Fostering Vocations to Priesthood

Recently  The Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education released Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to the Priesthood.  It is a bit long.  I went through it looking for what we might be able to practically do to more deeply foster vocations in our parish.  I noticed how much of what I found in this document concerning practical application in our parish directly involves our boy's youth programs in particular Fraternus and its foci.  Note how much of the below relates to what we do in Fraternus and the importance of HAWC.   Worthy of note: 12 young men have gone into the seminary through Fraternus in Fraternus' very short history of a few years.    Also note the remarks concerning the Confirmation Program and Altar servers. 

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15. Seminarians should be reminded of an established pastoral truth: ‘No one is better suited to evangelize young people than young people themselves. Young students who are preparing for the presbyterate, young men and women who are undergoing formation as religious or as missionaries, personally and as communities are the first and most immediate apostles of vocation in the midst of other young people.’46 Furthermore, organized ecclesial groups, Movements and Associations are to be borne in mind, in that they are valuable educational places for openness to a priestly vocation. Within them, the encounter with Christ is favoured by attention to individuals, offering clear spiritual content and being rooted in prayer. More than a few vocations have been born from these experiences.47

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 16. The key things to foster priestly vocations are those proposed by formation for Christian life: listening to the Word of God, participation in the Eucharist and exercising charity.

The proclamation of the Word passes through preaching and establishes and underscores the ways and forms of putting the Gospel into practice in the life of individuals and of ecclesial communities: ‘We need a “direct preaching on the mystery of vocation in the Church, on the value of the ministerial priesthood, on God’s people’s.”’49

Catechesis is also an ordinary way for fostering vocations when it helps children and young people to give value to life as a response to God, and when it supports them in accepting in faith the gift of a personal vocation.

Catechesis in preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation is a chance to let those who are being confirmed know the gifts of the Spirit, the charisms, the ministries and the various callings linked to them.

No kind of catechesis should overlook the presentation of the priestly vocation: ‘A properly structured catechesis, directed to all the members of the Church, in addition to dissipating doubts and countering one-sided or distorted ideas about priestly ministry, will open believers’ hearts to expect the gift and create favourable conditions for the birth of new vocations.’50

The Eucharist, centre of Christian life and of the community, allows one to set out a sacramental and liturgical path that is capable of nourishing regularly the progress of every vocation.

Going frequently and regularly to the Sacrament of Reconciliation also is decisive in discerning a priestly vocation.

The liturgical year is the Christian community’s permanent school of faith. It punctuates the times and moments of everyday life and supports the ripening of vocations among the faithful.

Prayer initiatives, and most especially Eucharistic adoration, which are prepared and conducted in a meaningful way and with a profound liturgical sense, can highlight the extraordinary importance of the priestly vocation.

The witness of charity finds a multiform and surprising expression in the Church. It is vital that these kinds of initiatives should be reinforced by means of precise programmes of formation that stimulate generosity and service to the Kingdom of God and that configure individuals and communities to Christ.

The sensitivity of young people to the conditions of the weak and the poor is growing. Many show themselves ready to serve, to identify themselves with their neighbour’s joys and difficulties in life.

Some choose charitable voluntary work as a way of serving those who suffer, the elderly and the poor. Others are committed to educating children: by teaching catechism, in Catholic associations, or in free-time activities. There are also those who give a valuable witness in volunteering for missionary work with its powerful capacity to change a person’s life, opening him or her to the pressing and serious material and spiritual needs widespread in developing countries.

Vocations that grow up in an environment of a Christian witness of charity are solid and genuine, motivated in earnest by service.

 17. In ecclesial communities it is necessary to encourage a true and real movement of prayer to ask the Lord for vocations. In fact ‘Christian prayer, nourished by the word of God, creates an ideal environment where each individual can discover the truth of his own being and the identity of the personal and unrepeatable life-project which the Father entrusts to him. It is therefore necessary to educate boys and young men so that they will become faithful to prayer and meditation on God’s word: in silence and listening, they will be able to perceive the Lord who is calling them to the priesthood, and be able to follow that call promptly and generously.51

Initiatives that display a harmonious community in prayer for vocations should be supported and increased.

Thus it would be good for the Diocesan Office for Vocations to propose and organize an “invisible monastery” in which many persons, day and night, are committed to continuous prayer for priestly vocations.

“Vocations Thursday” is a traditional moment of monthly communal prayer, centred around Eucharistic adoration, for priests and priestly vocations.

The “World Day of Prayer for Vocations” and “Seminary Day” are two noteworthy moments for prayer, catechesis and proclaiming the possibility of vocations to the Christian community.

 18. Altar service is often the first step to other forms of service in the Christian community. This experience, wisely integrated into education for liturgical prayer, listening to the Word and sacramental life, can be used as a real path leading to the possibility of a priestly vocation.

For this reason, vocational ministry for priesthood gives special attention to altar boys. Numerous priests and seminarians, before going to seminary, have been part of the group of altar boys and have served at the altar.

Retreats and vocational spiritual exercises, organized for young men, are extremely important in allowing them to live the experience of silence, of prolonged prayer and of encountering the Word of God. They can be special moments of reflection upon one’s life, a personal discovery of one’s own vocation.