Vocations Newsletter

On December 24th, 2024, Pope Francis opened the Holy Doors of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, officially inaugurating the Church’s Jubilee year. Our Jubilee theme this year: Hope! In western Christianity, the celebration of jubilee years first arose from the journey of pilgrims to Rome in 1299. They traveled long distances by foot to pray before the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. Moved by their devotion, Pope Boniface VII declared the following year, 1300, a jubilee year dedicated to the forgiveness of sins. Since then, the Church has typically celebrated a jubilee year roughly every 25 or 50 years with extraordinary jubilee years declared as spiritual needs arose. You may recall that Pope Francis proclaimed the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2015. Our jubilee year concludes on December 28th, 2025, when the Pope will again close the Holy Doors. While these door remain open, we are challenged to keep our hearts open as well to the power and lessons of hope in our lives and times. As the Bull of Indiction (the papal decree) of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 proclaims, “Spes non confundit – Hope does not disappoint.” Let us invoke the Spirit of God…
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What does “Eucharist”What does “Eucharist” mean to you as a missioner?mean to you as a missioner? Papam! “After my first Holy Communion, I always felt that the Eucharist offered me a desire and drive to go out into the world to do something on Christ’s behalf. Yet, in this journey of being a Maryknoll Missioner, I find more and more each moment in service of the people is an Eucharistic moment, and a moment to bring to the Mass. During the Mass, the Eucharist joins me to Christ and through Christ I feel at comfort, knowing that while I am not physically present to the communities I have served in different places (in Singapore, Hong Kong, Chicago, Bolivia, and El Paso), Christ joins us together in the sharing of his Body in a mystical union with one another.” – Deacon Matthew Sim, MM “For me, the Eucharist is the gathering of the community of the Body of Christ to re-member, or re-live, re-enact the supper meal in which Jesus broke bread with his disciples to ritualize how he is offering his body to be broken in service to the Reign of God. When we take the bread (and cup), we…
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On a city street of asphalt and concretewhere last winter’s ice cracks a stubborn sidewalk,a defiant dandelion takes root and proudlyPuts forth its floral sunburst. A young couple prays test results will confirmIf this time the Lord will at last bless them with new lifeEven as a world away another couple awaits wordAn orphaned child will soon make them a family. With each interminable hour and passing dayPrisoners and hostages alike long for newsTheir detainment is at an end and theirLong-awaited deliverance is at hand. With aching joints and weakened legs and a heartBroken by loss of too many loved ones over the yearsAn elder reverently plants a delicate saplingunder whose shade future generations will rest. War-weary relatives bid a reluctant farewellAs their young flee certain death for refugeIn a land that once welcomed such as they,Trusting in a God known for liberation. Hope thus infuses every moment of every dayWith a vision of a far, far better worldTransforming the most mundane into a holy shrineCompelling us to take off our shoes and worship. – By Joseph R. Veneroso, MM
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