Priests, seminarians and the Eucharist

When I travel around the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, I have the joy of celebrating Mass with many of our young disciples. I love meeting these students, perhaps during a school visit or a Confirmation. 

These middle school and high school students inspire and encourage me. They give me hope! In a world filled with distractions and competing values, so many of our young people eagerly give their time and talent to serve God and his Church in their parishes and during the sacred liturgy.

On these occasions, I always try to sow a few seeds of encouragement in my conversations. Maybe the Lord is calling them to something more. Maybe their desire to serve God is truly a vocation to serve his Church as a priest or consecrated man or woman.

Indeed, the Lord does call many to labor in his harvest, but sadly, many calls go unheeded. Truly, a calling from the Lord does not invite merely a casual or half-hearted response. Jesus himself tells Peter, “There is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age … with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come” (Mk 10:29-30). 

Raised in a Catholic home, I often was encouraged to be open to a priestly or religious vocation. For years, I resisted and turned a deaf ear. The Lord finally broke through, but that is a story for another column! 

We are blessed in our archdiocese to have 18 men who have already made a decisive step toward a life of service in God’s Church by becoming seminarians. These men come from parishes in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Lawton, Enid, Woodward, Yukon, Norman and Moore.

In these communities, the Lord has worked through his ministers, including my brother priests and deacons, and through you, his faithful flock, to encourage these young men to take that step toward a dedicated life of service.

Among our seminarians, 10 responded to their call as they completed their secondary education in high school. Their formation at home and through their parish youth groups and Catholic schools gave them the confidence and discernment tools necessary to recognize and respond to God’s call in their lives. 

We send these seminarians to Saint John Vianney College Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where they are formed to be followers of Jesus in his Church during the period of seminary formation appropriately entitled “discipleship.”

Our other seminarians responded to God’s call after their time in college, the military or as professionals. Seminarians who already have an undergraduate degree are sent to one of our four partner seminaries around the world: Saint John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver; Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland (my alma mater); Pope Saint John XXIII National Seminary outside of Boston; or the North American College in Rome. 

As they approach ordination, they are formed more intentionally to pattern their lives after the person of Jesus Christ, the high priest, and so this period of formation is rightly called “configuration.”

These men spend anywhere from five-ten years in seminary formation. While their other friends are getting married and starting families, jobs or careers, these men are endeavoring through the process of priestly formation to become the dedicated servants our Church needs today, tomorrow and in the decades to come. 

In our ongoing Eucharistic Revival in the United States, we are reminded that the Mass, which is the heart of our Catholic faith, is only possible because of priests. We are so grateful for the priests who serve in our churches today and those who have gone before. But we are in urgent need of priests to bring the Eucharist to all of God’s faithful here in central and western Oklahoma for years to come.

So please support our seminarians and encourage young men to be open to the possibility that God could be calling them to be his priests. This month, we begin our annual Seminarian Appeal, which provides for educational and other needs of our seminarians. 

Without your generosity and prayerful support, their path to priesthood would not be possible. I thank you for your generous gift to support the future priests of our local Church. 

Equally important are your prayers and encouragement for these young men. Please help me to sow seeds of priestly vocations in the hearts of our future seminarians and priests.

To our present seminarians, please know of our prayers for you. I leave you with the words of Pope Saint John XXIII who encouraged seminarians in Rome, saying, “Your young hearts, eagerly waiting to reap the future harvests of souls, well know that you are not (preparing) for positions of privilege; on the contrary, you are here to become the most willing, skilled, humble and generous assistants of your bishops and of your brother priests, who are counting so much on you.” 

We are all counting on you to bring us the Eucharist for generations to come!