4th Sunday of Easter - Year A - 7th May, 2017
A cheeky question!
“Father, should you pray for a vocation if you don’t want one?” asked a sixteen year old boy during a vocation’s enquiry. It sounds a little disrespectful now, but when I asked that question all those years ago I was genuinely afraid of becoming a priest.
Why the change?
I just took a chance of praying for a vocation. I reasoned that if I prayed with blind faith maybe God would take away my fear. So, I said three Hail Marys each day – one to be good at home; one to be good at school and one to be a priest – only one of them worked! But I do thank God it did. I just don’t know how God found me and called me to be a priest and that I am a priest up to this very day. We always depend totally on God’s grace to try and live each day as best we can.
Good Shepherd Sunday
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It’s a day when we pray for Vocations to the priesthood and indeed to religious life. We thank God for our own two Seminarians whom God has sent us and we pray for an increase of vocations to serve in the Diocese of Westminster.
Why answer the call?
We have one life to live and it is extremely short. Young people imagine they are going to live forever but life passes for all of us. Why not give all of your life as a generous servant of God? (Now, I’m not putting priestly or religious life beyond married or committed single life. The state of holiness for them all is exactly the same. It is just a different means said Pope Paul VIth. Personally, I have seen people make greater sacrifices in serving those they love than I will ever have to make in my various ministries.)
Do Pray and do begin today – If God wants you, God will find you and call you.
Why not begin saying these three Hail Marys every day – perhaps for you, all three might even work!
Fr Michael McCullagh CM