated thereto - that of the Virgin Mary. For this reason my beloved predecessor John Paul II wished this day, on which many consecrated people pronounce or renew their vows, to be the World Day of Consecrated Life".

The Holy Father also indicated that tomorrow evening, following a Mass due to be celebrated in the Vatican Basilica by the prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, he will enter the basilica to greet the consecrated people gathered there.

"I invite everyone to thank the Lord for the precious gift of these brothers and sisters and to ask Him, through the intercession of Our Lady, for many new vocations in the many charisms which make the Church so rich".

Turning then to address Italian pilgrims, Benedict XVI expressed special greetings to members of "the Movement for Life, delegations from the faculty of medicine and surgery of the University of Rome, and everyone involved in the defence and promotion of the fundamental gift of life. I appreciate and encourage the commitment of the diocese of Rome in this field, and express my cordial best wishes for its 'Family Week', which begins today".

The Newest Member of the Watkins Family

Mary Frances Watkins

Born Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 2:05pm
7 pounds 14 ounces
21.5 inches

DEO GRATIAS!