Cincinnati vocations director Fr. Kyle Schnippel wrote another fine essay for the Catholic Telegraph of Cincinnati, this time focusing on how your domestic church can promote vocations. I've highlighted just the first few paragraphs, but read it all; it's excellent:
Catholics are now mainstream. The “Catholic Ghettos” such as Price Hill and Mercer County which were supported by classics such as “The Bells of St. Mary’s” or Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s “Sunday Night Catechism” no longer exist, and have a certain mystery to people of my generation. One aspect of that “Ghetto” culture that we no longer have is full seminaries and convents, as the culture itself supported the idea of religious vocations. It does not take a rocket scientist to recognize that this support is now missing!
So, what is our reaction? Certainly, we cannot turn back the clock. Therefore, how can we as Catholics promote vocations to the priesthood and/or religious life in a culture that no longer overtly supports the idea? I see a few steps that we can take to help reverse this trend and encourage our young people to realize that they are called to follow Christ throughout their lives – regardless of their specific vocation.
First, families must recognize that they are the basic building block of the Church. The Domestic Church is where your children learn to pray, to give thanks to God for the many gifts He gives, and to share their talents for the building up of the Kingdom of God. Aspects of this Domestic Church can be simple to build, too. Do you have Crucifixes in your homes? Do you pray before meals? My family had a tradition of praying the rosary together every Monday evening. It helped bring the faith alive to me. Some families celebrate the patron saint of each child, in addition to birthdays. As children become teens, help them to engage their faith. We had to give reports on the homily each week: What were the readings about? How did Father apply that in his homily? What would I have said differently? In order to answer these questions, I had to pay attention, to listen to the readings and see how they impacted my own faith. (This certainly helped in my transition to the seminary as well!)
