VATICAN CITY, 10 FEB 2011 (VIS) - "Proposing Vocations in the Local Church" is the theme of the Pope's Message for the forth-eighth World Day of Prayer for Vocations, which is to be celebrated on 15 May, fourth Sunday of Easter. Ample extracts of the English-language version of the document are given below:
"The work of carefully encouraging and supporting vocations finds a radiant source of inspiration in those places in the Gospel where Jesus calls His disciples to follow Him and trains them with love and care. ... Before calling them, Jesus spent the night alone in prayer, listening to the will of the Father. ... Vocations to the ministerial priesthood and to the consecrated life are first and foremost the fruit of constant contact with the living God and insistent prayer lifted up to the 'Lord of the harvest', whether in parish communities, in Christian families or in groups specifically devoted to prayer for vocations.
"At the beginning of His public life, the Lord called some fishermen on the shore of the Sea of Galilee: 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men'. ... It is a challenging and uplifting invitation that Jesus addresses to those to Whom He says: 'Follow me!'. He invites them to become His friends, to listen attentively to His word and to live with Him. He teaches them complete commitment to God and to the extension of His kingdom in accordance with the law of the Gospel. ... He invites them to leave behind their own narrow agenda and their notions of self-fulfilment in order to immerse themselves in another will, the will of God, and to be guided by it. He gives them an experience of fraternity, one born of that total openness to God which becomes the hallmark of the community of Jesus".
"It is no less challenging to follow Christ today. It means learning to keep our gaze fixed on Jesus, growing close to Him, listening to His word and encountering Him in the Sacraments; it means learning to conform our will to His. This requires a genuine school of formation for all those who would prepare themselves for the ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life under the guidance of the competent ecclesial authorities. The Lord does not fail to call people at every stage of life to share in His mission and to serve the Church in the ordained ministry and in the consecrated life".
"Particularly in these times, when the voice of the Lord seems to be drowned out by 'other voices' and His invitation to follow Him by the gift of one's own life may seem too difficult, every Christian community, every member of the Church, needs consciously to feel responsibility for promoting vocations. It is important to encourage and support those who show clear signs of a call to priestly life and religious consecration, and to enable them to feel the warmth of the whole community as they respond 'yes' to God and the Church. I encourage them, in the same words which I addressed to those who have already chosen to enter the seminary".
"It is essential that every local Church become more sensitive and attentive to the pastoral care of vocations, helping children and young people in particular at every level of family, parish and associations - as Jesus did with His disciples - to grow into a genuine and affectionate friendship with the Lord, cultivated through personal and liturgical prayer; to grow in familiarity with the sacred Scriptures and thus to listen attentively and fruitfully to the word of God; to understand that entering into God's will does not crush or destroy a person, but instead leads to the discovery of the deepest truth about ourselves; and finally to be generous and fraternal in relationships with others, since it is only in being open to the love of God that we discover true joy and the fulfilment of our aspirations".
"I address a particular word to you, my dear brother bishops. ... The Lord needs you to co-operate with Him in ensuring that His call reaches the hearts of those whom He has chosen. Choose carefully those who work in the diocesan vocations office. ... Your openness to the needs of dioceses experiencing a dearth of vocations will become a blessing from God for your communities and a sign to the faithful of a priestly service that generously considers the needs of the entire Church".
"I turn to those who can offer a specific contribution to the pastoral care of vocations: to priests, families, catechists and leaders of parish groups. I ask priests to testify to their communion with their bishop and their fellow priests, and thus to provide a rich soil for the seeds of a priestly vocation. May families be 'animated by the spirit of faith and love and by the sense of duty' which is capable of helping children to welcome generously the call to priesthood and to religious life. May catechists and leaders of Catholic groups and ecclesial movements, convinced of their educational mission, seek to 'guide the young people entrusted to them so that these will recognise and freely accept a divine vocation'.
"Dear brothers and sisters, your commitment to the promotion and care of vocations becomes most significant and pastorally effective when carried out in the unity of the Church and in the service of communion".
"The ability to foster vocations is a hallmark of the vitality of a local Church. With trust and perseverance let us invoke the aid of the Virgin Mary, that by the example of her own acceptance of God's saving plan and her powerful intercession, every community will be more and more open to saying 'yes' to the Lord Who is constantly calling new labourers to His harvest".
About this blog
Please remember the Faith Communities that have been God's own Family and yours...
One of my favorite Christian artists is a singer/songwriter called Michael Card. His song “So Many Books” has always been a favorite of mine. During my time in the novice period of formation as a Dominican tertiary I particularly enjoyed the song. The chorus sings to us thus: “So many books, so little time…so many hunger…so many blind. Starving for words they must wait in the night, to open a Bible and move towards the Light.” As a young learner I looked to the “books” of the printed word for knowledge as many young people do. I searched for meaning in the texts of what I called tradition.
As I matured and grew in age and wisdom I came to understand the lyrics of the song of life a little differently. I understand now that the greatest books ever written are written not by man but by God and that these books are not all found in the canonical Bible. These great works of the Father are found in the form of his own children. Your life is part of God’s great library. Each person represents a volume in the encyclopedic work of life. People are God’s tradition. Now as a bishop, I see God’s wisdom in the men and women who have walked before me. I see the beauty of God’s love in all that the older generations have worked to build up for those who come after them. I believe it is the duty of bishops to preserve Tradition by preserving what has been handed to us from our elder brothers and sisters in God.
Memory is important in tradition. We honor our fathers and mothers by remembering them. Parish communities act as libraries in that they house the books of the families of God. In recent years we have witness the downsizing of many dioceses throughout the US. I lament this trend because when the parish fades out of history there is a danger that we will forget those people who were God’s instruments in bringing the parish into the world. I wish my little community of believers had the ability to save all those parishes from extinction.
This little blog is part of my effort to remember the parishes throughout our land that have played a crucial role in building up the library of God’s love for his people. I will post a link to Mass readings and sometimes I’ll offer a brief commentary or I will post other news or information that may be of interest to readers. Along with this information I will sometimes post a section entitled “We Remember” which will highlight memories of a particular parish community, priest, or bishop. I write this blog as a person of love and faith, not as any official minister. This blog is not connected to the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy or any diocese or parish, nor is it my intention to lead anyone to believe it is so connected. It is however rooted in the love God has for his children and the communities that have breathed his love into the world for countless generations. It is also my personal gift to those men and women of history who deserve to be remembered.
As a young priest and eventually a bishop in the independent Catholic movement (a movement that has enjoyed much attention in recent years due to the efforts of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI to welcome many “wandering bishops” back home to the Church), I have come to appreciate the beauty of God’s people. It is not uncommon in the independent movement for bishops and pastors to be younger than those in the mainstream Catholic Church. I have never questioned this trend because of the fact that Jesus began his public ministry at age thirty and because the first apostles were either younger or not much older than the thirty-year-old-Jesus. I have always found a certain beauty in this trend because I have been able to minster to men and women of older generations. This is a privilege because it has afforded me the opportunity to live out the command to honor father and mother in a deeply spiritual way. Even though some may jeer at the practice of ordaining younger men to the order of bishop, it is a tradition that more closely follows the example of the ministry and choice of Jesus.
I believe that God gives his Son in the form of youth so that Hope can be visible in the community. What do I mean? Jesus comes to us as a man in his thirties and by doing so reaches into the community of the young and the community of the older. He is in essence the bridge of that which has been called the “generation gap.” He gives hope to the very young and to the very old in that he represents the future for both groups. For the young he is what they aspire to be. For the old he is the embodiment of what they leave as their legacy of love to the world.
I have had the honor of ministering to many members of the faithful who, by the labor of their lives, paved the way for those like me to inherit the joys of the Kingdom. I hope that this little web page will also expose me to more of the love and wisdom of the generations of elders that I seek to cherish and honor. If you have a story you would like to share about the history of your faith community of a special minister who touched your life, e-mail me at dominicanvocations@hotmail.com and I will do my best to share it with the world in the form of this blog site.
I also encourage you to start your own “We Remember” effort by means of your own web page or blog or by commemorating the history of your faith family in some other way. The Catholic tradition in Southern New Jersey will be celebrating its Diamond Jubilee in 2012, so now is the perfect time to begin to collect and publish your memories of the past 75 years of the Tradition of God’s People here at home.
Be assured of my prayers for you and your faith communities. Please pray for me.
With hope for the future, I am,
+ Tomas Martin, OPD
Bishop of the OPD Community
One of my favorite Christian artists is a singer/songwriter called Michael Card. His song “So Many Books” has always been a favorite of mine. During my time in the novice period of formation as a Dominican tertiary I particularly enjoyed the song. The chorus sings to us thus: “So many books, so little time…so many hunger…so many blind. Starving for words they must wait in the night, to open a Bible and move towards the Light.” As a young learner I looked to the “books” of the printed word for knowledge as many young people do. I searched for meaning in the texts of what I called tradition.
As I matured and grew in age and wisdom I came to understand the lyrics of the song of life a little differently. I understand now that the greatest books ever written are written not by man but by God and that these books are not all found in the canonical Bible. These great works of the Father are found in the form of his own children. Your life is part of God’s great library. Each person represents a volume in the encyclopedic work of life. People are God’s tradition. Now as a bishop, I see God’s wisdom in the men and women who have walked before me. I see the beauty of God’s love in all that the older generations have worked to build up for those who come after them. I believe it is the duty of bishops to preserve Tradition by preserving what has been handed to us from our elder brothers and sisters in God.
Memory is important in tradition. We honor our fathers and mothers by remembering them. Parish communities act as libraries in that they house the books of the families of God. In recent years we have witness the downsizing of many dioceses throughout the US. I lament this trend because when the parish fades out of history there is a danger that we will forget those people who were God’s instruments in bringing the parish into the world. I wish my little community of believers had the ability to save all those parishes from extinction.
This little blog is part of my effort to remember the parishes throughout our land that have played a crucial role in building up the library of God’s love for his people. I will post a link to Mass readings and sometimes I’ll offer a brief commentary or I will post other news or information that may be of interest to readers. Along with this information I will sometimes post a section entitled “We Remember” which will highlight memories of a particular parish community, priest, or bishop. I write this blog as a person of love and faith, not as any official minister. This blog is not connected to the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy or any diocese or parish, nor is it my intention to lead anyone to believe it is so connected. It is however rooted in the love God has for his children and the communities that have breathed his love into the world for countless generations. It is also my personal gift to those men and women of history who deserve to be remembered.
As a young priest and eventually a bishop in the independent Catholic movement (a movement that has enjoyed much attention in recent years due to the efforts of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI to welcome many “wandering bishops” back home to the Church), I have come to appreciate the beauty of God’s people. It is not uncommon in the independent movement for bishops and pastors to be younger than those in the mainstream Catholic Church. I have never questioned this trend because of the fact that Jesus began his public ministry at age thirty and because the first apostles were either younger or not much older than the thirty-year-old-Jesus. I have always found a certain beauty in this trend because I have been able to minster to men and women of older generations. This is a privilege because it has afforded me the opportunity to live out the command to honor father and mother in a deeply spiritual way. Even though some may jeer at the practice of ordaining younger men to the order of bishop, it is a tradition that more closely follows the example of the ministry and choice of Jesus.
I believe that God gives his Son in the form of youth so that Hope can be visible in the community. What do I mean? Jesus comes to us as a man in his thirties and by doing so reaches into the community of the young and the community of the older. He is in essence the bridge of that which has been called the “generation gap.” He gives hope to the very young and to the very old in that he represents the future for both groups. For the young he is what they aspire to be. For the old he is the embodiment of what they leave as their legacy of love to the world.
I have had the honor of ministering to many members of the faithful who, by the labor of their lives, paved the way for those like me to inherit the joys of the Kingdom. I hope that this little web page will also expose me to more of the love and wisdom of the generations of elders that I seek to cherish and honor. If you have a story you would like to share about the history of your faith community of a special minister who touched your life, e-mail me at dominicanvocations@hotmail.com and I will do my best to share it with the world in the form of this blog site.
I also encourage you to start your own “We Remember” effort by means of your own web page or blog or by commemorating the history of your faith family in some other way. The Catholic tradition in Southern New Jersey will be celebrating its Diamond Jubilee in 2012, so now is the perfect time to begin to collect and publish your memories of the past 75 years of the Tradition of God’s People here at home.
Be assured of my prayers for you and your faith communities. Please pray for me.
With hope for the future, I am,
+ Tomas Martin, OPD
Bishop of the OPD Community