"The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few." The words of Our Lord from the Gospels are as true now as they were then. The more our world strays from God, the greater the need for priests who are generous in their vocation as instruments of Christ's love. Let us continue to pray fervently for many holy priests!
O LORD, GIVE US PRIESTS!
November 11, 2017.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
The petitions at the end of the Rosary for obtaining vocations are the echo of Our Lord’s teaching expressly inviting us to ask our Heavenly Father to send us laborers in the vineyard.
Is there a more beautiful and necessary intention? It is, indeed, solely by the mediation of priests that Christ continues to exercise His ministry upon souls.
Today more than ever, our prayers to obtain priests are essential. In an ever more materialistic and naturalistic world, each vocation is “a miracle of grace,” as our founder, Archbishop Lefebvre, liked to say. Or prayers for this “miracle” must be fervent and constant since, according to the same words of Christ, the harvest is abundant, but the workers few.
In order to encourage you to pray unceasingly for this beautiful intention, we want you to know that, at the beginning of October, 43 young men knocked at the door of our seminary.
Admittedly, years of training must still follow, but we do not want to keep this joyful news to ourselves. We also want to acknowledge the work of the priests in the District and the virtue of the families in our chapels – the fertile ground from which these vocations have arisen.
Indeed, most of these vocations come from our schools. That shows, if proof were needed, that the union of the work of families and priests bears fruits.
It also shows that God is God and that our hope must remain intact in spite of the increasing indifference to the things of God in the world around us. Let us thank the Good God for this gift and allow ourselves to be delighted by this beautiful news.
During this November, when we especially pray for the souls in Purgatory, let us not hesitate to ask of them the grace of perseverance for these young men; although willing, they will always need strength to persevere towards the priesthood and, God willing, throughout their priestly life.
In order to ensure that these seminarians have the necessary material support for the pursuit of their vocations, we renew this year our traditional Christmas appeal, which we have abandoned a little in recent years.
We herewith present to you a sample of our Christmas cards and invite you to order some so as to help the seminary to provide for the good formation of these young clerics.
At the seminary, beginning on Christmas Day, we will offer a novena of masses for the intentions of our dear friends and benefactors. Do not hesitate to send your own intentions, so that in this blessed season of Our Savior’s coming they can be united with those of Christ offering Himself as Victim of atonement on the altar.
As always, we assure you of our prayers and, particularly in this month of November, for your deceased loved ones, recommending at the same to your charity the souls of our seminarians, so that they let themselves to be formed by grace and become instruments of salvation for your souls.
In Christo Sacerdote et Maria.