The Elephant in Our Parlor

To quote Fr. Thomas Dubay…

I was recently reading the May/June 2007 issue of Religious Life, which included a summary of a talk by Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.  He discussed the lack of vocations, and what the real reason is for them.  “For religious, in their apostolates, giving a saintly example has a profouond external impact.  The best thing you religious can do for your community is to live a life of holiness.  This is the problem with the lack of vocations.  It is the elephant in our parlor, the problem we can’t address, but which is obviously there.  We don’t discuss the main problems we have in our communities.  Our communities are struggling and are not drawing new vocations, but we don’t discuss why!”

Indeed, indeed.  You can claim all the injustices you want (both real and imagined), but if you don’t have holiness, you just get angry, and the young folk stay away.

Tomorrow’s 1st reading has this famous phrase:  “This is the will of God:  your sanctification.”

Women Religious — pre- and post-

Women Religious–Commitment

An interesting juxtaposition of photographs with a news story about women religious speaks quite a bit without needing to say anything. As to what to put after “pre-” and “post-“, I leave it up to you, although by “pre-” I am referring to the group that opted for radical changes, and has not been able to produce many vocations after 1970 or thereabouts. They would probably refer to themselves as “Post Vatican II,” but I call them “pre-“, because there is a new generation of women religious that are less concerned about being connected to a particular council.

Irregardless of terms, the new generation gap in women religious is quite wide indeed. If the two sides spoke, what would they have in common to speak of? Here I am speaking of the two “representative styles” presented by the photographs. One happens to have older representatives, and the other younger. This should not make one think that all older sisters are of the “radical change” variety, or all younger sisters are faithful to the Magisterium.  I think I can safely say, however, that most younger sisters are faithful to the Magisterium.

Bearing fruit includes, of course, vocations. Holiness is, of course, the biggest draw for vocations. There’s always a shortage of that, but even a little can be a leaven in the dough.

Retreat Finished

My retreat is done, and so is the Bike for Life.  It’s too late at night as I write this to go into any details, but part of the retreat was self-discipline focused, and blogging seems less important.  If I blog, it should be done to glorify God.  May the name of Jesus be praised more throughout the earth.