From the Pastor’s desk— July 21, 2024
Dear Parishioners:
Pastor of Sacred Heart is only one job for me. I am also the Director of Vocations and Seminarians for the diocese. That means you will have to share with me! Sometimes I will travel to support our seminarians studying to become priests, but don’t worry. You will be with me in my heart when I am away. Please keep me in yours. I hope every one of you will see yourselves as part of the mission of vocations. Without priests, there is no mass. No mass means no church. We need priests! Please help me promote vocations.
First, I need you to pray. God will hear us if we pray for more priests, and he will send them. Right now, maybe there is a young man here at Sacred Heart who is about to hear from God, “I want you to be a priest!” We must pray for him to say yes! Jesus told his disciples to ask God to send laborers into the harvest and God would send them. For that reason, we must pray.
Second, we must trust God. We must give God our hearts. If we do that, we will be amazed at what He can do with us. Sometimes parents are afraid for their children, and they discourage them from trusting God to become a priest or a religious. Parents must be the first to trust God! We cannot control the future for our children, but if we show our children that we can trust God, they will learn to trust too. Then they will become saints, priest or not.
Together we can make Sacred Heart a parish of vocations. To have a priest or a religious in the family is a great honor. May God choose his future priests from among our sons! May our children become great saints! Let us pray too for all of our families, because for some there is a lot of trouble at home. God wants to heal our families and keep marriage holy. Holy families make holy priests.
Fr Joseph
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With a heart for Mission,
Fr. Ray