Posts tagged with 'Links'

Vocations Retreat for Religious Sisters of Mercy

October 22nd, 2008

On Sunday, November 9, the Religious Sisters of Mercy will offer a Vocation Retreat Day for women considering a vocation to the religious life.

Where:
St. Patrick’s Convent
18 Sheldon Street
Roslindale, MA
Google Maps

When:
Sunday, November 9

Schedule:

9 AM - Presentations on Discernment & charism
9:45 AM - Liturgy of the Hours & Meditation
11:30 AM - Mass
12:30 PM - Lunch
2-4 PM - Adoration & individual meetings
4 PM - Holy Hour & Reposition

Contact:
Sr. Mary Cora, RSM
(617) 325-3612

You can also visit the official web site for the Religious Sisters at: www.rsmofalma.org

Posted in Links

Article on vocations to monastic life

October 15th, 2008

Slate recently posted an article about how Catholic religious communities are trying to attract young people again:

The Catholic Church has always seen the contemplative life as the “Air Force” in its spiritual struggle, as the Rev. David Toups of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops commented—a conduit of spiritual power.

Though the number of young people entering monasteries, convents, and the priesthood has drastically dropped from the mid-20th century, some new approaches to religious vocations have inspired some young people in America to embrace this idea, replenishing several of the older religious orders and filling new ones.

More at: Slate: A Monastic Kind of Life

You can also view a similar site to the ones referenced in the article at: www.carmelitemonks.org

Thanks to Mr. Dan Kennedy for sending us this article.

Posted in Links

Cardinal’s video message for Vocations

September 7th, 2008

The Vocations Boston web site has been updated with a video from Cardinal Sean O’Malley, offering a beautiful message about the promoting vocations and discerning God’s call in our lives. As the Cardinal says in the video, “Vocations are everybody’s business.”

You can see the Cardinal’s video at: www.vocationsboston.org. Click on the “play” icon in the lower left corner of the web site to start playing the video.

Posted in Links, Multimedia

New England soccer player signs on for priesthood

July 16th, 2008

Chase Hilgenbrinck, defender for the New England Revolution, will enter the seminary:

When Chase Hilgenbrinck bounced from Chile to Colorado to New England this spring, his eyes were already on another path. Not toward another MLS club or Europe. Toward the priesthood.

MLS fans might have been startled to read the New England Revolution’s announcement this week that the defender was ending his career in midseason to enter a seminary at Mount St. Mary’s in Maryland, but the decision wasn’t abrupt

Full article at USA Today: MLS player Hilgenbrinck has a new goal: priesthood

The USA Today blog offers Chase’s commentary on his calling:

Why?
Because I feel called. I’ve actually had my calling. I’ve been discerning this decision for several years now. I had a chance to go play professional soccer in Chile. For a long time, I felt called to something greater, and I didn’t know what it was. I thought maybe it was professional soccer. In playing soccer, I realized that wasn’t it. I continued searching.

Full blog at: From soccer to seminary

Posted in Links, Testimony

Fr. Mark Barr’s reflections on ordination

July 12th, 2008

As he did last week, Cardinal Sean has allowed one of the newly ordained priests for the Archdiocese of Boston to blog about his experience. This week, it’s Fr. Mark Barr, who serves at St. John the Baptist Parish in Quincy:

When first I began to seriously consider the priesthood, it seemed a nebulous and distant reality. I thought God was calling me to a priestly vocation and I wanted to pursue it, but I really had no idea who the priest is or what he does. I attended Mass regularly and Mass I understood. I could even see myself acting as a sacramental minister but I could not grasp what it would mean, for me, to actually be a priest the other twenty-three and a half hours of the day.

Fr. Barr comments on the difference that attitude can make in a priest, reinforcing the need to support priests in their chosen vocations:

…a joyful priest is a better encourager of vocations than one who is very experienced, very skilled and able but angry or dour. It is not how good we are at our “job” that makes the priest a better priest, but how much we love. How much he loves, loves the people of God with Christ’s own pierced and Sacred Heart, the heart he receives in ordination, this is the measure of a priest. And this is not a distant or nebulous thing, but a real and good life, a life that ought to be pursued by all who are called, something that is concrete and doable.

The full essay is available on Cardinal Sean’s blog entry: ‘Quis Alter Christus Es’ (scroll about 1/5 down the page).

Thanks to Fr. Barr for sharing his experience and insight into the priesthood, and to Cardinal Sean for sharing his blog with the new ordinandi.