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Pastoral
Letters
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A Pastoral Letter for Vocations Sunday 2002 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, Two of our priests are celebrating their Silver Jubilees of ordination this year and that will be an occasion of great celebration and thanksgiving for 25 years of faithful ministry. At the same time, you need to know that, sadly, this is the first year since 1988 in which we will be having no ordinations to the priesthood. I shall also have to ask at least three pairs of parishes to begin sharing the ministry of a priest. This gives you some idea of how the diminishing number of priests is beginning to affect us. But I don't really want to dwell on that today. I want to reflect and reminisce a little with you about my own call to priesthood, and then, perhaps, draw some lessons from my personal experience of vocation. In recent months, I have been consistently struck by the deeply personal nature of Christ's calling of me to a deepening of faith. He has been seeking me out and is constantly inviting me to seek His face, to discover there the extraordinary and unconditional love that He has for me. I am becoming increasingly aware that His calling me to priesthood is also something that is deeply personal. I'm not called to be a functionary in a huge and anonymous corporation. I'm called into friendship with Him and He is leading me to discover what being a disciple means. Vocation is almost always a gradual process. Christ asks us, first of all, to trust Him enough to "put out a little from the shore". Then, and only then, does He take us further, out into the deep water, where we have to be more and more dependent on Him. As we gradually learn to trust Him more, so then He begins to entrust us with that very special mission within the Church; to be – if you'll pardon the expression – "fishers of men." The invitation to me – "to put out a little from the shore" – came to me when I was quite young, but it's taken me a long time to be able to say that I have begun to let go and move into the deeper waters of discipleship and friendship with the Lord. I now know, with almost absolute certainty, that priesthood and ministry is what the Lord wants me to do and that I am where He wants me to be. That knowledge gives me a great sense of joy and fulfilment. But I am acutely conscious that I could not have taken even the first step in response to the Lord's call, had it not been for the massive and sustained support and encouragement that I have received from a great number of people. I want to tell you about some of them. My parents head the list. Both were former Anglicans, both had fathers who were Anglican priests and so ministry and priesthood were familiar to them. They never pushed me, and I was very grateful for that, but they were always there with encouragement and support. They never made decisions for me but left me in no doubt that they supported the decisions that I made. My godmother, who only died two years ago, taught me so much about what a dedicated lay life meant. The Mass was absolutely central for her dedicated life and she shared with me a very deep understanding of the crucial Eucharistic role of the priest for the life of the Church. There were also two priests who were special for me. One, retired and distinguished, lived in our village and was a frequent visitor to our home. I don't think I ever spoke of priesthood with him and he certainly never spoke of his own call. He was so shy about himself that he never even preached to us on Sundays, although he was one of the great preachers of his generation. But he gave me a wonderful example of the prayerfulness of the priesthood. Then, there was our parish priest, who was a total contrast. If I needed anyone to convince me that the diocesan priesthood was a great community, he was the one. He wasn't a churchy person – far from it – but he was a faithful friend and a good priest and pastor who constantly kept in touch, especially when I was away on military service and at University. I am not sure that any of these wonderful people had any real notion of how important they were to me as I was discovering my vocation. All I can say is that I would not be writing these words for you today if I had not received such constant support and encouragement. This leads me a very obvious reflection and it is that priests don't come or grow from nothing. They come from real families, they belong to real parishes, and they have real friends. I became a priest from a background in which there was deep appreciation of all that the priest did and of his vital ministry for the life of the Church. Things are rather different today, but still the Lord calls. Encouragement and support for those called is more necessary than ever. Parents, parishioners and even fellow priests, I have an urgent plea to make to you. You treasure the Mass, you long to come closer to Christ through prayer and the sacraments, and you hold the Church dear. In your faithfulness, join me today to pray that the voice of the Good Shepherd will be heard and heeded, and then, give your wholehearted and unqualified support and encouragement to those who are called, or who may be called, to serve as priests or deacons in the Church. "The shepherd calls…the sheep hear his voice…they follow him because they know his voice" and of these, some will be "apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and some teachers." But all of us, gifted by God in so many ways, are invited to place our hands in the Lord's hands and go with him so that we can "have life and have it to the full." May God bless you all, + Crispian To be read or made available at all Masses on the weekend of April 20th /21st 2002, 4th Sunday of Easter. |
