A wave of egalitarianism, swelling for over two centuries, has broken over every corner of the West, including the Church. In its backwash, among other aspects of Catholic life, the approach to vocations in the Church has slowed. Older Catholics would have heard in their youth that a vocation to the priesthood or to religious life is the “higher calling” compared to the Church’s other vocational sacrament, holy matrimony.
For younger Catholics, this label and this comparison have seemingly been swept out to sea. It’s not that the Church has given up promoting religious vocations – far from it. In the United States, we have National Vocations Awareness Week each November and Good Shepherd Sunday after Easter as designated annual occasions for this effort, to say nothing of others less prominent. And during these periods, I have heard fine homilies and read good pieces on the beauty of priesthood and religious life.
Alongside this constructive work, I have often heard, sometimes even in the same sentence of a petition read at Mass, the promotion of vocations to the diaconate and to marriage. These are legitimate and holy vocations within the Church. Each has produced wonderful saints who have lived their
Read more...
