Pope Francis offers Mass for the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Dec 24, 2021 / 13:00 pm (CNA).
In his Christmas homily, Pope Francis asked Christians to contemplate that God did not choose to come into the w… […]
null / FreeBirdPhotos / Shutterstock.
Denver Newsroom, Dec 24, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Prison is probably the last place people think of when they think about the holidays. Yet Christmas behind bars is a reality this year for more than 2 million… […]
On Dec. 3, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) announced their disappointment in the Biden administration’s decision to comply with a court order to reinstate former President Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), also known […]
Refugee children in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 1, 2021. / Shutterstock
Denver Newsroom, Dec 24, 2021 / 08:16 am (CNA).
As the winter in Afghanistan is provoking the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, The Vulnerable People Project is get… […]
A nun at the prayer vigil for consecrated life in St. Peter’s Basilica, Jan. 28, 2016. / Alexey Gotovskiy/CNA
Denver, Colo., Dec 24, 2021 / 04:00 am (CNA).
Discerning your vocation is about more than pursuing a celibate vocation alone, said Father Ryan O’Neill, director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Denver. The purpose, he said, is to “increase the knowledge and possibility of vocation for anybody.”
“It gives us all a moment to be like, ‘Oh yeah, I do have a vocation. God does have a plan for my life, and I can find out what that is,” said O’Neill, who was ordained in 2012.
“We should all take a moment to ask, ‘How is discernment part of my daily Christian experience? How are we seeking the Father’s will?’” he said.
Everyone is created for marriage at the natural level because of their biological identity, O’Neill said, but to have a celibate vocation is “a supernatural vocation.”
“You have to pause, and say, ‘Okay, I know I’m created for marriage, but, Jesus, are you calling me to something different?’” O’Neill said.
For those considering a celibate vocation, O’Neill suggested reaching out to a religious order or a local diocese to go on a discernment retreat at the earliest opportunity. If no retreats are immediately available, meet with a priest or religious to talk about your interest in a celibate vocation.
“The first principle is, you cannot drive a parked car,” O’Neill said. “You’ve got to get in the car and you’ve got to drive somewhere. That means don’t sit in your bedroom asking God what He wants. Do something about it.”
O’Neill compared it with the idea of really liking someone, but never mustering up the courage to ask them on a date.
“You’ll never get an answer unless you drive the car in a direction you think you should go,” he said.
Reaching a “dead end” where the answer is “no” is okay, O’Neill said, especially on the first try. If you encounter a “no,” either from a spiritual director or in your own discernment, it does not mean you are not meant for a celibate vocation—it may mean that you need to try a couple communities before finding the right place.
“We have this pressure to find the right answer and to make sure it’s the exact fit, and that’s just not real,” he said. “The world works by you going out and driving into a dead end, being okay with it, and saying, ‘I found an answer, now I turn around and I go back the direction I came, and I go a different direction.’”
As a practical tip for discerning a celibate vocation, O’Neill suggested increasing the amount of time you spend in prayer and learning the Liturgy of the Hours, both of which, he said, will increase your relationship with Jesus.
“It’s only going to be beneficial if you spend more time in prayer,” he said. “If your life is going to be centered around a relationship with Jesus as a religious sister, as a priest, or as a religious brother, why would you not start working on that relationship now?”
O’Neill also said that it is important to not be actively dating when you are discerning a celibate vocation because it can cause additional stress and confusion.
“Either you are going to direct your heart toward marriage, or you’re going to direct it away from marriage, but to do both is actually torturous for your own heart,” he said. “Allow yourself to focus on one thing at a time. Let your heart relax in whatever direction you are focusing on.”
One of the greatest joys of O’Neill’s vocation as a priest, he said, is the freedom to seek what God wants.
“Our world puts so much pressure on young people to have it all figured out, to have a 5-year plan, a 10-year plan,” O’Neill said. “All those things really bore down upon me when I was in college until I was given permission by a priest to let all those things go, and say, ‘Jesus what do you think?’ and ‘Jesus what do you want?’”
“When I focused on that I felt more free than I ever had before, and I began to understand that that’s really what God wants. God wants us to have an experience of freedom,” he said.
Both marriage and celibate vocations are good things, O’Neill said, and each has a different kind of intimacy, whether that be spiritual intimacy with Christ or physical intimacy with your spouse.
“It’s okay to not get married for the sake of Jesus,” O’Neill said. “Marriage is good, but so is being celibate. What is your heart longing for?”
The Monserrate Home is administered by the sisters of the Congregation of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Poor in Colombia. / Screenshot of Twitter post
Zipaquira, Colombia, Dec 23, 2021 / 17:20 pm (CNA).
The Bishop of Zipaqui… […]
Patrick Kelly, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, delivers his first Supreme Knight’s Report during the organization’s 139th Annual Convention, Aug. 3, 2021. Credit: Knights of Columbus/screenshot. / null
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 23, 2021 / 16:40 pm (CNA).
The head of the Knights of Columbus is asking for the order’s members to consider “a last-minute Christmas gift”: saying a nine-day novena, starting Christmas Eve, on behalf of persecuted Christians around the world.
“In recent weeks, there have been threats of attacks made against Christians and Christian churches in more than a few parts of the world,” Supreme Knight Patrick E. Kelly wrote in an email.
“A friend of the Knights, Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza of the Diocese of Yola, Nigeria, was recently interviewed about the increased threats and violence. When asked if he had a message for Christians around the world, he said simply, ‘we want you to support us with your prayers … without your prayers we may not be able to survive.’”
The Novena For Persecuted Christians begins on Dec. 24 and concludes on Jan. 1, which coincides the World Day of Prayer for Peace.
In recent years Bishop Mamza’s Yola Diocese in northeastern Nigeria has been a flashpoint for suicide bombings and other attacks against Christians by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram. Mamza said in a November interview that the persecution of Christians in his country is “more intense now than ever.”
In Nigeria as a whole, at least 60,000 Christians have been killed in the past two decades. An estimated 3,462 Christians were killed in Nigeria in the first 200 days of 2021, or 17 per day, according to a new study.
Seminarians of the FSSP’s International Seminary of St. Peter. / Photo courtesy of Sophia Institute Press.
Denver Newsroom, Dec 23, 2021 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
A documentary airing on EWTN this Christmas will bring viewers to a seminary in Bavaria, home to an internationally diverse group of men whose singing recently topped the classical charts.
“Sancta Nox: Christmas Matins from Bavaria” is a Christmas album produced by seminarians at the International Seminary of St. Peter, the first seminary set up by the traditionalist Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP).
After its release this fall, the 17-song collection topped the Billboard’s Traditional Classical Albums chart.
“We are very surprised and grateful that people have already found this recording, and humbled that they have decided to add this music to the Christmas experience and traditions,” Manuel Vaz Guedes, one of the singers, told CNA in October.
A documentary about the making of the album, also entitled “Sancta Nox: Christmas Matins from Bavaria,” is set to air on EWTN at 2pm ET on Dec. 25, and 10:30am ET Dec. 26.
Matins are part of the Divine Office, which priests and monks pray every day. Recorded in surround sound at the 12th-century St. Magnus Abbey, Bad Schussenried in Germany, the album features mostly Gregorian chant.
Matins of Christmas Day, which are featured in the album, are traditionally said immediately preceding Midnight Mass.
The documentary features sweeping views of the singers and long stretches of beautiful music, punctuated by interviews with the seminarians. Throughout the film, the seminarians talk about their love for music, and Gregorian chant specifically.
The seminary, located in Wigratzbad, Germany, boasts seminarians from nearly 20 nations. Among the nine singers on the album, there are six nations represented, with the average age being 25.
The seminarians recorded the album under the direction of Christopher Alder, a Grammy Award-winning classical music producer and Christian Weigl, a Grammy Award-winning engineer.
The film highlights the importance of the seminarians being “convinced by, and devoted to the religious texts that they’re singing.” The singers stress that they are meditating on the sacred texts and hymns while singing.
An Indian Christian prays in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, on Dec. 9, 2018. / lakshmipathilucky via Shutterstock.
New Delhi, India, Dec 23, 2021 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Christians in India were the targets of 305 violent incidents in the past nine months, a… […]
Pope John Paul I in an undated file photo. / Vatican Media/CNA.
Vatican City, Dec 23, 2021 / 09:53 am (CNA).
Pope Francis will beatify the “smiling pope” John Paul I on Sept. 4, 2022.Vatican News, the website overseen by the Vatican’s Dicastery… […]
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