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When I was growing up, we were urged to pray for vocations.  That meant to pray for more priests and nuns.  After all, they were the ones especially called by God.  The rest of us had to figure out for ourselves what to do with our lives, what school to go to, who to marry, what job to get.This was a misunderstanding that the Second Vatican Council was determined to clear up. It emphasized what this Sunday's second reading from St. Paul makes clear — that all Christians have a vocation (Lumen Gentium, chapter 5).  The very first call we...

He was a Vietnam legend, the priest. Ralph Oriscello first heard about him while treating injured soldiers at the 93rd Evacuation Hospital in South Vietnam in the fall of 1967. One after another, the soldiers told the story of how the priest, unarmed except for a crucifix and a prayer, ran into the middle of a mortar firestorm and dragged wounded men to safety. As the battle escalated and the casualties mounted, so did the priest's momentum. With mortar shells exploding all around him, he brought back one injured man after another, saving lives and comforting souls. "Many of the...