Posted on 07/04/2005 3:21:18 PM PDT by NYer
Many prayers for this seminarian and all those who have consecrated their lives in service to God!
What a great post! Very good article, sympathetic, or course, but also quite well written. That's very rare lately!
I KNEW they were Americans - thought they were athlete types - now I know!
Feel-good story of the week.
What a wonderful, wonderful story! Thank you so much for the uplifting post!
Whever I hear people moaning about vocations, I am heartened by stories like this young man- who calls to mind a seminarian who came here for short summer and ended up coming back for a pastoral 9 months. He too is at the American College at the Vatican. His enthusiasm is infectious and inspiring.
It's so wonderful to see such bright talented people choosing to serve God.
Happy 4th!
The vocations are growing! IMHO, the sex scandal was the Holy Spirit's way of purging the Church. Christ promised to remain with His church and here is the fruit of the scandal and that promise.
Wasn't this the same excuse that Tom Cruise gave his first two wives for not wanting to have sex with them?
I sure as heck wouldn't know. Was it? If so, who cares?
excellent. positive story. God Bless. Another Joannes Paulus Magnus generation priest.
Plus, our new parochial vicar is a retread - he did his parish training here. This is his first parish assignment. Preached his maiden sermon the Sunday before last (not yesterday but the week before). He did great!
I think the scandal was the fruit of bad seminary formation and lax supervision on the part of none-too-orthodox bishops . . . but it does indeed appear that the Holy Spirit is cleaning house for the new generation of young priests . . . hope so. God willing.
Just one teeny little nitpick.
He didn't forego "family and career". The priesthood IS a career. And theoretically he is now more readily available to his TRUE family, brothers and sisters in Christ.
I bring this up because I have an aunt who people kind of feel sorry for because she hasn't married or had children or gone to college, but is about to move to the Dominican Republic to serve as a missionary. But that is a legitimate career!
I wish we could expand the definitions of terms such as "family" and "career". Jesus certainly didn't forego family and career. When people ask me what career I am working towards, I tell them I want to teach the Bible to people who may have limited access to it. I won't make any money at it, but that just may be the difference between a "job" and a "career". I'd like to have a job to support myself, but that would not be my career. And I'll always have a family of my own, because I'll always have my Father, my brothers and my sisters, the true family.
Excuse the rant, but this is something that's important to me.
There is no need to expand the definition of family.
We are God's children, and the Church is the household of God.
We are family, from the marriage/household level to the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven.
The author's words are incorrect because they are written (probably unintentionally) from the relativist/humanist perspective of life seperate from and/or without God. From that perspective, the priesthood etc are a sacrifice that they consider to be a *loss* of whatever "better" things in life; career, wife/children etc. That perspective does not grasp that the vocation is much much more than any "career".
Thanks for the ping. That is a great story. Southwest Pennsylvania: cradle of quarterbacks...and...orthodox priests :)
Bump for Father Joe.
What a wonderful story!
**We have THREE new seminarians doing their parish training at our parish!**
Truly exciting!
Nice story. There's still hope for the Catholic Church.
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