Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
December 5, 2001
Homebound asked to offer suffering for vocations
Serrans, archdiocese to distribute vocation prayer cards to shut-ins
By Roxanne King
When Father Kent Drotar, director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Denver, was a seminarian, a woman dying of cancer approached the seminary's spiritual director fearful of the suffering she was told she would encounter. She wanted to know what to do.
"The priest said, `Offer your pain and suffering for the seminarians and the seminary,'" Father Drotar recalled.
She did so and over the next year the seminarians got progress reports.
"She thanked the priest for the suggestion and said it gave meaning to her suffering," Father Drotar said, adding that the seminarians, too, were positively affected by her gesture.
"We tried harder to be better seminarians," he said.
With the help of local Serra clubs, an organization of lay Catholics committed to promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life, the archdiocese is inviting shut-ins to offer their suffering for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Serra representatives are contacting parishes volunteering to distribute vocations prayer cards to homebound parishioners interested in this apostolate.
"The option is left open for either the Serra Club members to distribute the prayer cards or to provide the cards to pastors or the homebound ministers to deliver them," said Ramon Jesch, the project coordinator for Serra.
Additionally, producers of "The Catholic Hour" have mailed 500 prayer cards to "Mass for Shut-ins" viewers, Father Drotar said. The Vocations Office is accepting individual requests for the prayer card at 303-282-3429.
The blue "Praying for Church Vocations" cards feature a cover image of Christ's Agony in the Garden. Inside is a message from Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., and prayer suggestions. A prayer for vocations is on the back cover.
"The purpose of the card is to assist those who receive it with better understanding the value of suffering in a Christian's life — to understand their suffering can have meaning if it's combined with the suffering of Jesus on the cross," Father Drotar said.
Under "Prayer Suggestions," the card notes that a person can offer their pain for a vocation intention in much the same way Jesus offered his suffering on the cross for forgiveness of sin.
"There would be no resurrection without the cross," Father Drotar emphasized, later adding, "God can take anything that we offer and somehow use it to build up his kingdom."
Although the local church is experiencing a tremendous increase in vocations — over 80 men are in formation to serve as priests for the archdiocese — more are needed, Father Drotar said.
In his vocations prayer card message, the archbishop credits the archdiocese's increase of vocations to the prayers of the faithful.
"With more prayers, our Lord will give us even more vocations to the priesthood and religious life," he writes. He also asks for prayer for the seminarians, noting, "Our seminarians need prayers throughout their long formation to obtain for them the graces they need to persevere until ordination and beyond."
The prayer cards are geared toward those struggling with infirmity or loneliness, Father Drotar said, as well as those recovering from illness, surgery or an accident.
"We see this as an ongoing program that will continue as long as homebound people are willing to pray for vocations," Father Drotar said.
Describing the prayer of the suffering as "an offering pleasing to God," organizers said their supplications should obtain abundant graces.
"I firmly believe, like others, that there are more things wrought by prayer than we imagine," Jesch said.
For more information, contact the Vocations Office at 303-282-3429.
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