The people of God are hungry for more good shepherds – shepherds after Christ’s own heart.
So said Archdiocesan vocations director Fr Jean-Noel Marie during his homily at a special Holy Hour for Vocations last Sunday afternoon at St Mary’s Cathedral.
A small but dedicated crowd of around 70 people gathered to adore Christ in the Blessed Sacrament – to pray for those men called to serve in the presbyterate. “Now more than ever our people need to be anointed with the oil of gladness,” Fr Marie told the gathering.
“We pray that more men and women will respond positively and courageously to the Lord’s relentless call.
“The time is ripe. The harvest is rich. The people are hungry for more priests.”
The time for a “business as usual” approach was over, Fr Marie said, reiterating the recent words of Pope Francis at World Youth Day, exhorting people to be bold and daring.
“The Lord of the harvest will never tire to call more labourers to his harvest, here in the Archdiocese of Perth.
“There is so much work to be done. But this work is not for the faint-hearted.
“We must be resolute. We must keep the faith. We must nurture it and nourish it constantly.
“We must not give up,” Fr Marie said.
A sizeable cohort of seminarians from St Charles archdiocesan seminary, Guildford, were also in attendance, with several serving alongside St Mary’s regular accolytes and servers.
Adorers included St Charles’ seminary rector Mgr Kevin Long, one of several priests, both diocesan and religious, in attendance. Fr Marie said our need of faith, when it came to vocations, was similar to that of Christopher Columbus in his search to ‘discover’ the New World. He never wavered in the conviction his expedition would sight new lands, even
in the face of a mutinous crew threatening to hang him from the mast. “By means of examples taken from everyday life, the Lord exhorts his disciples, that is, us, to live with this inner disposition, like those servants in the parable who were waiting for their master’s return.
““Blessed are those servants”, he said, “whom the master finds awake when he comes.”
“We must therefore keep watch – praying and doing good and persevering in what he has commanded us to do,” Fr Marie said.
Fr Marie concluded his homily with a prayer of intercession to Our Lady, asking that hearts be open to the call of God and open to following in the master’s footsteps.
In next week’s Record – The State of the Vocation: an interview with Fr Jean-Noel Marie.