Pray For Vocations

Obviously, that is something we ought to do every day. Not that I do. In that, I am as forgetful as the next Catholic.

But the need to pray for vocations really came home Tuesday night when I rolled into my parish church in for the Sacrament of Confession. I arrived at 8:45 p.m. and even thought the two priests of our parish had been hearing confessions non-stop since 7:00 p.m., there were at least 30 people still waiting their by a few minutes after 9:00 p.m.

On one hand, too many Catholics at Confession is a good problem to have, and much preferable to priests idling in the confessional for lack of penitents.

At the same time, the long wait is a direct consequence of the long crisis of vocations: of not having enough priests to hear everyone's confessions individually. A little after 9:00 p.m., our pastor emerged and beckoned us to the front of the Church and told us he and the associate pastor would give a penance service, during which we were to confess our sins from our presumably examined consciences directly to God. The pastor explained that general absolution was only for grave emergencies like for passengers on a crashing plane, and our situation -- while inconvenient -- didn't rise to the occasion.

At the conclusion of the penance service, we lined up and the priests gave us absolution individually.
The pastor had informed us he and his associate pastor would remain afterward if anyone still wanted have an individual confession.

Not an ideal situation, but better than not recieving absolution.

My wife went to Confession the next morning and encountered the same situation, which gave the pastor occasion to ask parishioners to pray for vocations. A welcome reminder of the supply-side nature of the Sacrament of Confession -- the more priests we have to hear them, the more Catholics (I have no doubt) who will make them.

Thoughts?

Comments

[A Simple Sinner]

I give a lot of credit to the priests in a deanery of of diocese I lived in. Each week about a dozen of them met every Thursday night at a different parish - the pastors of the parishes and several priests from a teaching order and a priest or two from the chancery.

They gathered in the rectory for prayer before hearing confessions for two hours or so, then retired to the rectory to enjoy some convival moments in priestly fraternity. (After a few hours of hearing confession, a little wine and whiskey is in order!)

[Thomistic]

Maximus,

I'm not sure that the solution offered at your parish was licit.

I'm going to have to do a little research to see if such confessions are even valid.

I suspect they are valid, but I'd like to make sure.

I think that even in rare cases of serious emergency where general absolution is offered, private individual confession is still required at a later time (if possible, which is to say in the event that an individual survives the emergency).

So whatever serious sins you had to confess probably need to be confessed in your next confession.

The matter for confession is one's sins. It seems dangerous to have penance services where the matter for confession is not articulated. Obvious exceptions are the emergencies already mentioned and cases where the sinner is unconscious or unable to speak and articulate his or her sins and give evidence of a firm purpose of amendment. (Without the evidence of a firm purpose of amendment, absolution should generally be withheld under normal circumstances.)

The appropriate solution to such a situation is to offer the sacrament of confession more regularly and not to exclude Good Friday and Holy Saturday as days when the sacrament is offered.

Priests have a lot of free time. I have worked with enough of them to know that. The good ones I know were always available for the Sacrament of Confession, because they believed in the Church's teaching that a person who dies without having repented of serious sin that has been freely chosen after sufficient reflection, they will go to hell.

All too many priests do not take that teaching seriously, which is why they seldom exhort people to make use of the Sacrament of Confession and restrict the times that it is offered to a minimum number of hours, often less than two per week.

As for the decline in vocations, I would say the following:

1) The shortage is largely artificial. Many good men have been called by God to the priesthood, but have been turned away by agenda driven progressive gatekeepers who wish to reshape the priesthood of Jesus Christ with men (and foolishly, women) who concur with their erroneous views and will teach these errors to others.

2) The shortage of priests also reflects a lack of holiness in the clergy. Holy priests who are faithful to Christ and His Church and are zealous for the salvation of souls inspire people, especially young men, and the young men they inspire naturally feel drawn to reflect on their own vocation and desire to serve God in the same way as a consequence. Priests who live their lives as though they are little more than professional nice guys or glorified social workers and who do not demonstrate a zeal for God or for souls and give little or no evidence that they ever think of the supernatural are not appealing. Why would a man want to give up many of the good things God has made for life in this world (like marriage and family) only in order to live like a lonely single person doing a job in social work?

3) Parents who do little in the way of taking the faith seriously themselves also discourage vocations. This is especially so for parents who are living in a perpetual state of serious sin through their selfish use of artificial contraception (or even their use of licit natural methods of spacing children without a serious reason). Not only do such parents prevent new life (and consequently possible vocations) but their selfishness also seeps into their attitudes about other things and carries over into the way they raise their children. Kids pick up on such things, and when material prosperity is valued over human life, one should not be surprised that the acquisition of such things will be more important to children raised by such parents than zeal for Christ, His Church, and the salvation of souls, which clearly meant so little to their parents.

4) Finally, the general lack of an interior life of prayer among all Catholics, many of whom know little about prayer and believe that mumbling repeated phrases without giving thought to their meaning or genuinely trying to converse with Our Lord and the saints through prayer or at least offer the acts of love associated with the words in common vocal prayers, mixed with the noise and hustle and bustle of our secular culture, will drown out the call of God. People must learn to have strong prayer lives. The saints explicitly taught that the soul that does not practice mental prayer will be damned. Prayer is a relationship. It's a conversation. Why would people want to spend eternity with Someone they find so little time for now? Why would they genuinely desire to love and please someone Whose company they find so dull and unsatisfying here in this life? If people learn how to pray properly, especially from the Doctor of Prayer, St. Teresa of Avila, as well as the other saints, who clearly mastered the art of prayer, which is essential to friendship with God, then they will love God, look for Him, and listen to Him. I promise that vocations will follow from such behavior.

Parents who have family prayer each day are wise in that this discipline instills in their children the importance and habit of personal prayer.

Pax,

Thomistic

[John Hetman]

The lack of vocations to the priesthood is not a universal problem, but seems more of a regional one. In the Chicago parishes with which I am familiar, there seem to be an adequate number of associate pastors, residents and weekend assistants. And certain countries are doing well as are some American diocese.

I have noticed that my local parish is becoming increasing Polish in nature; and we now have two very young--fresh from Chicago's Mundelein Seminary--bi-lingual priests from Poland. During the hour of Saturday confession, the lines to the Polish-speaking priests are fairly long: at times I have seen perhaps a hundred people in the church for Polish confession. Those going to the English-only pastor are but a handful.

This speaks to the teaching that both cultures have received during the last 40 years. I have rarely, if ever, heard a homily on the need for individual confession. And American confessors often give penances that seem more like, "pet your dog today" than a deeper meditation on the meaning of sin, contrition, resolution, and atonement.

When sin once again rises beyond those associated with the usual social ills and hits us again where it is real and personal--e.g., the seven deadly ones--we shall once again have a more meaningful sacrament that aids human beings on that lonely lonely road where their only solace is Our Lord Himself.

[Luis]

Maximus,

Obviously there was not sufficient planning for Lent in the area of the sacrament of Confession. Parishes plan these events far enough in advance to ask priest from neighboring parishes and schools to come and assist. This is the way I have always seen it done from the time I was a child. My parish still does it this way. You parish is apparently rather large - why not plan a couple of penitential services during Lent and encourage the faithful to make a good confession during the regularly scheduled time on saturdays or set up appointments with their priest?

[fidelis servus]

Maximus,

Please check out my blog at www.romancatholicvocations.blogspot.com

It is my humble attempt at trying to create a site where those discerning vocations can find some information that might help in answering God's call. It's still new, and there's a lot to add, but it's a start.

If you want to link to the site, it would be greatly appreciated.

I pray you have a blessed Easter!

In Christ,
Brad Watkins
'fidelis servus'

[Clint]

According to ABC News yeasterday, 40% of Roman Catholics receive communion without going to confession or receiving pennance or absolution. I know a few who regularly receive without confession. I always understood that you must be in a state of grace to receive communion. Has the church's teaching on this changed? It must be obvious to the pastor when he gives out so many communions and yet hears a lot less confessions.

[Some Day]

Well pray also for the current vocations!

Where I have my calling there is no space for me yet!

Too many vocations!

www.heralds.us
www.heralds.ca

Pray for us!

[BKessler]

This might sound like a silly question, but I am genuinely curious about this: Does anyone know if getting ordained through one of those websites like the Universal Life Church could result in excommunication, or any other kind of punishment? I've always wondered about that. Thanks!

[A Simple Sinner]

"This might sound like a silly question, but I am genuinely curious about this: Does anyone know if getting ordained through one of those websites like the Universal Life Church could result in excommunication, or any other kind of punishment? I've always wondered about that. Thanks!"

In a word? YES.

[A Simple Sinner]

Well pray also for the current vocations!

Where I have my calling there is no space for me yet!

Too many vocations!

www.heralds.us
www.heralds.ca

SD,

Can you tell us a little more about these folks, The Heralds of the Gospel? I have read that professed members living in community are around 4,000 worldwide.... And I hear positive whispers about them... but never hear much about what they are all about and such.

Can you share with us what you know?

Simple

[Anderson]

BKessler said: "This might sound like a silly question, but I am genuinely curious about this: Does anyone know if getting ordained through one of those websites like the Universal Life Church could result in excommunication, or any other kind of punishment? I've always wondered about that. Thanks!"

A Simple Sinner said: In a word? YES.

A Simple Sinner,

Really? Like what? Could you please cite where you found this information? Thank you!