God continues to call people to serve the Church as priests, deacons, and members of religious orders. In recent years, it seems as if more people are answering God’s call in the Diocese of Madison.
We are blessed to have 10 new seminarians this year. We have a total of 26 men studying to be priests for our diocese. Six men were ordained as priests in the past year.
In this week’s print edition of the Catholic Herald, we profile all of those new seminarians. They come from different backgrounds, including one who is a former Anglican priest.
Common threads
After talking with these men, I found common threads running through their lives. Many of them mentioned the influence of their parents on their faith development. They pointed to the role models of their parish priests, Catholic school teachers, and Sisters.
Some of them began to think about a vocation during grade school, but they got sidetracked. For some, it took involvement in campus ministry programs in college to get them back on track.
Almost all of these new seminarians talk about the importance of prayer, the sacraments, and Eucharistic Adoration as playing a key role in their saying “yes” to God’s call to serve the Church.
Appreciate prayer and support
They also mentioned to me how much they appreciate the prayers of people in the Diocese of Madison as they begin their seminary studies. They realize that they need our prayers to persevere in their vocation.
In addition, as Fr. Paul Ugo Arinze, diocesan vocation director, mentions in his article in this week’s paper, so many new seminarians mean that our diocese needs financial support to educate them.
Gifts to the Annual Catholic Appeal and the St. Joseph’s Fund are ways to help. For more information, call 608-821-3040 or go to www.madisondiocese.org and click on Stewardship near the top of the page.