Thursday, June 18, 2009

I want to be a priest


I have a new parishioner,
he's been here for a couple of months,
moved here from abroad, he's eleven,
he wants to be a priest,
apparently this is all he ever talks about in school.
I discovered today, on the Eve of the Year for Priests, he leads his friends in say the Rosary.

God is good!

Thank God for his grandmother.

14 comments:

Fr. Gary V. said...

Praise be the Lord. There are still some young men who have priestly vocation, and are not ashamed to talk about it. May you help nurture his vocation Fr. Ray and may his family fully support him. May the blessed Mary, mother of all priests guide and protect him and his vocation.

Joe of St. Thérèse said...

Awesome :), there's hope, may Mary Mother of priests protect him.

gemoftheocean said...

Hurrah. One of my cousins tells me one of his sons (aged about 10 or so) wants to be a priest too. I would be thrilled if that came to pass some day.

Anonymous said...

Deo gratias!

Cherish this wee one's vocation, Father! :D

Fr Seán Coyle said...

I have a Columban confrere who, when he was 7 or 8, wrote the editor of our magazine in Ireland and Britain, Far East, saying he wanted to be a Columban priest. The editor took him seriously and encouraged him, and about ten years later he joined us.

The Bones said...

He should be told in no uncertain terms that he is too young and needs to gain more life experience before reaching such a decision.

Also, Social Services should be called because clearly religion has warped his young mind. Why doesn't he want to work in finance?

;-)

George said...

Laurence - your 'tongue in cheek' comments are noted, and yet even our Catholic schools will work with 'the world' and whereas they may not specifically dis-courage the young lad's priestly ambitions, it is unlikely they will do much if anything to en-courage him.

Add the 'noise and distractions' of the secular world and ......

This is why we need much prayer for our Priests and priestly vocations. The battle is spiritual and prayer is our only weapon in this dimension. Satan's work would be a 'walk in the park' if he could only get rid of Catholic Priests. Funny how no other 'priests', shamans, or leaders of any other religion have any power in the spiritual world - unless in some cases it is actually to summon up evil.

Only Catholic Priests have the 'authority' (given them by Jesus Christ through the Apostles) to challenge demonic forces and cast them back into hell. This is seriously important stuff and should not be ignored as some fringe 'hocus pocus' aspect of our religion. This is actually what it is all about! The battle for souls, and if you look at the news (assuming you believe all you read in the Daily Smut) it would appear that satan's troops are gaining the upper ground. But they forget one thing (demons are so stupid!) they've already lost the war! However the battle for souls - yours, mine and our children's goes on!

Do not neglect the prayer life. Good to start with invoking the assistance of St Michael and then contemplating the writings of St John Vianney on the Priesthood.

Prayers assured for this young lad and all others who may be discerning a vocation to follow in 'His footsteps' whatever age they may be. The world desperately needs more Men in Black! God Bless.

Anonymous said...

Thats so beautiful--I will pray for him!

Pablo the Mexican said...

I will ask the little old ladies, children, and elderly Nuns to pray on his behalf.

I will ask a Mass be said for him also.

And for you also, Padre.

I entrust this whole matter in the hands of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, “Mother of the Priest par excellence, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him, of all priests in whom she forms her Son”.

Maria Magdalena said...

Thanks a lot for this. I just linked it in my blog. I'm a catholic mother. But I would't like it, of one of my sons woud have a vocation for priesthood. Maybe one of the (not yet existing) grandsons. I'm ashamed.

But, if the Lord calls for them, they should go. But I won't send them.

Christe eleison.

Pablo the Mexican said...

The most severe punishments for us men await those of us who failed in two ways:

1). Those of us who had a chance to enter the Priesthood and did not. We will burn in the hottest fires of Hell because of all the souls that were not brought to salvation by our failure;

2). Those of us who did not marry and have as many children as the will of God allowed.

Fr Ray Blake said...

Pablo,
1, Thankyou for your prayers
2, I hope God will be more merciful than that! Freewill is allowed, excercising is not culpable unless we choose to sin.

gemoftheocean said...

Pablo, there is no need to "apologize" for not being either a married person or a priest if you were not called to it. It is a calling to be single too, for some.

Pablo the Mexican said...

Dear Madam,

Those are the conditions we as men are to live within. We are not born for our pleasure, rather for God's.

God did not create woman that she have dominion, she was created as a companion to man. How should a man and woman find each other?

A womans heart should be so lost in God that a man needs to seek Him to find her.

There are millions of lonely women in this world who are taking billions of dollars worth of anti-depression medicine, simply because us men do not seek our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; therein we will find our Brides, either Holy Mother Church, or the mother of our children.Women should raise their sons to walk in the ways of the Lord. Either way, she wins.

These are not my opinions, Madam Gemoftheocean, this is what I was taught in Catechism class.

May God our Lord in his infinite and supreme goodness be pleased to give us his abundant grace, that we may know his most holy will, and entirely fulfill it.

pablo

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