Year of the Priest: Shepherds

I want to share with you part of an entry from the Catholic Chicago Blog by Fr. Joseph Noonan, the Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Chicago:

Recently, a retired priest left his shoes in the sanctuary and processed out of his final Mass of his parish in his stocking feet! In his parting words, he challenged his congregation to invite and encourage vocation to the priesthood and religious life. After decades of loving service, in which he was fulfilled as a priest and Christian man, he asked his congregation, “Who will fill my shoes as a priest for the Archdiocese?”

The symbolism of those shoes can go all the way back to the time of Jesus and His disciples as well. Just replace the shoes with sandals, or perhaps footprints in the sand. Who will walk the path to priesthood? Who will answer God’s call to serve the Church as an ordained priest? The Catholic Church is constantly growing and the need for Shepherds (Priests) is growing as well. We need to realize that soon we might be “like sheep without a shepherd” as Jesus says in today’s Gospel from Mark.

The imagery of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is personally, not only as a seminarian, but as a Catholic Young Adult, one of my favorite images. Jesus surrounded by sheep with a lamb over his shoulder reminds me vividly of any Catholic Parish Family. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is present in the priests of this Archdiocese. The priest, in persona Christi, Latin for, in the person of Christ, is surrounded by his flock. That flock being YOU AND ME! So, who will be our “NEW SHEPHERDS?” Discerning the call to priesthood is such a special grace that I have received from God, and I constantly thank God for this opportunity and for this call in my life. A line from sacred Scripture which resonates this Sunday as we speak of sheep and shepherds is the question which Jesus posed to Peter. Jesus asks Peter, “Peter, do you love me? Yes Lord, he replied, I love you. Feed my sheep!” Who is going to feed the sheep, you and I, when our current priests are gone? Who is going to feed the sheep when, God willing, I am gone as a priest? We have to encourage vocations! We have to pray for vocations! Because, it is only together with much prayer and support, that we can begin to answer the questions, “who will fill those empty shoes?”

Year of the Priest: Mundelein Semianry

When I finish my degree at St. Joseph College Seminary at Loyola University this coming May, I will move from the collegiate level seminary to the major seminary, Mundelein. It is there ultimately, after four years of graduate studies and formation, that my dream and vocation to the priesthood, like many before me and hopefully many after me, becomes a reality when I am ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

The primary mission of the University of St. Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary is to prepare candidates to be priests of Jesus Christ, priest, teacher and shepherd. It educates men for pastoral ministry as diocesan priests to be co-workers with their bishops in the service of the Catholic Church. Currently the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary has 209 students studying for the diocesan priesthood. Seminarians come from 44 dioceses in the United States, as well as many international dioceses. Mundelein Seminary is the largest priesthood preparation program in the United States.

I can tell you personally that there is a certain sense of anxiousness and excitement when I think of beginning to study Theology at Mundelein in the fall of 2010. This is not to say that I have not loved every single minute of study and formation at St. Joseph College Seminary, nor that I dislike my studies in Philosophy, because Philosophy and Theology really walk hand in hand when studying them. However, the idea of Theology and the idea of priesthood being that much closer is something which is exciting. I know, by no means, that I am ready to be a priest tomorrow. That is the truth! But further formation, further apostolate work, further parish ministry through the seminary will only further my growth as I prepare for the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

For the last three weeks I have introduced you to the three main programs of the Archdiocese of Chicago: Quigley Scholars- for high school age men, St. Joseph College Seminary- for undergraduate studies, and now, Mundelein Seminary- the Major Theologate. It is my hope, now having read and learned of these programs, that you begin, especially in this Year of the Priest, to encourage men to consider a vocation to the Priesthood. It is so important that we continue to promote this vocation in life, because WE NEED PRIESTS! We need good and holy men to come forward and consider this vocation, and that can only be done if we, as a Catholic Parish Family, begin to encourage vocations to the Priesthood. More importantly, however, we need to pray for vocations, and we need to pray for the men who have answered that call and are studying to be priests, and we need to pray for those who are already priests, those prayers only show us your love and support!

Year of the Priest: St. Joseph College Seminary

When I am not working and ministering to all of you here at the great St. Thomas of Villanova Parish, or at my family home, I am probably at my home away from home St. Joseph College Seminary, where I am working on my Undergraduate Degree in Philosophy.

St. Joseph College Seminary is the undergraduate seminary program of the Archdiocese of Chicago. The men who attend St. Joseph Seminary enjoy the community focus of a small seminary and the academic challenges offered by Loyola University Chicago. The seminary environment offers seminarians the opportunity to experience the duties of priesthood while working toward earning a prestigious college education. The Apostolate Program places students in parishes (like me and 11 of my brothers are doing this summer), hospitals and even other countries, where they live the life of a priest, ministering to others and gaining a greater understanding of the values of religious service.

We really have a fantastic community at St. Joseph Seminary. This past year we had 40 men studying for the Archdioceses of Chicago, Milwaukee and Atlanta, the Dioceses of Toledo, Ohio and San Bernardino, California as well as men studying for the Carmelite Order. If it were not for St. Joe’s I do not know if I would have been able to fully embrace God’s call in my life to the priesthood, and try to live that ideal out in everything I do. The opportunities for prayer, discernment and academics, have only aided me in further developing my own vocation to the priesthood. Our community gathers for prayer almost three times a day (7:15 a.m.-Morning Prayer, 5:30 p.m.-Evening Prayer and 9:00 p.m.-Night Prayer), however our day and our lives are truly and fully rooted in the Eucharist. Each day we as a community celebrate the Eucharist at 7:30 a.m. as well as have weekly Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

All of these opportunities for prayer, mixed with academics, and of course our pastoral work through our apostolate, like my summers here at St. Thomas, as well as working with Youth and Young Adult Ministry at St. Barbara, and teaching Religious Education at St. Ignatius, really make St. Joe’s a sweet place to live and discern your call. We have great priests, led by our Rector, Father Jim Presta, who show us the ideal of priesthood, and show us how to live out that vocation in everything they do.

Pray for me, my brother seminarians at St. Joe’s and our Priest Formation Team, and for an increase in vocations to the priesthood.

Year of the Priest: Quigley Scholars

When I was here in April preaching at all the Masses on the “Called By Name” program of the Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the questions that people kept asking me was what does the Archdiocese offer for men who are younger than 18, who are thinking of studying for, or who we think would make good, priests. The answer to that question is the Quigley Scholars Program.

The Quigley Scholars Program was designed and instituted by Francis Cardinal George in 2007 to provide support for Catholic young men in Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago who have interest in Diocesan Priesthood. The Scholars Program is established to promote vocations to the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, and in memory of the history of the high school seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago, of which I am a proud graduate of the Class of 2006. When Quigley Seminary closed it’s door in June of 2007, the Scholars Program was launched to continue to foster young vocations to the Priesthood.

Those in the program, like one of our own from St. Thomas will be next year, come from both Catholic and Public Schools in the Archdiocese of Chicago. These young men come once a month to St. Joseph College Seminary, where I live, pray, and to go school, for Mass and Dinner with our entire seminary community, and then they go off, based on years in the program, for formation with our seminarians who are teachers in the program, like me. It is a great opportunity for young men to come together, not only to pray, but also to discuss living out the values of the Quigley Scholars Program in their own various schools, and how they themselves can promote vocations to the Priesthood and call other young men, possibly even their classmates, to become a part of this great program.

I was blessed and lucky to have been “called by name” by own parish priest back when I was in 8^th grade, and I have tons of support from my entire family. Now it is our turn to look within our own Catholic Parish Family for possible candidates to the priesthood. As someone who has been a part of the seminary system for nearly 8 years, it gives me hope to see young men continuing to respond to God’s call in their life. We need priests! That is the reality of our Church. We need people, like you and me, to call young men forward, even those in our own families, to come, learn, and discern, possibly, the call to Priesthood in their life.

Year of the Priest Kick Off Article

Have you prayed for our parish priests lately? Father Tom? Father Ryszard? Father Ray? Have you prayed for, God willing, a future priest? Seminarian Brad? For all my brother seminarians?

If not, maybe this year can begin to pray for your priests, and for all who are answering the call to the priesthood. Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed a Year of the Priest starting June 19, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It’s an opportunity for all Catholics to reflect on the gift of the priesthood, and to find ways that we can support our priests and to encourage priestly vocations in our families and in our parishes.

The Year of the Priest finds it’s roots in St. John Vianney, the Cure of Ars, whom Pope Benedict XVI called “a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ’s flock” during his address announcing the special year on March 16. The year 2010 will mark the 150^th Anniversary of the saint’s death, and the Pope has proclaimed St. John Vianney as the patron saint of all the world’s priests.

Obviously as a seminarian this is a great year for me to further develop my love of the Lord and truly dive much deeper into my own personal calling to the priesthood. But, more importantly I look at this year as a great opportunity for us to not only pray and be thankful for the many shepherds who have helped us in our lives, even beyond STOV, but to take this year as a sign to begin, or hopefully, continue to promote the priesthood. Perhaps it is within this year, that we can begin to Call By Name men to consider this vocation from our own parish community.

Within the next few weeks, I will use my column as a means to talk about the seminaries and programs of the Archdiocese of Chicago, the places where men, just like me, come to study to be priests. I close this week with the official “Pray for Priests.”

Dear Lord,

We pray that the Blessed Mother wrap her mantle around your priests and through her intercession strengthen them for their ministry.

We that Mary will guide your priests to follow her won words, “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).

May your priests have the heart of St. Joseph, Mary’s most chaste spouse.

May the Blessed Mother’s own pierced heart inspire them to embrace all who suffer at the foot of the cross.

May your priests be holy, filled with the fire of your love seeking nothing but your greater glory and the salvation of souls.

Amen.

Saint John Vianney, pray for us.

Article for the Solemnity of the Most Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Today we gather around table, we gather around the Altar for a meal at which we discover in a special way that we Christians are family. We discover that we are brothers and sisters members of the Body of Christ. We discover that every time the Eucharist is celebrated, at the moment when that simple gift of bread, and that simple cup of wine, becomes the Body and Blood of Christ, the whole universe stands still and is present, because this is the “source and summit of our Catholic faith.” At that very moment Christ enters our presence and is present fully in the Eucharist. He is present in the greatest gift which He gave us. As St. Luke writes, “Then Jesus gave bread to his disciples, saying, ‘This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.’ He did the same with the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant of my blood, which will be shed for you.” Those words are important for us to meditate upon. The words “given for you” and “shed for you” remind us of the sacrifice which Jesus gave for us on the cross: His Body and Blood.

Each time we celebrate the Eucharist together, we participate in Jesus’ offering of himself to his Father. The Eucharistic meal that we celebrate together each Sunday is not something new; it is not a new sacrifice. Rather, it is the same sacrifice that Jesus began at the Last Supper and completed on the Cross. Why did he do this? HE DID IT FOR YOU AND FOR ME!

Now let me suggest that at Communion time, when the Eucharist is held before your very eyes, think about, really think about, what you are and who you are receiving. It’s the living body of Jesus. It’s the same Jesus who died on the cross for us. It’s the same Jesus who rose from the dead for us. When we think of Jesus truly present in the Eucharist, it truly is astonishing and something which we should all hold near and dear to heart. The Eucharist is so awesome that it’s hard to imagine. Yet we now, by faith, it’s true! Only someone who truly loves us, like our God, could have given us such a special and incredible gift.

“At that first Eucharist before you died, O Lord, you prayed that all be one in you; at this our Eucharist again preside, and in our hearts your law of love renew. Thus may we all one bread, one body be; through this blest Sacrament of Unity.”

God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

To put it simply the mystery of the Holy Trinity says that in God there are three distinct persons. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Yet, there are not three Gods, but only one.

We can think of the three persons of the Holy Trinity as three faces smiling upon us, the children of the Lord. First, there is the face of God as Father. When God smiled, it resulted in our origin and the origin of all things: the bright stars in the sky, the birds that fly in the sky and the fish that swim in the sea. Second, there is the face of God as Son. When the face of God as Son smiled, God came down from heaven, taking flesh, walking side by side with each of us showing us how to love and live our lives. Finally, there is the face of God as Spirit. When the face of God as Spirit smiled, God entered within us, dwelling within our souls.

Dwelling within our souls is the Holy Spirit who, as St. Paul tells us gives us a variety of gifts, and those gifts come from the Father through the Son. There is almost like this chain of command in which we can begin to understand the Trinity, yet there is one ultimate person who these gifts come from. We have God (Father) who bestows the gifts through the Word (Son), and the Spirit makes us aware of them in our lives. Similarly, the gift of the Trinity is given by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. When we share in the Spirit, we possess the love of the Father, the grace of the Son and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

The Trinity truly is a trademark of our faith, whether we realize it or not. Every time we gather together for Mass we call to mind the Trinity. Before we eat a meal we pray and recall the Trinity. The Sign of the Cross, that Trinitarian action has become the trademark of our faith- Father, Son and Holy Spirit!