THE ROLE OF FAMILY IN NURTURING PRIESTLY VOCATIONS

Theological Studies, 2002

The author argues that Christian parents have a dual vocation: to care for their children and to contribute to the larger society. Recent theology on the family shows that most writers emphasize only one part of that dual vocation. The author argues that this tendency diminishes family ethics. She roots the obligation to care for one’s own in natural inclinations and the experience of Christian parents. The obligation to serve society is rooted in Catholic teaching on work and family.

Children’s Voices. Children’s Perspectives in Ethics, Theology and Religious Education (Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum Lovaniensium, 230), eds. Annemie Dillen & Didier Pollefeyt, Leuven: Peeters, 2010, 295-306., 2010

2015

The lack of paternal involvement in the spiritual development of families in the United States is a pressing pastoral issue. Studies indicate low levels of religiosity among Catholic fathers. Insufficient catechesis equipping fathers to guide their families in spiritual growth may be contributing to this issue. This Project in Ministry aimed to address the issue by educating fathers on the importance of their participation in Christ’s priestly office imparted through Baptism. It presented interior mental prayer as an exercise of the baptismal priesthood by which father can guide their families to holiness. The project’s audience was fathers, including men with young or grown children, soon-to-be fathers, stepfathers, and grandfathers. It utilized mystagogical catecheses on the Rite of Baptism, training on methods of interior mental prayer, and education on virtues that facilitate growth in meditative prayer. The project comprised two iterations of five sessions hosted at two Catholic parishes. It employed a survey before the first and after the fifth sessions and a longitudinal survey thirty days after the final session. These surveys measured personal awareness of sharing in Christ’s priestly office, individual and familial prayer habits, understanding of the nature of interior mental prayer, and comfort in handling difficulties in prayer. The data collected indicated growth in participants’ personal and familial practice of interior mental prayer, comfort in articulating their share in Christ’s priesthood, and confidence in helping their families deal with difficulties in prayer.

This dissertation will scrutinize and look into the fundamental contribution the family has towards the transmission of faith to its members and also the important impact it has towards the greater community of faith. This dissertation will present the family as not solely a place in which one grows physically together, but also as being a replica of the Church. The family's mission in the Church is very important.

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2009

International Marian Research Institute, 2019

The Congregation for Clergy promulgated on December 8, 2016 a new Program of Priestly Formation/Ratio Fundamentalis Institutionis Sacerdotalis entitled "The Gift of the Priestly Vocation." While maintaining the division of seminary formation into the human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral found in the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation/Pastores Dabo Vobis, the Ratio Fundamentalis distinguishes four pedagogical periods of preparation (propaedeutic, discipleship, configuration, and pastoral) ordered towards the affective maturation and preparation of candidates for priestly ordination. Since "Pastores Dabo Vobis" asserts in §82 that “[e]very aspect of priestly formation can be referred to Mary,” and the Program of Priestly Formation incorporates verbatim this selfsame text (§112), this study seeks to concretely identify Mary’s presence and mission in seminarians’ human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation during the propaedeutic, discipleship, configuration, and pastoral stages of training. Mary’s presence and mission involve the Church and all of its members, resulting from the absolute Christian mystery of the Incarnation. As members of the Church through baptism and in formation for the ministerial priesthood of Jesus Christ, Mary’s presence and mission intimately concern and can assist priestly formators, spiritual directors, and seminarians to realize the vision of priestly formation proffered in the Ratio Fundamentalis.

2006

2024

I am at work, church, or a coffee bar, and someone strikes up a conversation. Immediately after the exchange of names, the default question becomes: "And what do you do?" The stereotypical response assumed by both parties centers on employment. As an advisor of students and a mentor in various contexts, I struggle with a popular question, namely, "What is God's call upon your life?" and the automatic response, "I want to be a [pick one] teacher, pastor, scientist, journalist, etc.." Instead, I inquire something akin to "What is God saying/where is God working in your life?" or "What is your story?" Seldom do these questions lead people to speak about their families. Until I probe them, students gravitate toward career preparation. In this chapter, I suggest an answer that links our vocation to family. Since every person participates in family, calling serves less as a quest and more as a daily vocation that includes lifelong responsibilities to family. In a world bent on the question, "To what or where am I called?", the call to family changes the question: "To whom are you called?"