Priestly vocation

The article below appears in today's Irish Times.
To say "The noise of the world is drowning out the voice of God calling our young," cannot be the 'full story'. There seems to be a tone of "I know better than the world" about such a statement.
All we have is the 'world' we live and breathe in. There is also the tone that the clerical church knows best.

Why is it in poorer developing countries priestly vocations are in the ascendancy? Is it that God is having a better say there, or is it that a road to priestly ordination offers a higher status in society for those with 'vocations'?

Surely the mission of the ordained priest is to live and preach the Word of God in the world of the 'now'.

Elsewhere in the article Fr Bourke writes, "Life is not simply an unconnected series of events and happenings. On the contrary, for the believer, there is a unity and integrity to everything that unfolds".

Is that sentence real and has it meaning? Life is simply not like that.

Again, it is well worth parallelling this article with George B Wilson's book Clericalism, The death of priesthood.




Year for young people to ask if God is calling them to priesthood

RITE AND REASON: The noise of the world is drowning out the voice of God calling our young, writes Eamonn Bourke
A FABLE from the Celtic tradition recounts a conversation between Fionn and some of the Fianna. Fionn asks his colleagues what they consider to be the finest music in the world. "The song of the skylark!" one brave warrior suggests. "The gentle whisper of a lover," another adds. After each has offered his counsel the question is then turned back to Fionn: "But you, Fionn, what do you think is the finest music in the world?"
He replied: "The music of what happens. That is the finest music in the world." This Celtic myth is imbued with a deeply Christian sense; it suggests there is a unity and integrity to all that happens. Life is not simply an unconnected series of events and happenings. On the contrary, for the believer, there is a unity and integrity to everything that unfolds.
The events of my life and the life of the community have a purpose and a plan directed by God, guided towards a particular conclusion according to the will of one who loves us. In this world outlook everything has purpose, everything has meaning.
The great challenge of life then is to discern my role, my vocation, in this plan and to collaborate with the loving purposes of the creator.
St Paul tells of his vocation in his Letter to the Galatians (1:15-16). He tells them that God had set him apart since birth and called him by his grace that he might preach the good news to the gentiles.
We too are set apart by God and called by his grace to bring the good news to a world that is hungry for the truth. We are called to do this through our own unique gifts and talents, responding to the promptings and guidance of the spirit of God.
Next Sunday, April 13th, the church in Ireland begins a year dedicated to the promotion of vocations. This is a year in which we are encouraged to embrace life as a gift from God and to recognise that each of us has a place in God's loving plan. God is not a mass producer of human beings. He is a master craftsman who has created each of us for a unique purpose in life.
In this year of vocation the church encourages us to embrace life in all its highs and lows, joys and sadness, as God's gift to us, as the life we would create for ourselves if we could see as God himself sees, as the life which ultimately we will praise and thank God for when we see him face to face.
This year of vocation will be a resounding success if all the baptised, especially the young who are endeavouring to set out on their life journey, ask themselves the questions "where is God calling me in life?" or "where does God want me to use my gifts and talents?"
A hallmark of a mature and responsible believing community is when its young, who are contemplating where and how they will live their lives, naturally ask themselves whether or not they are being called to priesthood or religious life. The world in which we live today militates against this.
In the noise of this hectic world the voice of God calling our young to these valuable and necessary vocations is being drowned out.
Maybe this year we could as a nation dim the noise, bring the soul to rest and allow a space for the voice of the Lord to penetrate our hearts so that those who are being called to religious life and priesthood may be moved by the prompting of the spirit and those who are not being called to these specific vocations may see their life as a most valuable gift and their life work as their opportunity to give praise to the one who created them.
Fr Eamonn Bourke is director of vocations for Dublin's Catholic archdiocese. Next Sunday the Year of Vocation will be launched in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin