Vocations Newsletter

“And may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours:  prosper the work of our hands for us!”Psalm 90:17Today I am writing to you from Hong Kong—where I have a special mission to perform! This Thursday, the Catholic Church will remember a great and inspirational missioner whose example of love and compassion is still being felt throughout the world.  I speak with love and admiration of Maryknoll’s co-founder, Father Thomas Frederick Price.  Along with Cardinal John Tong and other dignitaries, I will concelebrate a memorial Mass for Father Price who entered eternal life on September 12, one hundred years ago.Father Price was in the first class of Maryknoll missioners who went to southern China in 1918.  Sadly, after only one year, he fell ill and died in Hong Kong, cutting short his dream of overseas mission. The impact of his all-too-brief life continues to inspire the Church—and missioners like me.  Father Price lived by the words inscribed on his tomb:  “In caritate, non ficta” or “In sincere love”—loving without prejudice, witnessing the compassion of Our Lord with an open heart.  That was Father Price.  He had genuine love for everyone he met.   From his earliest years, Father Price had a special…
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Dear Friend,Paul’s message is perfectly fitting for the Labor Day holiday we observe tomorrow… doing everything in God’s name for God’s glory. For those of us who are believers, is there any other way?“Whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”~ 1 Corinthians 10:31The early Christians recognized the dignity of work, giving it a special meaning. Their worship was known as “liturgy,” a word derived from the Greek for “public service” or “work.” So for the early Christians you could say the world was their workplace! Their mission was to invite others through prayer and witness into life with Christ.Fast forward… and we see that the celebration of labor in the United States is a time-honored Catholic tradition with Masses, parades, and speeches. As his predecessors did, Pope Francis advocates passionately for justice in the workplace and the dignity of all labor. His message is especially important today because of the seemingly endless desire to accumulate and consume—regardless of who may be hurt or marginalized along the way.Friend, as you pause to observe Labor Day tomorrow, know how grateful I am for the example you have set over the years through your own work. You have used your…
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On the weekend of June 22-23, we’ll celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – what we know to be the Eucharist. During today’s Prayer Guild, we invite you to reflect upon two aspects of this blessing of the Eucharist.  First, that it is God’s gift of self through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection; and second, that we are sent-out by our Church to others to be Jesus’ nourishing Body and Blood for them. In moving beyond the Easter Season, we are now faced with living-out Jesus’ teachings daily, much like Jesus’ disciples who did likewise following Pentecost. Jesus culminated his three years of teaching and healing by showing us two very clear examples of what it means to give oneself for others. First, at the Last Supper, Jesus washed his disciples’ feet and reminded them, “I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you”. (John 13: 15)  We share life by doing and being for one another. Second, Jesus also at that same time predicted his suffering and death as recalled and recorded by St. Paul in the second Reading for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of…
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In anticipation of this coming Sunday’s Mother’s Day, we celebrate all of you as our Prayer Guild members who are mothers as well as joining you in giving thanks for your own mothers.  We also take advantage of this occasion and invite you to reflect with us today upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and her elder clousin Elizabeth; and their meeting when Mary visited Elizabeth (Luke 1: 39-56). Given God’s custom and practice of using ordinary human beings to help realize God’s extraordinary design in and for our world, both of these woman played crucial roles in God’s plan of salvation through the persons of their sons, John the Baptist and Jesus. In the affirmative responses of their mothers to God’s messengers, the impossible (Mary unmarried; Elizabeth beyond child-bearing age) became possible.  In living-out these reflections today, we’ll come to learn more deeply how God is calling and inviting us to be God’s Good News for others.Mary spoke her Magnificat (Song of Praise) during her visit with Elizabeth; and both recognized and named what is was for Mary to have made the impossible, possible through her “Yes”:  “All will call me happy because of the great things that God has done for…
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