We Must Build a Culture of Vocations for Young People
I was scrolling through my Instagram page for campus ministry the other day and stumbled on a well-known social media type telling people we don’t need to encourage vocations to religious life and the priesthood. He implied that they would “just happen.” Yes and no, but I have to disagree for the most part.
The Church has been facing a monumental priestly and religious vocation crisis for the last few decades. Priests and religious left their vowed vocations in droves after Vatican II for a whole host of reasons. The Church is still recovering. Most of my college students never met a single religious until they attended the diocesan college conference—and that is literally the only place they see religious outside of social media. Compared to years ago, we have very few religious in our diocese.
Young adults are struggling to find their place in the world and in God’s plan. They have had very few guides along the way to explain and authentically witness to a God-given vocation. All my college students—and other young people I’ve ministered to over the years—were stunned to learn that the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is ordered to lead their spouse and children to heaven. This completely changed their understanding of dating.
Before these conversations, they didn’t consider God’s will in their dating lives at all. They didn’t understand that prayer should be a part of their dating life and that they should be dating to discern marriage. Dating for fun is a complete waste of time and causes unnecessary heartache. It was life-changing for them to discover that they should only date people who will strengthen them in their Catholic Faith because they shouldn’t marry someone who will lead them away from Christ and His Church. Why date someone you could never possibly marry?! So many broken hearts and harmful relationships could be avoided if we helped people understand the purpose of marriage and dating.
This means that countless young people do not have a clear understanding of what they are undertaking when they confer the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony on their future spouse. They have not been guided by holy marriages or sound teaching from the pulpit that helps them to understand this God-given calling. We set people up for failure when we don’t help them understand what they are undertaking. Holier marriages lead to a holier Church and culture, which means we should be building a culture of holy vocations to marriage.
The same is true with the priesthood. The majority of young Catholic men have never considered the priesthood because no one ever taught them that they might be called by the Lord. They’ve never been told that the Lord may have given them a priestly heart. The same way a religious sister, brother, or priest has been given a consecrated heart.
Young men assume that they are called to marriage. Some of this is due to open hostility within Catholic families, when parents actively discourage any semblance of a priestly or religious calling. Some of it, which I have encountered, as have priest friends of mine, comes from parish cultures that are closed to praying in a devoted manner or to encouraging priestly or religious vocations in their pews. As one priest friend recently put it: “These parishes want priestly vocations to come out of someone else’s parish.”
For some men, God calls them in a more pronounced and direct way that allows them to follow Him on their own without initial guidance. For many, this is not the case. The latter need the support and guidance of the Church to help them be open to God’s calling. The idea that priestly vocations just fall out of the sky is failing miserably. We have a massive shortage of priests.
For those who think that having one priest in every parish in a diocese is coverage enough, they haven’t spent much time talking to overworked, burned out, and overwhelmed priests. Only one priest in a parish or borrowing many priests from other nations does not solve the vocations problem. We are failing to raise up homegrown vocations while current priests suffer the fallout.
Men especially thrive through side-by-side leadership and guidance from other men. This is why altar server guilds and other liturgical ministries are essential in awakening priestly vocations. Priests taking an interest in the vocational development of the young men around them also opens young men up to the possibility that the Lord may be calling them to the priesthood.
One of the most beautiful and proud moments I experienced as a campus minister was at Easter Vigil a couple of weeks ago. Three of my male college students donned cassock and surplice and served at our chaplain’s parish for Easter Vigil. The parish was thrilled to see these young men serving in this manner and the chaplain’s leadership was a great boost to each one of them in their vocational discernment. Two of these young men are actively discerning the priesthood. Why?
The first answer is always the Holy Spirit at work. The second answer is that I have a very profound love of the priesthood, so I explained to them the nature of vocation. I have had deep conversations with them about both marriage and priesthood, and I told them that they should consider both. This is where certain social media personalities and I respectfully disagree.
My college students didn’t understand either vocation. They didn’t even understand that the Lord has a particular mission and vocation for them. Young people outside the Catholic college bubble don’t know the basics of the spiritual life that we are taking for granted at our own peril. I work at an extremely secular, progressive school. The majority of Catholics do not attend a Catholic college or university. These are completely different environments. We must take a proactive approach to teaching young people that the Lord is calling them to a vocation of some kind and that the first step is to simply be open to whatever God is calling them to.
These two young men decided to be open to both possibilities, but each is prayerfully discerning the priesthood in a more intentional way. They are now seeking the Lord’s will for their lives, as opposed to their own plans. Sharing the beautiful, sacrificial gift that is the priesthood awakened in them a deeper desire to serve the Lord and an openness to the possibility of being priests. Whether or not that happens is ultimately up to the Lord, but seeds that needed to be planted were planted.
The Lord has not stopped calling men to the priesthood. The cacophonous din of the world coupled with parish communities and families that too often discourage men from considering the priesthood are huge stumbling blocks to priestly vocations. The same is true for religious life, especially for young women.
We need to build a culture of vocations; this includes religious, marriage, and priestly vocations. In a Church that has been greatly secularized and has lost sight of vocational calls, we need to provide greater witnesses in our own vocations, engage in encouraging discussions with young people, provide better marriage preparation, and we need to create parish environments grounded in prayer that foster and encourage priestly and religious vocations.
We need to stop being ashamed of the priesthood. Corruption and sexual abuse do not take away from the great dignity, goodness, and gift that is the priesthood. The priesthood belongs to the Eternal High Priest, not the men who chose to betray and abandon Him and His flock. The wolves do not undo the good of the true shepherds seeking the salvation of their flock in union with Christ.
We also need to stop filling young people with worldly ambitions and ideals. This life is not about a career, money, success, esteem, or being able to buy lots of stuff. It is about following Christ, saving souls, and seeking heaven. Young people are lost and broken because the Church has become too worldly and focuses on worldly successes rather than spiritual successes. A worldly Church is going to have a very difficult time fostering religious and priestly vocations because those callings are eschatological in their nature. They point us to heaven and our ultimate union with Christ.
While most people are called to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, starting from a place of assuming a person is not called to religious or priestly life does not do anyone any favors. In fact, it can stifle or blow out the flames the Spirit is trying to light in a person’s soul. I have no doubt that priestly and religious vocations have been put out by well-intentioned people who did not properly guide individuals to God’s will for their lives because of an over emphasis on worldly success and values or an assumption that most are called to marriage.
Part of the Church’s mission is to raise up holy marriages, priests, religious, and at times, lay consecrated vocations. We are suffering from a vocational crisis. This vocational crisis comes in the form of parents who are not raising their children Catholic; over 95% of Catholics contracepting; divorce; rampant pornography addiction in the pews; widespread promiscuity among college students raised Catholic; the majority of young people who come to the Church for marriage prep cohabitating; low priest and religious numbers in many dioceses; and the Sacraments being used as a conveyer-belt system for people who aren’t actively following Christ and are just checking boxes.
We should be actively encouraging young people to seek their calling from the Lord. Not in a controlling, disordered way, rather, in a prayerful manner that allows God’s will to unfold in their heart, mind, and soul over time. They need guides to do this. They need you and me to encourage them in being open to any of the vocations that the Lord may call them to. They need us to teach them the basics of the spiritual life, not assume that they know, because they don’t. It’s time for us to fulfill our call of building up holy vocations in the Church. It’s time to stop pretending that holy vocations simply fall from the sky.
Photo by Alex Brisbey on Unsplash
