Our Vocation

We all are called to a vocation in life. Some are called to be doctors. Others are called to be police officers or firefighters. Still others are called to a deeper relationship with God by feeling a call to become a priest, brother, sister or nun.

At the Seminary Camp that I attended, this was the topic of one of Fr. Peter Berger's spiritual talks. Fr. Peter is the associate vocation director at the Seminary of St. Francis De Sales. " We all feel called to a certain vocation," he said. "However we get so wrapped up in thinking and discerning our call to that future vocation that we lose sight of the vocation God is calling us to right now at this very moment. At this moment, God is calling us each to a vocation. This vocation is really very simple. God wants us at this moment, not to worry about the future or our possible future vocation. Rather, God wants us to focus on our vocation to be a good son/daughter to our parents, obeying them and there directions. He wants us to be a good example for our siblings to look up to. He wants us to comfort our brothers/sisters when they are broken and down. God wants to fulfill our vocations that we have been called to right now and then in the near future continue discerning our other vocation."

Today, my little sister Mary was heartbroken when we learned that her pet guinea pig "Benny" had died. My family had a little memorial service for him and we all when around the room and shared stories and good memories that we had of Benny. My sister loved him so much and was very sad. My brothers and I tried very hard to comfort her and make her feel better. As Christians, we are called to comfort and support one another even when they are sad and broken. This is what our vocation is right now. Our vocation is to support one another, to build each other by being a friend to the friendless, bring hope to the hopeless, and joy to those who are sad. My little sister will be getting a new guinea pig tomorrow and we will take extra special care of it. I can't wait to see her heart filled with joy and happiness!

Our vocation is simple. We are being called right now to be a light in the dark. We are called to be a comforter, a shoulder to cry on to our siblings and those around us. We are called as Christians to live our lives for others.

Please pray for my little sister Mary and please pray for anyone who is discerning a vocation in life.

We are called to be Real Men for Christ

Just this past week I attended a Seminary Summer Camp at St. Francis De Sales Seminary. The camp was for teenagers thinking about the possibility of priesthood. I have attended this camp for the past two years and every time I come back home feeling totally refreshed and renewed! This year’s camp consisted of praying the Liturgy of Hours and celebrating Holy Mass. There was also time for games, recreation, prayer, adoration and benediction, and I really appreciate the excellent food!

The camp included talks on spirituality and advice to help us in our discernment process toward the priesthood. One of the talks was given by our assistant vocation director for the Seminary, Fr. Peter Berger, who was ordained just 5 years ago. He spoke about a frequent theme in current movies: “In some movies these days, men usually have the following characteristics; they are disrespectful towards women, dishonest, selfish, violent, totally oblivious to the problems of the world, and have no concern for or thought of God. These days so many men are not respectful and honest, yet other young men look up to them saying “This guy is the man!”

Although these men seem to have everything going for them and are looked up to by men and children all over the world, they are the exact opposite of what Christ wants us to be. When we look closely at Christ’s characteristics we see that He treated women with dignity and respect, sacrificed His life for others, and was full of compassion towards the poor and the broken. Christ loved the world and wanted to save it, even if it meant losing His own life. Christ is the true man to look up too. He was such a great man that even Pontius Pilate recognized this when he uttered the words, “Ecce Homo,” which means “Behold the Man.” Jesus Christ was such a great man that even Pilate recognized He was a man who we should follow. Jesus is calling us to been men just like Him. We are called to been men that others can look up to.

As priests we will be called to serve others by sacrificing our own lives. We are called to be real men like Christ. This is what young men are supposed to be looking up to. Christ asks us to follow Him and conform our lives to Him. Please follow Him and become “real men of Christ.” Please pray for all young men who are discerning a call to the priesthood and are called to be real men for Christ.

* This post is also posted on the website www.catholicpriest.me.uk under the prayer page.

To My Dear Friends

To my dear friends who have been faithful followers of this blog:

I know that many of you are wondering why it is that I have not posted anything new to this blog in such a long time, and I thank you for your kind words of concern and your prayers.

As you know, life as a teen can be extremely busy. I play basketball, sing in two church choirs, lector at Mass and serve as an acolyte and am now serving on my parish's Vocations Committee in addition to participating in special events at my local seminary.

With all of this going on, I have found that I can't give my all to the blog as I would like. I have also found that at this time, I need to focus on my studies and life with family and friends and can't commit quite so much time to preparing for my future vocation, whatever that may be. So I have decided to let the blog go for now.

However, I still do have a presence on the internet and am still committed to listening to God's call in my life if He truly would be calling me to the priesthood. So, I would encourage you to please become a regular visitor to "A Vocation to be a Priest" in which I am now helping as an advisory editor. You may find some prayers and editorials of mine there from time to time. I would also ask that you please support this website by linking to it on your blogs if you feel compelled to do so.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. It means so much to me.


God bless you!

John:)

Holy Hour!!!!!

The other day I was asked to serve at a Holy Hour for Life at my parish. The presider of this Holy Hour was our deacon. Deacon Dave is unique compared other deacons in our Archdiocese because he is deaf. This would be his first ever Holy Hour in which he would be presiding. The day of this service, I was asked to serve at it with Deacon Dave. Being unprepared, I was extremely nervous. To make matters worse, when I got to the church our Director of Liturgy told me that I would need to keep on top of Deacon so that he would know what to do and not get confused. This would mean that I would have to sort of be in charge of the Holy Hour making sure Deacon Dave knew what to say and do. Because of this added pressure I began to get even more nervous. I prayed to God to calm my nerves and to give me the strength to lead Deacon Dave in the right direction.

As the service began, I calmly held the Sacramentary for Deacon Dave and pointed to the opening prayer, but for some reason, Deacon Dave began pointing out a totally different prayer! I still continued to point to the opening prayer until finally Deacon Dave started to recite in sign language, the prayer. After this the rest of the service went smoothly but I was still very nervous. It was hard work helping Deacon Dave during this because I could not truly communicate with him and this made things difficult for me when I was trying to tell him something. Maybe this is a sign that I should learn sign language.

When the Holy Hour ended, I was so relieved. Deacon Dave thanked me over and over for helping him stay on track throughout the service as did the Director of Liturgy. I was very happy that I had done a good job even though I did it on such short notice. It feels good knowing that I had helped someone out. I helped our Director of Liturgy by coming to serve on short notice and I helped Deacon Dave lead a beautiful Holy Hour! Jesus was my source of calm during this service. He seemed to flood me with His peace and I am so glad that He did. I could not have done this without Him.

Prayer for Haiti

I'm sure that we have all heard by now, about the terrible tragedy that occurred in Haiti. An earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday January 12th. It affected over 3 million people and an estimated 45,000–50,000 deaths were announced by the American Red Cross. Because of all this that has happened, I have decided to post a prayer that I wrote asking God to heal all those who are injured, give comfort to those who are dealing with losses, to bless all of those who have sent money or food and those who have come to Haiti's aid. May God keep all of them close to His heart. Please join me in prayer.

Prayer for Haiti

Loving God,

You are the source of all life. You created us all. You love us and you care for us. Look kindly on the people of Haiti. Let them know that you are near them during this dark hour. Let them feel your comfort and your love. Help them to know that help is on the way, that they are not alone. Give comfort to all those that are injured. Please heal them quickly Lord. Show love to all those who are dealing with the loss of a loved one. Hold them close to Your heart. Let them know that You are with them always.

We ask this in Your Name.

Amen

True Happiness:)

Just recently I had watched a TV program on the subject of happiness. During the program, people on the streets were asked about what made them happy? The most popular answer given was that money was something that gave people true happiness. However some people don't realize that money can not make you truly happy and you can not buy happiness.

Sometimes when you think you are truly happy you become restless. You slowly begin to realize that what you thought would make you happy really makes you not happy at all. You begin to wonder what makes you really happy? Only one person has the best answer. The person is God. God knows what can truly make us happy. Sometimes we think we need more and more things in order to be happy, but we fail to realize that God has already given us everything we need to give us happiness! He has provided us all with a wonderful family, a warm house, friends, His unconditional love and a place with Him in Heaven! What more could we ask for? Sometimes we should just be thankful for what we have.

A great song that deals with this subject of happiness and satisfaction is the song Satisfy by the band Tenth Avenue North. In it the singer is talking to God asking Him to satisfy him with His loving care. He is asking for help. This is a good reminder for us to pray for those who do not have a warm house, a wonderful family or friends. We must pray for God to satisfy them with His love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0z1o55gGWU

Welcome Archbishop Listecki!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was a wonderful day! Milwaukee installed Archbishop Jerome Listecki our 11th Archbishop in the history of our Archdiocese! The installation took place this afternoon at 1:00 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

Last night was also special day because we had the honor of celebrating solemn vespers at the Cathedral in order to pray for Archbishop Listecki. My family and I had the privilege to attend these vespers. I was extremely lucky to be able to sing in the choir for it too!

The service was absolutely beautiful. I just wished I could have been there for the installation today. Unfortunately I was in school.

Something exciting that I wanted to share with you was my brief meeting with Bishop Morlino, the Bishop of Madison, WI. I'm sure that all of you that are reading this have already visited my Mom's blog as she has also posted the same story.

As I was waiting with my brothers and sister Mary, a man came up to me and asked me if I was a seminarian. I had no idea who he was at first. I told him that I was not a seminarian yet but I was thinking about the priesthood. The Cathedral's rector and our long time family friend Fr. Carl Last came from behind me and said to the Bishop, "Well he should be a seminarian for goodness sake, his name is John Paul!"

At this Bishop Morlino promptly shook my hand and then proceeded to ask my brother Justin if he was thinking about the priesthood too! After questioning him, Bishop Morlino took his hat off of his head and stuck it on me so that he could go to the bathroom. I made sure to take a picture of me with the hat on my head. I didn't want to forget that moment.

When Bishop Morlino came back out he told me that he would let me keep the hat but its cold outside and he needed it to keep him warm because he didn't have my thick hair! Then he introduced himself to my mom, my brothers and myself. We were so surprised! This was an exciting moment to meet this great man!

Another exciting thing that happened that night was that my mom was interviewed by several television stations asking for her thoughts on the new archbishop. When they approached her, my Mom was bewildered because they shone bright lights in her face when they asked her the questions. Nevertheless, my Mom asked each question to the best of her ability.

When we got home we watched the news to see if she was on TV. Sure enough she was! She answered every questions professionally. I was so proud of her! I was equally proud of Archbishop Listecki! I am so excited to meet and talk with him in the future.

Below is the Youtube video with my mom on WISN TV. It is the news story of the vespers service at the Cathedral. My mom is with my sister Mary who is standing beside my her and my brothers Justin (the taller one with black hair) and Jack (the shorter boy with the red jacket on) are standing in the background. They come on the screen at about 1:37 into the video. Enjoy:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LlYe1jVs3M