By Father Rich Tomkosky
The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has kicked off “Called by Name,” a new initiative to encourage vocations to the ordained priesthood. If you know anyone from the age of 15 to 30 who has the qualities to be a good priest, please go online to the Diocesan website and submit his name and he will get a nice letter from the Bishop and the Diocesan Vocations Office to invite him if he is interested to a more formal discernment. It doesn’t mean you will automatically become a priest or there is any pressure to do so, but an excellent opportunity to explore the vocation in prayer and social gatherings with similar young men in the Diocese.
The Joyful Mysteries
When we ponder the ordained priesthood in light of the Joyful Mysteries, we priests, like Mary in the Annunciation, are called by God for a special mission to assist Jesus the Great High Priest in helping bring about the salvation of souls. It usually isn’t an archangel from on High who appears to us like to our Blessed Mother Mary, but a quiet but persistent sense that we need to give our life over to God in a radical but uniquely personal way (see Romans 12: 1-2).
Sometimes the call comes by getting involved in helping others in works of charity (the Visitation), or by pondering the ultimate mystery that Jesus loved each of us so personally that He the Eternal Son of God was willing to take on our human nature (the Nativity) to show us the Way back to the Father, after we humans got off the rails spiritually.
All of us have a personal story in regard to that, as very few of us were innocent from childhood through adulthood. Our families often play a big role in molding a call to the holy Priesthood, sometimes even presenting us to the Lord Most High like Mary and Joseph did for the Baby Jesus in the Temple as my late mom did with my siblings and me asking Jesus to give one of us the vocation she felt she had to the religious life when she was a young teenager, which didn’t work out because of family opposition.
The funny thing is I wasn’t the one she expected if any of us got the calling – God’s thoughts are not our thoughts! Families offering their children for the service of God and the Church is a beautiful thing. Of course, we can turn away from this call (at least for a time) or get lost during the teenage years — remember Jesus at the age of 12 stayed in His Father’s house in the Temple without Mary and Joseph knowing where He was. And He told them He must be about His Heavenly Father’s business.
At some point in our call to the priesthood we have to own it as well. It can’t be our mom or dad’s wish alone, which led to problems at earlier times in the Church like devout families almost forcing one of their children to enter into the priesthood or religious life. We must make it personal – when we say a definitive Yes to God and His Church to study for the priesthood and if it be God’s will to get ordained – working of course through the discernment of the bishop and seminary over many years.
The Luminous Mysteries
Once we are ordained, God through the Bishop puts us to work: administering the Holy Sacraments (the Baptism of Jesus a foreshadowing of); being sensitive to and helping those in need and being open to Our Lady’s special intercession and love for all her Son’s priests (the Wedding Feast at Cana) – as a side reflection point from over 25 years as a priest, it also is a grace to be attracted to the married life as well before finally deciding on the ordained priesthood, as a man who would make a good natural father will be a better spiritual father as a priest than a man who was never attracted to the married life; Proclaiming the Kingdom by catechesis and homilies and by holy example; experiencing the Presence of God sometimes in powerful tangible ways (The Transfiguration), whether it be in the priestly apostolate or in times of deep prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament.
Everything in our priestly life of course flows from and comes back to the Mystery of the Holy Eucharist (The institution of the Holy Eucharist) and striving to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – every day – for the living and for the souls in Purgatory. The greatest work we do as priests!
We will pick up with the second part next week exploring the ordained priesthood in relation to the Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary. And again, please pray hard daily for more priestly vocations here in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and for the Lord to show you in prayer if there are any young Catholic men you know from ages 15-30 who have the qualities and possibility that the Lord is calling them to the ordained priesthood here in Altoona-Johnstown. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
