THE MONASTIC VOCATION
.Fr Timothy Radcliffe, when he was the Master General of the Dominicans, gave a talk to the Benedictine Abbots' Congress (2000), in which he spoke of the monastic life in these terms:
"I wish to claim that your monasteries disclose God not because of what you do or say, but perhaps because the monastic life has, at its centre, a space, a void in which God may show Himself. I wish to suggest that the rule of St Benedict offers a sort of hollow centre to your lives, in which God may live and be glimpsed. The glory of God always shows itself in an empty space. When the Israelites came out of the desert, God came with them seated in the space between the wings of the cherubim, above the seat of mercy. . . . [The cross] is a throne of glory which is also a void, an absence, as a man dies crying out for the God who seems to have deserted him. The ultimate throne of glory is an empty tomb, where there is no body.
.I will suggest three aspects of the monastic life which open [a void, an empty space in your lives,] a space for God. First of all, your lives are for no particular purpose. Secondly, . . . they lead nowhere, and finally . . . they are lives of humility."
A monastery, he says is a space in which God can dwell among men. All of us have an empty space inside, waiting to be filled, at our invitation, by God. But we do not like voids, and we cannot wait for God to fill it. We fill it ourselves with all kinds of nonsense. Monks and nuns face the void and wait on God. They seek the "one thing necessary". Those who seek find, and thus the void is filled with God and our emptynness becomes the place where we can meet God. . The tangible result is that monasteriess are places where you can experience something of the peace that the world cannot give. Hence, in an increasingly secular world, more and more people are coming to stay in monasteries.

This is a place where people are invited to think the unthinkable. Is God calling me to be a monk? Can I make room for God in this secular age simply by humbly seeking him? Can I, by God's grace, live the vocation of St John the Baptist by diminishing and becoming less and less so that I can make room for Christ and he can fill my empty space, becoming more and more present in a world that needs him so badly?   Further, can I be so forgetful of self that I am willing and happy to do this as a member of a community that has "one heart and one soul", so that people will see Christ's presence in the community and only in the individual monks in so far as they are members of that community.   That is the vocation of the cenobitic monk.

AN AMERICAN REPORT ON PRIESTLY VOCATIONS (GEORGETOWN uNIVERSITY)

>
>
>
> * DATE: *April 16, 2010
>
>
> *FROM: *Don Clemmer
>
> *O:* 202-541-3206
> *M:* 260-580-1137
>
> * FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
>
> *ORDINATION CLASS OF 2010 COMPLETED COLLEGE, HELD JOBS, PARTICIPATED
> IN PARISH MINISTRY BEFORE ENTERING SEMINARY*
> * *
> WASHINGTON—The vast majority (92 percent) of men being ordained to the
> priesthood report some kind of full-time work experience prior to
> entering the seminary, most often in education. Three in five (60
> percent) ordinands completed college before pursuing the priesthood,
> with one in five (20 percent) also receiving a graduate degree. One in
> three (34 percent) entered the seminary while in college.
> The median age of ordinands is 33. The youngest member of
> the Class of 2010 is 25; 11 men are being ordained at the age of 65 or
> older. On average, men were 18 when they first considered their vocation.
> This analysis is part of /The Class of 2010: Survey of
> Ordinands to the Priesthood/, an annual national survey of men being
> ordained priests, conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the
> Apostolate (CARA), a Georgetown University-based research center. The
> entire report can be found at www.usccb.org/vocations/classof2010
> <http://www.usccb.org/vocations/classof2010>, as well as on the new
> www.ForYourVocation.org <http://www.foryourvocation.org/> which is set
> to launch on April 25, Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of
> Prayer for Vocations. The survey was commissioned by the United States
> Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
> “One important trend evident in this study is the
> importance of lifelong formation and engagement in the Catholic
> faith,” said Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, chairman of the U.S.
> Bishops' Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations. He noted
> that, along with their education and work experience, half to
> three-quarters of the Class of 2010 report they served as an altar
> server, lector, Eucharistic minister or other parish ministry.
> “Most ordinands have been Catholic since birth,” said
> Cardinal O’Malley, “Four in five report that both their parents are
> Catholic. Almost eight in 10 were encouraged to consider the
> priesthood by a priest. This speaks to the essential role the whole
> Church has to play in fostering vocations.”
> The survey had a response rate of approximately 77 percent
> of the 440 potential ordinands reported by theologates, houses of
> formation, dioceses, and religious institutes. They included 291 men
> being ordained for dioceses and 48 for religious orders, such as the
> Jesuits, Dominicans and Franciscans.
> In other findings, CARA reported:
> · Close to two in five (37 percent) have a relative who is a
> priest or religious.
> · Two thirds report regularly praying the rosary (67 percent)
> and participating in Eucharistic Adoration (65 percent) before
> entering seminary.
> · More than half of ordinands (55 percent) report having more
> than two siblings, while one-quarter (24 percent) report having five
> or more siblings. Two in five (38 percent) are the oldest child in
> their family.
> · Seven in 10 report their primary race or ethnicity as
> Caucasian/European American/white (70 percent). Compared to the adult
> Catholic population of the United States, ordinands were more likely
> to be Asian or Pacific Islander (10 percent of responding ordinands),
> but less likely to be Hispanic/Latino (13 percent). Compared to
> diocesan ordinands, religious ordinands are less likely to report
> their race or ethnicity as Caucasian/European American/white.
> · Nearly one-third (31 percent) of the ordination class of
> 2010 was born outside the United States, the largest numbers coming
> from Mexico, Colombia, the Philippines, Poland and Vietnam. Between 20
> and 30 percent of ordinands to the diocesan priesthood for each of the
> last 10 years were born outside the United States.
> · Eight in 10 (85 percent) report they have seen the “Fishers
> of Men” DVD published by the USCCB.
> ---
> Keywords: Class of 2010, ordinands, ordination, priesthood, religious,
> diocesan, clergy, seminary, Center for Applied Research in the
> Apostolate, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Committee on Clergy, Consecrated
> Life and Vocations
> # # # # #
> 10-070
> SEC,DD,CNS,RNS,Crux
>
>
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> U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops, 3211 4th St., NE, Washington, DC
> 20017-1194 United States

Jesus, the heart of all worship of the Church and of each person

VATICAN CITY, 15 APRIL 2010 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father received the prelates of the North II Region of the Brazilian National Conference of Bishops on the conclusion of their ad limina visit.

Speaking of the Eucharist, the Pope recalled that it constitutes "the centre and permanent source of the Petrine ministry, the heart of the Christian life, source and summit of the Church's mission of evangelization. You can thus understand the concern of the Successor of Peter for all that can obfuscate this most essential point of the Catholic faith: that today, Jesus Christ continues alive and truly present in the consecrated host and the chalice."

"Paying less attention at times to the rite of the Most Holy Sacrament constitutes," he said, "a sign and a cause of the darkening of the Christian sense of mystery, such as when Jesus is not the centre of the Mass, but rather a community preoccupied with other things instead of being taken up and drawn to the only one necessary: their Lord."

Benedict XVI emphasized that "if the figure of Christ does not emerge from the liturgy ... it is not a Christian liturgy". This is why, he added, "we find those who, in the name of enculturation, fall into syncretism, introducing rites taken from other religions or cultural particularities into the celebration of the Mass."

As Venerable John Paul II wrote, "the mystery of the Eucharist is 'too great a gift' to admit of ambiguities or reductions, above all when, 'stripped of its sacrificial meaning, it is celebrated as if it were simply a fraternal banquet'."

The Pope highlighted that "behind many alleged motives, there exists a mentality that is incapable of accepting the real possibility of divine intervention in this world to assist human beings. ... Admitting God's redeeming intervention to change our situation of alienation and sin is seen as fundamentalism by those who share a deist vision and the same can be said about the sacramental sign that makes the salvific sacrifice present. For such persons, the celebration of a sign that corresponds to a vague sentiment of community would be more acceptable."

"Worship, however," he continued, "cannot come from our imagination: that would be a cry in the darkness or mere self-affirmation. True liturgy supposes that God responds and shows us how we can adore Him. ... The Church lives in His presence and its reason for being and existing is to expand His presence in the world."

The Holy Father concluded, recalling that within a month the 16th National Eucharistic Congress will be celebrated in Brazil. In this context he asked that Jesus in the Eucharist "truly be the heart of Brazil, from which comes the strength for all Brazilian men and women to recognize themselves and help one another as brothers and sisters and as members of Christ. Whoever wishes to live, has a place to live, has something to live for. Let them draw near, create and begin to form part of the Body of Christ and they will be given life."