The Urgent Need to Pray for Vocations and a Priest’s Healing

I sat quietly praying in the pews as a younger priest in our area announced his shocking cancer diagnosis to his flock. A parish that has already been through the Way of the Cross with multiple pastors is now faced with the same affliction. The community is understandably stunned, and especially, the priest, his family, and everyone who knows him.

Situations like these are stark reminders that the Lord calls us to stay awake and be vigilant in preparing for both His coming and our own death. Advent is the time we remember the coming of Christ in the Parousia, at Christmas, and the fact that He comes daily on our altars in the Holy Eucharist. It is a time of expectant waiting.

I am always amazed at how closely our lives align with the liturgical calendar. This community is now experiencing a deeper eschatological period as we intercede for this priest in his affliction by waiting for the coming of Christ to act through healing in his life and the expectant hope we all experience through our prayers. This expectant waiting is already yielding beautiful results in the faithful.

The most powerful witness to this hope is how much the people of God want to rally in prayer and love around this priest. In an age of social media, news travels fast, and by the time I walked into my own parish on Monday morning for Endow and daily Mass, nearly everyone I spoke with already knew of this priest’s devastating diagnosis at the parish across town. The news made the rounds via Facebook by Sunday afternoon, shortly after his second announcement. Everyone I met wanted to pray for him.

Father has requested the faithful ask Servant of God Frank Parater to intercede in his healing in the hope that a miracle healing will result in Frank’s beatification. Frank Parater was a seminarian in our diocese who died of rheumatic fever when he was studying for the priesthood in Rome. He was deeply devoted to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and offered all his sufferings for the conversion of souls. I shared his story here three years ago.

The Lord’s plans interweave in powerful and beautiful ways we do not expect. Three years ago, a priest friend and I organized a novena for priestly vocations to Frank Parater leading up to the anniversary of his death on February 7th at all the parishes in our area. His story had faded a bit into the diocese’s memory banks and was kept alive among the seminarians, but the Lord wanted more of the faithful to know about this holy young man in our area specifically.

The Lord, in His infinite plan of love, was planting seeds through that novena for when this tragic news would strike our community. The faithful were already primed to seek the intercession of Frank Parater on behalf of this priest because we already started fostering a devotion to him three years ago. The Lord knew his intercession would be needed now. The Lord’s plan is so incredibly higher and greater than we can imagine.

While the most urgent need is for this priest who is living the Agony in the Garden, there is a second dimension. As more and more priests retire, battle medical issues, or leave for a whole host of other reasons, it is becoming more and more difficult to provide priests to parishes in situations such as this one. The priest shortage is nothing short of a crisis at this point. We need priests to be raised up from our own pews now.

There is a startling silence in too many corners of the Church when it comes to the lack of priestly vocations plaguing nearly every diocese in the Western world. It is often swept under the carpet because it is a problem that seems overwhelming at best and is ignored at worst. Looking the other way is not going to fix this crisis.

The Church needs to faithfully and boldly ask the Lord to provide priestly vocations. Priests should be fostering and encouraging priestly vocations in families within their parish communities. Parents should be seeking God’s will, rather than their own, and support and encourage priestly vocations in their sons. The Lord is calling. The question is: Are young men being encouraged to listen?

For our part as the Mystical Body, we should be praying with devotion and faith in the Lord through regular holy hours and other devotions for priestly vocations. The Lord wants us to seek His face on behalf of young men being called to the priesthood and to ask Him to send laborers. We have not shown deep devotion and desire for priestly vocations in many of our churches. Our half-hearted prayers have led to half-hearted results.

It is time to abandon the diabolically paralyzing shame and fear of the ever-present clergy sex abuse scandals. The enemy is the one who wants us to flee from encouraging priestly vocations. The enemy wants young men to seek the things of this world rather than to listen to the still small voice calling them to union with the Eternal High Priest. The enemy wants parents to be terrified of sending their sons to be priests because of the state of the Church. There is no doubt that we live in deeply corrupt days within the hierarchy, but things will never reform if we don’t send in courageous men to clean it up. It’s time to stop thinking that someone else’s sons should answer the call.

It is time to stop devaluing the priesthood and reducing it to a position of power and politics, or some bachelor CEO status, which is not attractive to young men because it is an obvious counterfeit to how Christ truly calls priests to live. It is time for the priesthood to stop being ashamed of itself. To do so is to be ashamed of Christ’s priesthood. The priesthood is a glorious, sacrificial, and radically high calling from Christ the Eternal High Priest. It belongs to Christ, not the philosophical, theological, political, cultural, and ontological errors of our day.

The choice is between encouraging more young men to listen to Christ’s call to become priests from our own churches, or churches begin closing. Full stop. This is our reality; there is no use pretending like this isn’t the current situation. Many archdioceses and dioceses have already started parish closures because they don’t have enough priests or faithful to fill their churches any longer. This is coming to every diocese at some point in the near future. The foreign priests, as wonderful as many of them are, simply cannot cover the needs because they are too great. No priests means no sacraments.

The Lord will answer us in the measure of devotion and openness we show Him in our prayers for priestly vocations. If we are lukewarm about seeking priestly vocations, then our parishes will show it by a lack of vocations or long desert periods between vocations. Spiritually healthy parishes raise up priestly and religious vocations. And a priest should never be faced with the pain of not knowing how he will find a replacement so that he can receive cancer treatment. We need priests.

Let us begin earnestly fostering priestly vocations in prayer and within our families and communities now. Servant of God Frank Parater is a perfect place to start. He will intercede for vocations if we ask him to go before the Throne of God on our behalf. We must ask for priestly vocations in men who desire to burn with the love of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

I encourage everyone reading this to pray daily for vocations to the priesthood and to encourage holy hours, rosaries, fasting, and other forms of devotion within your parishes for vocations. Encourage your priests to boldly ask young men to listen for Christ’s call to the priesthood. Parents, be open to the Lord calling your sons. This life is about your sons serving God, not your plans. They need your support.

Please pray for Frank Parater to intercede for the healing of this priest. The Lord knows who he is. Here is a prayer seeking Frank Parater’s intercession for both our intentions: for Father’s healing and for more vocations.

Loving Father, your servant Frank Parater sought perfection as a student, scout, and seminarian. He offered himself to you completely through the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Through his intercession, may young people answer your call to follow Jesus as priests, deacons, and religious. Grant, as well, the favors I seek so that your Church will recognize his holiness and proclaim him Blessed. Grant this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Author’s Note: Report any favors granted to the Diocese of Richmond at vocations@richmonddiocese.org.

Photo from Detroit Catholic