29 th April, 2007

Fourth Sunday of Easter - Year C

S: Good morning - Today is Vocation Sunday, a day in which we pray for those who work in the service of the Church and a day in which we pray that God’s call will continue to be heard by men and women all around the world.

B: Today is also Good Shepherd Sunday, when Jesus tells us that he is the Good Shepherd - he looks after us and protects us. I guess it’s a day in which we could ask ourselves, are we listening to the voice of the Good Shepherd, to the voice of Jesus.

S: You know Brenda, many people that I speak to, see our present vocation situation with regards to Priests and Sisters etc. as a major crisis and in some ways it is, but I must say that I’m uncomfortable with people who think that it’s a disaster. It’s only a disaster if our model or way of being Church doesn’t change. I think the real crisis is in the way we live as a Christian Community. Bishop Murray in his Pastoral Letter for 2007 called “Never Alone” writes in relation to Vocations: “Before we declare to the world that in one generation we have passed from being a Christian country with a thriving missionary tradition to one which is in dire need of missionary clergy and religious ourselves, we need to ask an uncomfortable question: Why has our community virtually ceased to produce vocations?

B: An uncomfortable question indeed: Why has our community virtually ceased to produce vocations?

This morning’s reflection is called “I want to give”

There are times, Lord, when I really want to make a difference in the world.

I admire people who seem taken up in something bigger than themselves.

You have given me talents, I want to enjoy them and give them to you, a good singing voice, sports and art, a sense of humour.

Or talents like being able to listen, to be sympathetic, to get into a friend’s world and help.

These talents, and I’m shy to mention them to others, are part of what I want to offer in my life: to my friends, the family at home, the neighbourhood I live in.

Lord, give me a generous spirit, a kind heart, a courageous soul, an energetic body, so that some of what You have given me will reach others.

S: You’ve been listening to “Just a thought” with Seamus Madigan

B: and Brenda Cribbin. We can be contacted through the Limerick Diocesan Offices at Henry Street. You can also download your own copy of this reflection by clicking on limerickdiocese.org

S: We look forward to your company again next week, so take care...

S & B: Bye !!!!!!!

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