Vocations Office opens ‘Invisible Monastery’

On June 25, 2012, the Vatican released a set of guidelines to help bishops and church communities promote, recruit and educate a new generation of men for the priesthood. These guidelines were an effort to respond to a “clear and pressing” need for priests.

“Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to Priestly Ministry,” a 29-page document was released on the 70th anniversary of the inauguration of the congregation’s Pontifical Work for Priestly Vocations.

Among the guidelines was a call to diocesan vocation offices to organize an “invisible monastery” where large numbers of people are dedicated to providing non-stop prayer for priestly vocations. In response to this call, the Vocations Office for the Diocese of Corpus Christi has embraced the idea and invites Catholics to join the Invisible Monastery at their new Web site ccpriest.org.

“A monastery is an isolated place where the collection of prayers are gathered and offered up to God as a unified voice,” said Father Joseph Lopez, JCL Vocation Director for the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

While praying at the monastery provides the structure some people need in their prayer life, people should pray for vocations “anywhere and at all times,” Father Lopez said.

Vianney Vocations, a Catholic company that provides professional services to vocation offices of dioceses and religious orders, created the “Invisible Monastery.” The company’s mission is to help create a culture of vocations and inspire more men to consider the priesthood.

People can become members of the Invisible Monastery online by selecting the diocese that they want to support with their prayers. The Web site offers prayers and other resources that can be used to pray for vocations.

Members of Invisible Monastery pledge to pray daily or weekly for vocations; choose their type of prayer–Mass intention, rosary, private prayer, etc.; renew their pledge annually; and receive a quarterly e-newsletter with prayers, resources and ideas for promoting vocations. They may receive occasional communications from the diocesan vocations director with prayer requests or other information.

“Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God in thanksgiving and in praise of His glory,” Father Lopez said. “It also includes the requesting of good things from Him.  In this case, we ask God to inspire more young men and women to be courageous in answering their call to priesthood and consecrated life.  We need more laborers for the harvest!”

Praying for vocations can and should be done by people of all ages, Father Lopez said.  “There are not certain people or parishioners that should pray for vocations more than others.  Since priesthood and consecrated life is important to us, it is only fitting that we all include an increase in vocations into our daily prayers,” he said.

The challenge of attracting men to the priesthood is made more difficult by declining birthrates in the developed world and a materialist, secular culture in which people are less likely to make “courageous and demanding Gospel choices” in their lives, the document said.

“In the West, there is a prevailing culture of indifference to the Christian faith, a culture unable to understand the value of vocations to a special consecration,” the document pointed out.

Key to turning things around isn’t just setting up new programs and initiatives, but building a vibrant, active and dedicated community of Catholics, united in prayer and with Christ, it said.

Some reasons men say “no” to or ignore a call to the priesthood, it said, include:

• having parents who are reluctant about their son’s choice because they have different hopes for their child’s future;
• living in a society that marginalizes priests and considers them irrelevant;
• misunderstanding the gift of celibacy;
• being disillusioned by the scandal of priests who abused minors; and
• seeing priests who are too overwhelmed by their pastoral duties to the detriment of their spiritual life.

Vocations are fostered when boys and young men have an uplifting and transformative Christian experience, the document observed. That experience can be found in family life, at school, in the parish, as an altar boy, in Catholic groups and associations or in volunteer work, all of which allow them to “know firsthand the reality of God himself, in communion with their brothers and in Gospel mission,” it said.

While dioceses and seminaries bear most of the responsibility of determining the suitability of a candidate, vocations offices, too, must be consistent in attracting and forming people who display a healthy “integration and maturing of the affections,” the document said.

Men who “show signs of being profoundly fragile personalities” should not be encouraged to consider a vocation. The educational setting must support a candidate’s authentic reasons to be a priest and contribute “to healing any possible individual deviations from his vocation.”

A priest represents Christ the shepherd, the document said, and as such, he must draw his strength from and base his vocation on loving and serving Christ and his church.

All Catholics, including parents, coaches, catechists and group leaders, should help their young charges to see the priestly vocation as a gift. Boys and young men should be taught the value of prayer and meditation on God’s word, the document said, so that they learn to hear what God is calling them to do with their lives.

Father Lopez also invites the public to visit the Vocations Office’s new Web site CCPriest.org, which is an “innovative, eye-catching endeavor to help our young people discern their vocation via the social media outlets.”

“Through this Web site, one can learn about discernment, prayers and other young men and women that have answered God’s call to priesthood and consecrated life.  We can also be found on Facebook and followed on Twitter@ccvocations,” he said.