Praying for Priestly Vocations- 40-hour Adoration

It is appropriate during our parish 40-hour Adoration for Vocations to take a few moments to reflect on the Eucharist and vocation. Being “the source and summit” of our faith, everything we do should start with flow back to the Eucharist.¹ Another way to say this is that, as Christians, everything we do should start and end with thanksgiving.

To whom do we give thanks and for what are we thankful? In power of the Holy Spirit, we give thanks to the Father for what he has done for us in and through Christ.

“It is through the sacraments and the exercise of the virtues that the sacred nature and organic structure of the priestly community is brought into operation.”² The priestly community, here, refers to the Church. What is Adoration if not the virtue of adoring Jesus Christ present in and through this sacrament?

Adoration, as Fr. Andrzej noted on Sunday, is an extension of the eucharistic liturgy. It flows out from and back to the Holy Mass. Therefore, as we adore Christ on this altar, we need to keep in mind that through our reception of Holy Communion, Christ comes to be present in us in a no less real and no less a powerful way than he is present in the tabernacle and, during Adoration, in the monstrance.

At the end of each Mass, we are sent forth with one of several dismissals the Roman Missal provides. One of these is “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.”³ From Mass, you are sent on a mission to make Christ present wherever you are. This is the call of God's priestly people given in baptism. This is the primary vocation of everyone who is baptized: the Pope, bishops, priests, religious, laity, and even deacons. It is how you become a saint. We are all called to be saints, which is the highest Christian call.

During these 40 hours, we pray specifically for vocations to the priesthood. Even more specifically, for vocations to the priesthood for the Diocese of Salt Lake City. During this time, it is important to not only to pray for more priests. We must pray for the right priests.

Who are the right priests? They are those called by Christ to serve, yes, serve God’s people. There is a reason one is a deacon before one becomes a priest- service precedes sacrifice. While the call to be a priest is a call to be a leader, the “right” priest is one who hears and heeds these words of Jesus:

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave³

Note the shift from “servant” at the beginning to “slave” at the end. In the original Greek, servant is diakonos, which, when translated, is deacon. While a diakonos is a servant, a doulos is a slave.

In Greek, not only are these words not synonymous, they have quite distinctive meanings. Most languages are not plagued with the ambiguities of modern English. A doulos is someone who belongs to another; a bond-slave, without any ownership rights of his own. By contrast, a diakonos refers to someone who performs a service, or, by Jesus' time, even to an administrator. The “right” priest is both a diakonos and a doulos. In imitation of our Lord, a priest is the servant and the slave of those he leads, not their master.

As we continue this Forty Hour Devotion, let us implore God for more priests and for the right men to heed Christ’s call. Let us also pray that we receive the grace to continue to live out the vocations to which God has called each of us.

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1 Second Vatican Council. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church [Lumen Gentium], sec. 11.^↩
2 Ibid.^↩
3 Roman Missal. The Order of Mass. ^↩
4 Matthew 20:25-27.^↩