Dear friends in Christ,

In the autumn of 2018, I was an angsty twenty-seven-year-old, back home in America after four years abroad. I had just begun work as a university lecturer, I was dragging my feet on the final lap of my own dissertation, and trying to make it as a musician. And, all the while, kicking the can down the road in a yearslong attempt at avoiding a priestly call.

An older colleague took me out to coffee across the street and patiently listened to me whinge.

He shared a similar religious and academic background. He was a fellow conductor. He’d tried to balance these various vocations which brought him joy but also asked so much of his energy and time.

“Well, at least you’re not trying to go off to seminary!” I huffed.

“Well, you never know…”

Some eight years later, it brings me great joy to see this mentor of mine entering his own seminary training, on track, mid-career, to give twenty years of priestly service to the Church. What a strange turn of events… How unexpected and yet totally foreseeable. What a blessing for the Church.

I’ve been thinking a lot about vocations this week—about our current seminarians, Chris Campbell and Matti Bowen, about other members of this parish in discernment, and of course about Deacon Beth Clarke, whose priestly ordination is just around the corner.

For parishioners of certain age who came up in parochial schools—Anglican, yes, but most especially Roman Catholic—“Vocations Days” will have been an annual feature of school assemblies. They might have felt forced, but they normalized ministry, made it a known quantity, encouraged young people to consider this particular life of service.

But now, I think for many churchgoers, the path to ministry seems entirely opaque.

This is a shame, because the work of discernment is not some closely guarded secret. The road to Holy Orders may involve all manner of ecclesiastical jargon—Aspirants, Postulants, Candidates, and Ordinands—but its core is beautifully simple: It is a project of prayer, of discussion, and listening for that “still small voice.”

All of us Christians can benefit from active discernment, trying to parse where God is calling us in our lives of prayer and service. Perhaps it is a Licensed Lay Ministry, perhaps it is a new prayer practice or discipline. Perhaps it is service in the diaconate or priesthood.

The autumn “Ember Days” when we pray for vocations are just around the corner. I ask you, of your charity, to pray for the people of this parish in processes or about to be. And I invite you to take a little time to come to God in prayer, and see where He might be calling you also.

Yours, in Christ,

—Fr Matthew