THE CALL OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD TO SERVE.........

The 4th Sunday of Easter in our Catholic-Christian tradition is focused on the Risen Jesus as the Good Shepherd of souls, who benevolently tends to the sheep of His flock. Jesus the Good Shepherd is the prototype for all earthly shepherds, those in the fields actually watching over lambs and sheep in the world and the pastors of the people of God in the Church. Good Shepherd Sunday also opens Vocations Awareness Week during the 4th Week of Easter. Whether we are single, married, professed or ordained, every person has a vocation, that is a call from God to serve by the lives we lead. Marriage is the vocation most people choose and it is the vocation that forms and shapes future priestly and religious vocations. The Church in the world and specifically in the Diocese of Sacramento needs an increased number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life from within our very own diocesan family. In our 123 history, the Sacramento Diocese has produced from native born, locally grown priests, only a sliver of the vocations we have needed to minister to the People of God in the parishes of these 20 counties of Superior California. When I was ordained a priest 22 years ago, in the 100th anniversary year of the Diocese of Sacramento, there had been fewer than forty native born priests ordained for the Church of Sacramento. Today, more than two decades later there are still only fewer than seventy American born priests in our diocesan presbyterate. Jesus the Good Shepherd is not calling fewer locally grown vocations in our Diocese, the deficiency is in the response to the invitation. Families and parishes must do much more to promote and produce priestly vocations. As strong as God's Call was in my own choice of a priestly vocation, without the support and encouragement of my family, parish priests and fellow parishioners, I could have easily followed another vocational path. What is your family or parish doing presently to tend the lambs that may well be the next locally grown, native born, priestly vocations to shepherd God's People in the Sacramento Diocese ? The challenges we face of identifying with, and understanding the priests who serve us and the priests ability to appreciate our culture and model of church, will require that we step up and cultivate the priests we need from within our own houses of God.
The Good Shepherd is calling. Will you answer His call ?.........Fr. Troy