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USA Serrans to help bishops coordinate nationwide monstrance prayer program for vocations

The USA Council of Serra International has been asked by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to play a crucial role in a worldwide program to pray for vocations to the ordained ministry and consecrated life.

A monstrance blessed by Pope John Paul II to encourage prayers for vocations to the priesthood and religious life during 2005 will be making a year-long tour through the United States and Canada. Given by the Vatican to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the monstrance will travel to different United States and Canadian dioceses at the request of local bishops. “The goal is to send the monstrance to different dioceses to promote prayer services centered around adoration of the consecrated host,” said Father Edward J. Burns, executive director of the Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation for the USCCB.

“I think it’s going to create great synergy in the country,” said Bishop Blase J. Cupich, Bishop of Rapid City, S.D., and chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Vocations. “It will be an opportunity to raise up in the minds of the faithful that the need is not only to pray, but also to create a culture of vocations.”

Along with the USCCB, the special honor of helping to create and handle the logistics of the tour schedule was given to members of the USA Council of Serra International, a Catholic organization of lay men and women dedicated to promoting vocations to the priesthood and religious life. “I’ve asked the Serra clubs, through their leadership, to accomplish this because I know that it will be done efficiently,” said Cupich, who serves as Episcopal adviser to the USA Council of Serra International. “Serrans are organized and the program will highlight the mission of Serra as the lay vocation arm of the church, a title given the organization by the Holy Father.”

The monstrance is one of six blessed by the pope in November to promote Eucharistic adoration during the 2004-2005 Year of the Eucharist declared by him in October of last year. In addition to the United States and Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Pacific each received a monstrance as a symbol of the connection between the sacrament of the Eucharist and priestly vocations. “This is our opportunity to be in solidarity with the world in praying for vocations,” said Burns. The inauguration of the worldwide project took place on Jan. 12, 2005, at the Crypt Church, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Washington, D.C. The first formal display of the monstrance outside of Washington, was at a meeting of the Board of Directors and members of national Serra committees in Chicago on January 14-16. The year of the Eucharist began on Oct. 17, 2004, and will conclude next October with a world Synod of Bishops having the Eucharist as its theme.

The following excerpts are from an informal talk delivered by USAC Episcopal Adviser Blase Cupich, Bishop of Rapid City, S.D. Bishop Cupich also serves as chair of the USCCB Committee on Vocations.   Bishop Cupich shared these comments with Serrans at the Super Weekend banquet on January 15, 2005, at the Doubletree Hotel in Rosemont, Ill.

I grew up in Sts. Peter and Paul parish in South Omaha. When I was a senior in high school, I went to see the pastor, Msgr. (John S.) Juricek, to tell him that I was going to the seminary. And so as I sat there across from him, he didn’t say anything, and he turned around to his desk and began to write something down. I said (to myself), “This is very interesting.” And then he turned around and he handed me a check for $100! And I said, “What’s this?”

He said, “I always pay my bets.” And I said, “What do you mean?” And then he reminded me that four years earlier, when I was in 8th grade going into high school, he wanted me to go into the seminary. And I really wasn’t too keen on that at that point, and my parents didn’t think it was a good idea, not because they didn’t want me to go to the seminary, but because they knew me too well . . . that I probably wasn’t ready to do that. And he said to me, “I’ll bet you $100 that if you don’t go into the seminary now, in 8th grade, you’ll never go!” And he remembered that all those years. So that tells me something.

First of all, I’m very glad that he remembered but secondly, all of those years, those four years of high school, he was praying for me . . . he was thinking about me . . . and thinking about my vocation. And that really is the sense here of this monstrance . . . that in fact there are six of them for the world that the pope blessed for six continents in this Year of the Eucharist to pray for vocations. We can put together plans and strategies . . . we can host dinners for young people, Andrew’s Dinners, where you can do things in the Serra club. And that’s all wonderful; it’s important that we do it. But (we must) begin with prayer for vocations, asking the Lord to move the hearts of young people—and I believe that in fact Monsignor’s prayer and other people’s prayer, were responsible for my vocation. It wasn’t something that I chose or I initiated on my own . . . they prayed that I would be open to listen to that.

That’s what prayer is about. So the Holy Father blessed these monstrances to go around and at the Bishops’ Conference, they asked me, because I’m the Chair of Vocations, to coordinate with the dioceses the travel of this, and I’ve asked the Serra clubs, through your leadership, to coordinate that because I think it does two things: first of all, to make sure that it’s done right because you people are organized, and secondly, it gives some profile to the Serra clubs in our country to do that.

Really, what this comes down to is, the monstrance just was inaugurated, blessed, when we were in Washington, D.C. I had a day of Eucharistic Adoration and then the Mass . . . Then I asked them to send it here (Chicago) so that you could see it. I think they’re going to try to do some more work on it to make it sturdier—there’s a latch there they need to take care of—then all the bishops have received a letter from me telling them about this and they have to request it. So if a vocations office asks for it, or somebody else asks for it, they won’t pay attention to them in Washington. It has to come from the bishop. If it doesn’t come from the bishop, it won’t get sent to the diocese because it’s the only way we can handle it. So in your own dioceses, if you would like to have the monstrance come for a couple of days or whatever for a group, ask your bishop to be the one who writes to Father Ed Burns at the Bishops’ Conference.*

We will put together a schedule for the year and we will ask (local Serrans) to be responsible for receiving it and then paying the expenses to send it on to the next person. That’s how we’re going to kind of coordinate this. And what we’re asking, in fact, is that communities come together and pray before the Blessed Sacrament for an increase of vocations. I think it’s going to create a great synergy in the country. People will talk about it on the local levels if bishops promote it in their own cathedrals or other places. It’ll be an opportunity for people to really raise up in the minds . . . and consciences of people, the need—the important part of prayer for vocations.

The important part about it is not just prayer, but also to create a culture of vocations in the mindset of people . . . that, in fact, we really are in need of vocations and that we also pray to the Lord that we’re gifted with them. So that really is the sense of why the Holy Father did this and we hope it’s successful. It took us about two days to kind of figure out what we were going to do, and as soon as Father Burns said, “We’d like to get this made available to the dioceses. How do we do that?” I said, “Ask the Serra club . . . let’s ask the Serra club.”  Applause.

Well, great to be with you! I’m honored to be your chaplain (episcopal adviser). I still don’t know all that it means . . . I will try my best to be present to you. I want to do everything possible to encourage what you do. You’re the first ones to hit the ground with regard to caring about vocations as keeping it on the front burner of the Church’s agenda and you’re there . . . I grew up with Serrans in the seminary who were always very present in Omaha to me and they made an enormous difference just by being present and encouraging. I treasure the friendships that I’ve had with Serrans over the years and I look forward to increasing that treasury of friendships among you. Thank you.  Applause.  

Transcribed by Betty Shrier, Serra Club of Omaha, Neb.  

*A mailing from the USCCB in January to all bishops included an application form for the monstrance to come to their dioceses. Your diocesan offices should already have received this.  

Monstrance program FAQ with Bishop Cupich

Where will it eventually end up?

It’ll go back eventually to Washington. And I’ll tell you what we’re doing: it’s that everybody who goes to a Holy Hour or a day of adoration, there’s going to be log that we’re going to ask all the people to sign. Then we’re going to ask them locally to reproduce it and send that in to the office in Washington and at the end, when I make a report to the Vatican, I want to say how many people participated in this year and to send that out.

I think it could be a nice story. I talked to Sister Mary Ann Walsh who is at the USCCB Office-Communications—I know Fr. Ed Burns said, well, to do a story on this and maybe your own people who work with communications can be in sync with them to get some comments from your leadership. But I think it will help pray for vocations but it’ll get a higher profile for Serra as well. And that really is something that I really wanted to do.

Will this news release that they’re working on go automatically to the diocesan office for vocations?

It’s going through Catholic News Service (CNS) and they all then have to decide whether or not they’re going to put it in there. That’s how that works. They’ll get it, yes, because what they do is they can log on to the special client website for the day’s stories and it should go on there.

Would you tell them how many requests you’ve had so far?

We’ve had 30 already and we just put it out two weeks ago . . . from bishops, so it’s out there and it’s going to be huge. I’m convinced it will be huge.

What would be the time frame of this if you wanted possession of it?

I think we’re going to be reasonable since there are only 52 weeks in the year. If we could have two places in a week—and that includes shipping time—then, you know, we probably will have a hundred requests. So that’s what we’re going to try to do. And if we have to overlap into the next year, then we’ll do that. . . . People would come together and pray for vocations . . . and it could be a very nice thing to do.

Bishop, doesn’t this tie into the Holy Father’s ad limina visit that occurred not long ago where he put that in the top two or three things he wanted to achieve?

Yes, in fact, during my ad limina visit, in the 20 minutes I spoke to him about—I told him I was the Chair of Vocations and working on that—and he told me it was his first priority. So I think that it is his first priority of what he would to achieve during the Holy Year . . . increased consciousness and a culture of vocations . . . if people begin to think in terms of vocations.

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