Week of
August 16, 2000
Inside the Register
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Pilgrims `Walk for Vocations' at shrine
By Peter Droege
Gentle rain and light cloudy skies provided welcome relief from the summer heat for the nearly 200 people taking part in the "Walk for Vocations" at Cabrini Shrine on Saturday.
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Brilliant flowers and the scent of sage accompanied pilgrims as they processed up the 373 steps leading to the giant statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the top of the shrine. Members of local Serra Clubs offered cool water to participants as they prayed a "vocations version" of the Stations of the Cross along the way.
Msgr. Walker Nickless, vicar general of the archdiocese, and Sister of Mercy Sharon Ford, secretary for Religious, were joined by numerous priests, seminarians and candidates for religious life in making the journey.
Rev. Mr. Robert Wedow, a deacon who will be ordained to the priesthood next summer, offered the homily at the Mass that followed the pilgrimage. Speaking on the theme of "trust and faith," he recalled for the assembly something that happened to him while he was stationed on a ship in the Navy.
After a night of hard work in which he and his men were tired and in need of rest, a Protestant chaplain approached him while he was waiting to have breakfast. The chaplain said that he had been deep in prayer the night before and that he had a deep impression that God was calling Wedow to the Catholic priesthood.
"My first reaction was anger, I wondered who he had been talking to," Deacon Wedow said. "I had been thinking of becoming a priest, but I had little faith in my vocation to step out for the Lord," he told the assembly.
Following the Mass, the pilgrims gathered for an outdoor barbecue provided by the Knights of Columbus.