"Follow Me"

Last year I was visiting my son and we went to Mass in the local Church.   A visiting priest from another parish had been called in since the Parish Priest was on Holiday.   The visiting priest told the congregation that if they did not have more vocations then as the old priests died off there would be nobody to say Mass for them.  

I spoke to him afterwards and he told me there were only 3 young men training for the Priesthood.   Now this was a larger diocese than Portsmouth and that shocked me.  I told him that in Portsmouth at that time we had 11 young men being trained as priests.  And today another  young man from my parish has put himself forward and that brings the position of applicants to 15.  So what is the secret?

The first bouquet of praise must go to Bishop Egan.   He took over the diocese at a very difficult time and there wire many obstacles to overcome.   He had to juggle with those who opposed his views and yet say nothing the would cause them  anger.    Now that is a very difficult thing to do and in all my blogging I have never yet achieved it.    But he was very forceful in what he did nevertheless and did not hide from the difficult decisions whether they were  appointments in schools or putting forward Catholic Catechesis.   There is a realisation now dawning among Catholic teachers that they are losing so many young people.   This is good, but if they would only listen to the Bishop and introduce  the devotional practices he wants to see in schools they could turn the tide.   Devotions are about having a personal relationship with God, and our Mother and brothers and sisters in Heaven.   We get to know people personally not by reading their stories but by visiting them and you might say sitting down for a chat.   There is no better way of knowing Jesus than by kneeling before Him in the Blessed Sacrament or telling him our stories after Holy Communion.

We must never conform out morality to the morality of the world.   Jesus is the Way, the Truth,and the Life, so follow Him and do what He asks you to do.  Do not cling to the false sense of conscience that morality is purely subjective and God does not really care how sinful you are.   He does care and He cares because He loves you.    He wants you to succeed in life and not end up broken and lost.

These are the basics of the Catholic Faith which is being rediscovered in our Diocese.    Just pause for a moment and you will hear his voice  "Follow Me"  

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