Part of the Solution

In these days when anything Catholic is fodder for a cynical and denegrading media story, it is refreshing to read that men entering the seminary these days are excited about the call and despite all the bad press, and yes, the admittedly unpriestly behavior of SOME priests, want "to be part of the solution" and want to change the image of the priesthood by living lives according to the Gospel and the seminary training in prayer, celibacy, and the mission of the priest they are receiving. From time to time a "purge" is necessary for future growth. Plants and trees need pruning, illness often causes a spiritual conversion, the loss of a job forces a person to develop other hidden talents, marriages that inevitably hit potholes or bumps, when worked at become stronger, and institutions shaken to the foundations, be they banks, schools, or the Church itself, bounce back with greater vigor. Witness the Church after the Council of Trent. The guarantee of the Holy Spirit is not a mere convenient phrase, but a reality.
In our Marist History, when religious orders were expelled from France in 1903, Marist Brothers left their native land and the roots of the order and spread around the globe, increasing the number of students being exposed to Fr. Champagnat's vision and, indeed, increasing the number of brothers in the congregation. The deadwood of the past abuses in the priesthood are being rectified by a better seminary preparation and by the new blood which will bring new growth and vigor to the Church. New orders of sisters are emerging, and we pray that new vitality will be injected into the Marist Brothers. Please pray for a young man, Chris, who will be seriously discerning a vocation this week in Esous with prayer and dialog with his spiritual director. Pray that he may be one among many to give such serious consideration to a possible call.
Bro. Rene