A House of Discernment

The big news in my world has to do with the discernment of vocations. It all began with our Bishop of Prince Albert, Bishop Albert Thevenot, voicing his concern with the lack of locally born vocations. This does not stem from some sort of xenophobia, rather it is rooted in the very apparent deficiency of Canadians to have the ability or desire to listen to the Selfless Voice of God in our lives. We are a soil of thorns in which the cares of the world dominate our consciousness.

Don't get me wrong. In order to survive in one of the most wealthy, privileged, free, equal, idealistic, model, praisworthy, glorious societies in the world . . . you get the picture. We sacrifice Value for value.

My point. His Excellency has asked me to live in a house of discernment, geared towards young men who are searching for God in their lives. What I learned from this idea is that the vocation to the priesthood is not the only vocation. In fact, the greatest advice I was given when I began my ministry as part-time chaplain at our Catholic High School was that, to increase vocations to the priesthood, we need to increase the holiness of our young men! If we do this we get holy marriages, holy single men, holy religious and holy priests.

This house of discernment that I am living in is open to about 4 other young men who are interested in growing closer to God in their everday lives. In fact, the more and more I think about it, I am excited and scared about this because it is going to force ME into a more serious relationship with Our Lord. You can laugh here Fr. Marc.

A good teacher never expects more from his students than he can do himself!