Spring 2025
Vocations Director’s Message:
In this edition of the Hamilton Priest, I would like to thank all those pastors who have seminarians in the their parishes and those who have agreed to take seminarians for a summer placement. We currently have seven seminarians in parishes. I meet with them once a month for what I call our Seminarians in Parishes Group. We have been reading Discernment Within the Heart of the Church by Rev. James Shea, published by Vianney Vocations. We are using the conversation in the Spirit format that we learned about at the Priests’ Seminar. This form of faith sharing has enabled the seminarians to support one another in their discernment with the Church and for me to hear about just how vital parish placements are for the formation of our seminarians.
This past year I have also seen just how fruitful our Diocesan Vocations Month last October has been when it comes to nurturing vocations in our diocese. Currently over six men are applying to become seminarians and recently two women applied to become candidates for Consecrated Virginity Lived in the World.
I recall attending a deanery meeting at which Father Michael King, one of my predecessors, was asked: “Why does our Diocese seem to have more vocations to the priesthood than other dioceses?” He immediately responded: “Prayer!” Indeed, prayer is essential to vocations ministry. God the Son invites us, his brothers and sisters, to join him as he calls our young people, nurturing their vocations with our prayers to the Holy Spirit and inviting them to consider a particular vocation according to God the Father’ will for their lives.
In general, vocations can be divided between the married state of life and the celibate state of life. Within the married state of life, there is the vocation to the permanent diaconate. Within the celibate state of life, there is the vocation to the priesthood, consecrated virginity lived in the world, the dedicated single life, and religious life, that is, professing vows as a religious priest, brother or sister.
At our recent Vocations Dance, I shared with the young people that I’m a big promotor of discerning with your feet. For some of them, going to the dance was a big step in their discernment, an opportunity to reflect on their sense of being called to marriage or celibacy. Discerning with your feet can also mean going to the seminary, where a young man may decide that he is not being called to the priesthood but rather to marriage. Discerning with your feet can also mean dating, whereby a young woman may discover that she is not being called to marriage but rather to consecrated life. Such discernment with your feet is like a dance step. One step here; two steps there. Please pray that the discernment dance of our young people may be guided by the Holy Spirit.
As Vocations Director, my primary mission is planting the seeds of vocations throughout our diocese and asking you to water those seeds with your prayers: I plant, you water, but God gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6)
Men’s Discernment Group
I ask you to invite men in your parish to join the Men’s Discernment Group, which meets once a month. Last year three of the members became seminarians and the year before that two members become seminarians. This year it looks like six of the members became seminarians.
I have to say that, when it comes to my ministry to nurture vocations to the priesthood, nothing has been more fruitful than the Men’s Discernment Group. You may have heard it said that we are living in a “New Apostolic Age”. I don’t want to make too much of the comparison, but what I can tell you is that God is sending us “fishermen” like the Apostles. I currently have 19 participants in the Men’s Discernment Group. For the most part, we aren’t getting vocations to the priesthood from the university students. God is sending us carpenters, plumbers, and welders as well as men graduating from high school. These are yet to be educated men. The parishes are the place to find them.
All this goes to say the men who are discerning need your support as their pastor. But they also need to meet other men who are discerning. Peer support is why the Men’s Discernment Group is so important. Please ask men in your parish, including those in Grade 11 and 12, to consider joining the Men’s Discernment Group by contacting me. I’m happy to meet with them. But I need you to invite them.
Ordinandi Breakfast
On Saturday, May 3rd, Bishop Crosby will be ordaining Deacon Moices Caballero and Deacon Joonbin Lim to the priesthood at 11:00am at the Cathedral Basilica of Christ the King. Once again the Vocations Office will be hosting the Ordinandi Breakfast starting with Morning Prayer at 9:00am at the Chancery Office. (Doors open at 8:30am.) Photos below are from last year’s breakfast.
I ask you to invite men in your parish who are or you think should be discerning a vocation to the priesthood. They would benefit from meeting the men to be ordained as well as other seminarians. Several of the men who attended last year subsequently started attending the Men’s Discernment Group and recently joined the diocese as a seminarian.
Please send Monica Verin (vocations@hamiltondiocese.com) the names and contact information for men you have invited and let us know if you will be joining them. The registration deadline is Wednesday, April 30th.
Vocations Recognition Dinner
The Vocations Recognition Dinner continues to be co-sponsored by the Serra Club of Hamilton and the Vocations Office. This year, as we honour our jubilarians, we will also hear vocation testimonies from those to be ordained to the Priesthood on May 3rd, namely, Deacon Moices Caballero and Deacon Joonbin Lim, as well as those to receive the Consecration to a Life of Virginity Lived in the World on June 28th, namely, Jenny Benjamin and Manju Mathew. Please support the dinner by purchasing a table of tickets for your parish and inviting young people from your parish to join you. Hearing from our jubilarians as well as our ordinandi and consecrati is another way to plant the seeds of a vocation and nurture a vocations culture in our diocese.
Video: CONSECRATED VIRGINITY Lived In The World - Documentary
Many Catholics, including priests, have never even heard of the vocation of Consecrated Virginity Lived in the World. Or you have heard about it, but not given it much thought. We currently have five candidates for Consecrated Virginity Lived in the World and two more women have recently applied. The form of all three the diocesan nuptial vocations – marriage, priesthood, and consecrated virginity – is the marriage of Christ, the Bridegroom to his Bride, the Church.
In sacramental marriage, a man and a woman give the gift of themselves to each other and promise as bridegroom and bride to love each other in good times and in bad. In the priesthood, a man gives the gift of himself by laying down his life as a bridegroom in loving service to his Bride, the Church. In consecrated virginity, the woman gives the gift of herself as a bride to Christ, her Bridegroom, in joyful expectation of his return and the coming of his Kingdom. Just like a married couple who love each other unconditionally, when a priest gives the gift of himself to his Bride, the Church, he shouldn’t expect social recognition from his parishioners.
When a consecrated virgin gives the gift of herself to Christ, her Bridegroom, she shouldn’t expect not to suffer in this life. Whichever the diocesan nuptial vocation – marriage, priesthood, or consecrated virginity – the gift of self is given unconditionally to God in response to God’s unconditional love for us.
As Vocations Director, it seems to me that more and more people are turning to the Diocese as they desire to commit their lives more fully to God. I’m thinking of the popularity of the Permanent Diaconate as well as the newly instituted Ministry of Catechist. While religious life still has its place in the Church, it seems that, as society becomes more secular, the place of the Bishop as Bridegroom of his Bride, the particular Church, is becoming more prominent in the lives of Catholics, especially his sons and daughters who seek his spiritual fatherhood.
Insofar as they image Christ, the Bridegroom, and His Bride, the Church, the vocations of the diocesan priest and the consecrated virgin spiritually complement each other. Moreover, these two celibate vocations spiritually complement the married vocation, and vice-versa, since the husband in the family images Christ and the wife images the Church.
In this way, all three diocesan nuptial vocations mutually enliven and support each other as states of life in God’s family, the Church. I appreciate, in particular, the role that consecrated virgins can have when it comes to supporting priests in parishes with their prayers.
In invite you to learn more about the diocesan vocation of Consecrated Virginity Lived in the World by watching this documentary made by Joe Carere at the Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate, Guelph, where there are two candidates among the parishioners:
Vocations Social Media
Please visit our social media sites to see what’s happening in vocations ministry in our diocese. More importantly, please share these links with your parishioners:
Information on the next Vocations Office Young Adults Night can always be found in the diocesan online calendar: https://hamiltondiocese.com/events/
As we collaborate in vocations ministry, I invite you to join me in praying for our young people, that they may heed the call of Christ, the Bridegroom to live out their vocations as committed members of his Bride, the Church.
Please pray for vocations!
Father Mark Morley
Vocations Director
Diocese of Hamilton
https://hamiltondiocese.com/vocations/