Holy Orders
He said to them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest." - Luke 10:2
A Call from God
The United States Catholic Catechism for Adults teaches us, that from the moment of Jesus' conception in the womb of Mary until his Resurrection, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. In biblical language, he was anointed by the Holy Spirit and thus established by God the Father as our high priest. As Risen Lord, he remains our high priest. . . . While all the baptized share in Christ's priesthood, the ministerial priesthood shares this through the Sacrament of Holy Orders in a special way.
Ordination to the priesthood is always a call and a gift from God. Christ reminded his Apostles that they needed to ask the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest. Those who seek priesthood respond generously to God's call using the words of the prophet, "Here I am, send me" (Is 6:8). This call from God can be recognized and understood from the daily signs that disclose his will to those in charge of discerning the vocation of the candidate.
Learn more about Vocations and Seminarian Formation in the Diocese of Jefferson City
A Note from Pastor Fr. Phil Niekamp
"I do not wish to alarm you, but we have an upcoming crisis in our diocese and universal Church. A shortage of priests!
As we priests get older there are fewer young men to replace us. That is such a shame. The priesthood is the most interesting and exciting vocation (job) to which you can be called. Yet, for many reasons we have fewer and fewer men choosing to accept this calling. As the older priests pass on, we are asked to do more. At some point the parishioners, with the assistance of the diocese are going to have to make some hard choices.
Some parishes will have to be limited to Masses only for weddings
and funerals, while parishioners of multiple parishes will have to travel further for Sunday Mass. Parishioners will be asked to do more and
more of the daily parish functions, while the priests can concentrate
on caring for the souls under his patronage. The good news is this is
not the first time the Church has been here. If we want to increase vocations to the priesthood, the first thing to do is pray that our young men will hear God’s calling, if He calls.
Second, we need to talk with our male children about a possible priestly vocation. This includes talking with your kids about religious topics. I encourage the Grandparents to talk with their favorites about vocations and the importance of coming to Mass.
Our Lord said to pray that the Lord send out laborers for his harvest.
The world will need holy and spiritual priests (and in my opinion, with a sense of humor). This problem wont be solved overnight. It will take a decade or more. Hopefully we can continue to recruit foreign priests to get us through. May God bless our international priests. We would be in worse shape without them. If we begin to work together to increase vocations we will succeed with God’s grace. So I ask you to pray for vocations. Talk about vocations, and suggest a vocation to someone you think would be a good priest."
-Father Phil
The fruit of our prayers
St. George Church and School is dedicated to support vocations in our parish and community. We encourage you and your family to pray for vocations and get involved with our mission. Our prayer and encouragement assists young members in our parish in discerning their vocation. Below, you can see the number of seminarians, priests and religious from our parish. We pray to make those numbers grow with every passing year.