Wow, what a wonderful week it's been! I started another catechist class last Monday called Introduction to Scripture, and it's being taught by a priest at St. John Neumann parish in Lancaster. It's not near as structured as my Introduction to the Church class I have on Thursdays since the priest doesn't use any kind of class notes. We do have a syllabus, and he does adhere to that outline, but it's more of a discussion between the students and the teacher, even though it's a little scattered. I'm sure it will get better and people will be a little more open as the sessions continue.
In Intro to the Church this week, we talked about the Body of Christ as the people of the Church, and we started discussing the four marks of the Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. There were wonderful discussions and beautiful imagery in describing the Church as one body with many parts, the one bride of Christ, and sons and daughters of God. I could talk more about it, but I'll save that for another post.
Rounding out the week, I attended the Fishers of Men dinner at the Cardinal Keeler Center in Harrisburg. It is a fundraiser which started a few years ago to help pay for the education of the seminarians who are studying to be priests for the diocese. There were priests, sisters, and lay people from around the diocese who attended last night, as well as our beloved Bishop McFadden and a visiting bishop from Pittsburgh, Bishop Waltershied. He originally was the Secretary of Vocations and Consecrated Life for the diocese (and also the one who helped to start the Fishers of Men dinner), but he was recently ordained as an Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh and, of course, had to leave. We were served dinner and drinks by our seminarians, and listened to some of their vocational testimonies as to why they are studying to become priests. Currently, there are 31 seminarians attending three different local seminaries for their studies: St. Charles Borromeo in Philadelphia; St. Vincent's in Latrobe, PA; and Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, MD. That total has risen drastically since the beginning of the 21st century!
We are so blessed to have that many young men in formation. So often today we hear stories about the "vocational crisis" in that less and less men are considering priesthood and consecrated life, as well as young women shying away from wanting to become sisters and nuns. I do believe, and have heard, the stories from other parts of the world where one priest may be in charge of multiple churches or other churches just fall into ruin. Yet, I think that we are recognizing the importance of our priests and their role in our faith, and people are acting upon this. Bishop McFadden remarked last night that he believes the prayers of the lay people in the churches across the diocese have aided in young men recognizing the call of Christ to serve him in the priesthood. The Church has stated this over and over again that we must pray for our priests, our seminarians, and for future seminarians; for holy men to enter into the service of Christ and His people. And, from the witness of last night, I believe that the Harrisburg Diocese is accomplishing this through prayer and encouragement of our young men. I can only pray that this happens more and more in dioceses across the world.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment