"Raising Seminarians "

It's "ordination season," and a significant season for us because our oldest son was just ordained a transitional deacon; one more year and we will have a priest in the family! So we have two sons who are currently in seminary, discerning the priesthood (and a third one thinking about thinking about it ;-).I was recently invited to a Serra Club Dinner to raise money for vocations, and I was asked to say a few words about raising seminarians. That was funny to me, because of course, we were never consciously trying to raise seminarians. We were trying to raise good people, and sometimes, this was questionable. On any given afternoon, it might have seemed we were raising wildebeests (if you have raised boys, or know boys, or even SEEN boys, you know what I mean).In spite of us, God has blessed us with children who have taken seriously the lesson we all must learn: that we come from God, we are returning to God, and God is guiding and rescuing us all along the way, and that to belong to God means to take seriously the discerning of His will for us. The question we should be asking is not: What do I WANT to do? but rather, What has God created me to BE?We recently celebrated the Visitation of Mary to her cousin, Elizabeth. In that scene, we see two unborn boys who were conceived in very unusual circumstances to fulfill God’s will in a very specific way. To some degree, that’s true of all of us, so as we are making our way through this world, we have to learn to ask What has God created me to BE?In our family, learning this lesson looked a certain way; it looks different for every family and every person. Our family’s story began with a long struggle with infertility, and then one extremely difficult first pregnancy after which my doctor said, “Well, your body was just not meant to do this.” I remember saying, “I beg to differ. I am certain my body was made to do just this.” It just wasn’t able to do it very well, and we were told we would never have any more children. Through many years of medical issues and interventions, we learned over and over again to resign ourselves to God’s will. But, as I never get tired of saying, God is in the business of showing all the smarty pants of the world that they don’t actually know everything, and someone has to be the living proof, so He then blessed us, poured out, pressed down, running over –  another child, then another, then twins, then another and another…  We had  our last five children within four years – I’ll leave the diaper change calculations to someone else ;-)Some of you know that we homeschooled our children, for the most part. This did give us the opportunity to structure our day around meal and prayer times, which gave mom the opportunity to direct and redirect all that energy and remind them of the essential things, like remembering to “give and not grab” and to look at Jesus throughout the day.We also were able to make the parish a locus of a lot of our activity (along with the library and the public museum), which brought several benefits:  our family was connected to other faithful families, struggling in the same way we were; our children interacted personally with priests, and learned how very human they are; and the liturgical year was a living structure for our fasting, feasting, and religious celebrations. We were able to breathe in rhythm with the Church. These were formative, I think.But in a busy life full of children, the most important practical lessons were built in: share, wait your turn, do your part, obey, take care of each other,  collaborate (sometimes, the collaborations were aimed at circumventing parents, but still a good lesson). And we injected into that built-in structure reminders of the most important things, which my kids can probably quote:Always ask, “What can I do? How can I help?”Only say the good things people need to hear.See the facts. Recognize what’s true. Choose the good.Duty first. People before things. Love above all.There is nothing extraordinary in these things. But that’s the really extraordinary thing, isn’t it? That God chooses men from ordinary circumstances and calls them apart to something more. God calls men from among the assembly of our parishes and invites them to stand in His place to govern, teach, and sanctify us.This is how the Spirit of God always works: in ways that seem so ordinary that we might miss them or misunderstand them. The movements of grace are usually hidden in the natural activity of life, so that we must look with the eyes of faith to see clearly. In this case, we must look with the eyes of faith to recognize that, as Lumen Gentium tells us, “the ministerial priesthood is a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and leads His Church.” We need priests.For most of us, our interactions with priests take place in the context of the sacraments. In the New Testament, the way to communion with God and the life of prayer is sacramental. But we can sometimes see sacraments in a reductive way, as hoops to jump through, or rites of passage. “Had a new baby, time for a baptism… Baby is in second grade, time for First Communion… etc.” This isn’t wrong in itself. But we miss the point if we fail to look with the eyes of faith and see that sacraments are actually Christ’s way of remaining WITH us at every moment of our lives. Christ spoke to the multitude, but he healed people one on one (If you want to know what’s going on in the Gospel, watch with WHOM Jesus is establishing relationship.). He spoke to them, touched them, put mud in their eyes, He set them free.And so, sacraments are Christ’s way of touching us and healing us, freeing us, and drawing us into relationship. And they are administered to us individually. The minister doesn’t stand at the baptismal font and fling water into the crowd and hope it hits those in need! We assent to baptism, and it is administered to us individually and personally: “I baptize you, N., in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Or when we come forward for Communion, there isn’t a basket of bread sitting there and we grab a hunk. Again, we personally assent, and then RECEIVE (not TAKE) this Gift.The sacraments are Christ’s way of being with us, of touching us personally, right here and now THROUGH THE MINISTERIAL PRIESTHOOD. Because there is only one priesthood: Christ’s. And every priest shares in this one priesthood. I hope your life has been touched by a priest who is Christ to you.Unless we look through the lens of faith, we will fail to see the Church’s profound need for priests as bridge-builders between God and His people, our need for these men to say YES to participating in the one priesthood of Jesus Christ.Unless we look with the eyes of faith, we will fail to see the beauty of this image of “Christ the Priest” in these men – in each of them, St. John Paul II said, “the living and transparent image of Christ” is present; in each of them, God demonstrates His desire to make the love of Christ present to the world and to each individual; and in the deepest being of each of them, Christ must reign truly and completely, so that they can be Christ to us.In order for this to happen, we must support them with our prayer. The priesthood is a beautiful gift to the Church, one for which we should all give thanks, but also one for which we are each responsible in some way.I was asked that evening to speak about raising seminarians because we have two seminarians in our family. But we ALL have this responsibility, as Church, to “raise seminarians.” We do this by attending fundraising dinners and supporting the work of organizations, like the Serra Club, that promote vocations. We do this through our parish liturgies, faith formation, and diocesan contributions. We are “raising seminarians” every time we raise a prayer to God to send laborers for the harvest, every time we lift those discerning young men up in prayer, every time we take a moment to encourage a seminarian with a smile, an affirmation, a donation, a thank you.In our diocese, which is relatively small, we are able to love and pray for our seminarians in a personal way, and we do a pretty good job of supporting them on their journey. Let’s all continue to do that. Let’s all continue to pray for vocations. And let’s resolve to pray for our priests every time we receive the sacraments we receive most: Eucharist and Reconciliation. In these many ways, we can “raise seminarians” for the future of the Church.