733 James I. Harrison Jr. Parkway East - Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35405

Browsing Father Michael Deering's Sunday Homilies

National Vocations Awareness Week

Preached on Sunday, November 5, 2017

 

How far would you be willing to drive to go to Church and attend Holy Mass?

 

Some of you people here today live close by and

had to drive just a few minutes to get from home to this Church.

 

Some of you live quite a distance away …  and it took some time to get here …

There are some who drive 30 minutes to an hour to come here.

 

You may know that around the country ... especially in the Northeast States ...

Bishops have closed some churches and consolidated some Parishes.

 

Which means that people that were used to going to one Church …

now have to travel further to attend another Church.

 

What if that ever happened here?

 

What if something happened to Fr. Tom or Fr. Rick over at St. Francis or to me?

Between the 3 of us ... we serve 4 Parishes …

St. Francis of Assisi University Parish ... Holy Spirit,

St. John the Baptist downtown and St. Robert in Reform.

 

Would the Bishop keep all of them open?  What if he closed some of them?

 

What if something happened to Fr. Shobhan Singareddy …

   he serves 3 Parishes by himself ... in: Talladega, Childersburg & Sylacauga!

 

What if something happened to Fr. Larry Shinnick …

   he serves 4 Parishes by himself ..in: Demopolis, Eutaw, Livingston, Greensboro!

 

Can you see how fragile we are …

with just a few Priests serving the needs of a great many people?

 

Thankfully, if a Priest gets sick, we can get help from the Friars of EWTN ... or the Monks of St. Bernard … but that would only be on a temporary basis …

and those Priests would only offer the Sunday Mass … not manage Parish life.

 

So the fact that your Priests are stretched so thin

is a cause for concern … for prayer … and for action.

 

Beginning today, the Church celebrates National Vocations Awareness Week

It does this each year for the following 3 reasons …

 

 

#1      To elevate your awareness of the vital role that the Priest plays

in guiding and guarding souls to the Kingdom of Heaven.

No Priest … no Mass … no Eucharist … no Confession … no Last Rites!

 

#2      To elevate your appreciation of the Priests you have & the work they do.

Priests: pray for you in Holy Mass ... every day ... one, two and three times a day!

They pray for you in the Liturgy of the Hours.3 times a day, morning, evening & night

They  attend Finance Council meetings and School Board meetings and manage the operation of the Parish, they teach the Youth & people attending RCIA,

they counsel, they prepare couples for Marriage,

they perform Funerals and Baptisms, they hear Confessions,

they visit the Sick, the Homebound, the hospitalized, and Prisoners. They preach the Good News to you to guide and encourage you on the road to Heaven.

 

What do Priests do? St. Paul says it well in our second Reading today.

As a Catholic Priest he writes:

“we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well ... working night and day ... we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 

 

#3      To encourage you to pray for your Priests … and to pray for more Priests.

 

I’d like to share some statistics with you for your consideration and prayer:

 

 

1966

2016

Change

Number of Priests

59,000

37,000

- 22,000

 

 

 

 

Number of Catholics

49 M

71 M

+ 22 M

 

 

 

 

Parishes w/o a Pastor

550

3,500

+ 3,000

 

 

 

 

Percentage of active Priests

94%

63%

- 31%

 

 

 

 

Priesthood Ordinations

1,000

500

- 500

 

So, what do you think?           Are you concerned?      You should be!

 

Who’s going to minister to your children … and your children’s children?

 

Fifty years ago … you had a younger Priesthood …

with depth of 2 or 3 Priests at most parishes.

 

Now you have mostly middle age and older Priests in your Parishes …

with no back up … and with many handling 2 or 3 or even 4 Parishes!

 

And thank goodness that we have many Missionary Priests here to help us!  

We currently  have 13 Indian Priests and  3 African Priests here on loan to us

for several years to help us cover all our parishes.     Do you see the need?

We see it … hopefully you see it … and we know God sees it.

So what are we to do?

 

Well, as you know … prayer is always a good starting point …

and so ... I’d like to ask that you pray every day for two things:

 

  1. God’s blessing on the Priests currently serving the Church.

 

  1. God’s blessing on those He’s calling … that they accept the call … and

go to Seminary to be trained and formed to serve the Church in the future.

 

To assist you in praying for our 45 Diocesan Priests and 20 Religious order Priests. 

we will soon display a Poster listing all of the Priests …

spread across the year according to their Birthday …

so that you would be able to keep them in mind and in prayer.

 

And to assist you in praying for the men who will be our future Priests ...

I ask you to add a tiny prayer into every Rosary you pray …

begging God to send more Priests to serve His Church.

 

I know that this prayer works!

 

It’s being used in many Dioceses around the Country and now

Bishop Baker has endorsed us using it in our Diocese.

 

I first encountered this prayer living in Atlanta before I entered the Seminary. Everyone in Atlanta prays this little Prayer for vocations in the Rosary.

 

It’s once sentence long:

God Our Father, please send us holy Priests ...

all for the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus ...

all for the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary ...

in union with St. Joseph.

 

It’s prayed right after each Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer …

so it’s prayed 6 times in every Rosary.

 

When I entered the Seminary in 1997, B’ham had 7 Seminarians - Atlanta had 40!

Praying this prayer works!

 

 

 

You may say … well Atlanta has a larger population … and it does … but the Diocese of Nashville is about our size and they have 30 Seminarians ... we have 7.

The Diocese of Knoxville is about our size and they have 40 Seminarians.

And the Diocese of Wichita is smaller than us and they have 60 Seminarians!

 

This past June while we ordained 2 young Priests and 1 young Deacon ...

they ordained 10 young Priests and 10 young Deacons!

(which means they will ordain another 10 Priests next year!)

 

So the prayer works. And it will work for us here in Birmingham.

 

I will have some Prayer Cards available for you next week with...

the Rosary Vocation Prayer.

 

Now, once more men come to answer God’s call, we’re going to have to be ready to fund the training and formation of many extra men in the Seminary.

 

And so I’d like to advise you of a fund that’s always been around but remains unknown to many … it’s the Seminarian Education Fund ...

that was formerly known as “The Burse Fund”

 

There’s over $1M in this fund because in previous years many parishes kept up the tradition of contributing to it throughout the year.

                                                                                                                   

Please look for a new envelop in your monthly packet labeled:

“Seminarian Education Fund” and consider making a donation each month.

In the old days the request was for $2 a month ... I think that would be a good place to start. Together with the 50 other parishes in the Diocese this would bring a significant amount of money to prepare men for the Priesthood.

 

We need replacement Priests badly!

 

In the last several years we’ve lost 6 Priests to death:

Fr. Michael White, who served here ... Fr. Des. Regan ... Fr. Don Forsythe,

Fr. Louis Giardino ... Fr. Andy Kennedy and Fr. Jim Macey.

 

And we have no supply of extra Priests to replace them.  Why?

 

Because we didn’t ordain any Priests in 2016 and just 2 Priests this year.

 

Now, God willing we will ordain 1 Priest in 2018 and 1 Priest in 2019.

 

But we have no others in the queue for the 2 years after that!

 

 

Priests are fragile … just like you … and they don’t go on forever.

 

Please take this Priesthood staffing situation seriously.

 

How far do you want to drive on Sunday

to be able to pray the Greatest Most Powerful Prayer … the Mass,

and be able to receive … the Bread of Life and Holy Confession?

 

As you go through this National Vocations Awareness Week ... please

renew your commitment to pray for Priests … both current and future Priests and  

renew your commitment to contribute monthly to the training of future Priests.

 

Remember,

No Priest … no Mass,

No Priest … no Eucharist

No Priest … no Confession

No Priest … no Last Rites

 

Invest yourself in prayer and action

to generate an increase in the number of Priests

to care for you … your children … and your children’s children.

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