Melchior Broederlam (1381-1409) Presentation in the Temple & Flight to Egypt Tempera on wood, 1393-1399

I feel sorry for Simeon, Anna, the Holy Family and the turtledoves. They get overlooked for a groundhog. In their humility, they might rejoice at the humor of this, but I for one think it’s a shame.

Today is the feast of the Presentation, called The Encounter in the east. It’s an amazing feast day in the Catholic/ Orthodox Churches (both east and west tend to celebrate it on the same day), but way underrated and under celebrated. It is also the foundation feast day of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England, founded on vespers of the Presentation by Fr. John Henry Newman (later to become Cardinal, and whose Beatification will be May 2, 2010).

The mystery of the Presentation can be meditated upon without exhausting it. This drama in the temple has much to teach us about waiting for the Lord, God’s will in our life, prophecy, death, vocation, sacrifice,  family, poverty, consecrated life , the Cross and much more.

For me, it is a fusion of meditation on the two main vocations of the Church: that of married life, and that of consecrated life or priesthood. Here we see the relationship between the two, the image of a holy marriage which gives rise to the earliest of vocational dedication. Not only is Christ, the Anointed, dedicated in the temple, but we see very prominently the consecrated and prophetic Simeon & Anna. (See my blog entry on holy families & holy vocations here.)

It is also one of the handful of times that we see (but never hear) St. Joseph. His actions are worth much more than a thousand words, and for this reason  and many others I’ve come to love St. Joseph dearly. He found me first, and I’ve come to love my spiritual father greatly. This is why when invited to speak on NFP to a men’s group, I didn’t choose Humanae Vitae or Casti Conuubi, but rather St. Joseph.

In October 2008, I gave a talk to the Knights of Divine Mercy, a men’s fraternal group and apostolate in the Madison Diocese, called “Surge, accipe puerum: reflections on St. Joseph.” It’s not strictly about NFP, but its message is related. I used a number of sources, from books to encyclicals, but it was a friend’s apostolic motto and article on St. Joseph that sparked the Josephine theme. In the end, it became a meditation on Fatherhood (spiritual and biological), and discernment about God’s will for your family, vocation and apostolate. Where is the Lord leading you?

Fast forward to the second track for the reflection on the Presentation.

Related links/ articles:

• Feast of the Presentation overview (and suggestions for ways to celebrate) at Catholic Culture
• The Chivalry of St. Joseph by Stratford Caldecott
• Cardinal Newman’s Sermon on the Feast of the Presentation, foundation day of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England
• John Paul II’s 1998 Homily on the feast of the Presentation

It is [was] National Vocation Awareness week January 10-16.

[I had written this post a couple weeks ago, but had difficulty with my audio player plugin. Forgive my tardiness. But, hey, every week is vocations awareness week!]

For the average Catholic in the average parish, this means that this will be no different than any other week, except for the marginally motivated pastor who will consider himself the king of vocational volition by inserting an intercession into the prayers of the faithful at Mass. He will, of course, miss the irony that his own pastoral lukewarmness in catechesis about vocations is, in fact *not* an answer to that prayer.

For the achievers in the pastoral pack, clergy and catechetical leaders who 1) actually know that that it’s vocational awareness week, and 2) do a number of things to teach and increase awareness, kudos to you.

Vocations Awareness Week is a week celebrated in the American Catholic Church since 1976 for the purpose of remembering that each person is called to live a life of holiness, and promoting and teaching about the different vocations of the Church.

In honor of this, I’d like to share a talk that I gave to the Madison Serra Club in 2009, called “The link between NFP & Vocations.” (I give my personal vocational story and speak about the community I was a part of for the first half of the talk , so if you’re looking for the NFP part, fast forward a bit.)

(The elephant in the Church, your parish & your homily=NFP.)

Preaching on NFP=Vocations

After nearly two years of working as the Family Planning Coordinator, I came to realize explicitly something that I knew intuitively, which is that fostering authentic family life according to the challenging, but beautiful, teachings of the Church, will bear fruit vocationally for the clergy and consecrated life. In his talk, “Why NFP is a priority in my parish,” Fr. Moreau of Lafayette, Louisiana describes why straightforward preaching about NFP is necessary and how he goes about it in his parish. He goes on to explain the great benefits this brings to individuals, families, and the parish community as a whole, despite the difficulty of taking that leap. The bottom line is: promote NFP in your parish, and you will see the fruits, one of which is increased vitality in vocations discernment.

Holy Families, Holy Vocations

A perfect example of this is Christ the King Parish in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In this NC Register article, “One parish, 15 Seminarians” (full text for NCR subscribers–I’m waiting for permission for the full text), Bob Horning of the Register explains that CTK parish is known as the parish “with all the babies and the seminarians.” Connection? I think so. Promoting the Church’s teaching–which included promoting NFP for those who need it–brings a personal and spiritual fruitfulness that bears fruit in an entire community, trickling down to youth and their vocational discernment.

Further, there’s a profound connection between the vocations to married life and the clergy and consecrated life. This is called complementarity, which means that there’s a spiritual synergy between holy married people/ families and holy clergy/ consecrated persons. There’s a GK Chesterton quote that goes something like (anyone know the exact quote), “Where you find a full monastery, you will find full and holy families.”

“Preaching NFP with success is impossible.”

Preaching on NFP and against contraception isn’t easy, you say. Perhaps not at first, but those who’ve made the conversion from easy, soft preaching to relevant catechetical and NFP preaching say that it becomes easy. It’s like exercising a muscle or establishing any other good habit–the more you do it, the easier and better it becomes. It may be difficult at first, but the more reading and research you do, you develop a vocabulary that has a theological depth, but as you discover authors and speakers who do this for a living, you catch onto their accessible vocabulary, anecdotes, and your preaching becomes more effective.

“People will never go for it.”

First, who cares? You’re not preaching to be popular. Spend some time in front of a crucifix.

Second, believe it or not, people will go for it. Sure, you’ll have your die-hard hard-hearted folks, but they’ll be very few. Most of them won’t even have the courage to speak up, and if they do, God will give you the grace to love them, pray for them, and explain how important and freeing this teaching us. In the end, you have planted a seed, and you have done your duty to the Truth. You are responsible for sharing the free, total, faithful and fruitful teachings of Christ, but you are not responsible for their decision. Pray, hope and don’t worry. You may be shocked, but the majority of people will respond positively, even enthusiastically, to your preaching on on marriage, sexuality, theology of the body and NFP. You’ll be amazed. Don’t believe me? See some of the resources below for the example and testimony of clergy who’ve made this courageous leap.

Clergy Resources (great for lay leaders as well!)

• Humanae Vitae Clergy Packet–packet we put together for clergy in the Diocese of Madison (complete resource list here)
• Why NFP is a priority in My Parish
• A Preachable Message, book of clergy testimonies (including bishops!)
• Reaching the Cafeteria Catholic, a talk to clergy by Patty Schneier
• Prove It, God! (NFP Conversion testimony by Patty Schneier)
• Getting Beyond “I can’t”–small pamphlet with Q& A on preaching NFP
• What a woman should know about Contraception–clergy need to know this in order to relate it to families
• and more….(I don’t want to overwhelm you. Email for more suggestions!)

Preaching on NFP isn’t a silver bullet, lastly. It’s one part of an entire evangelization effort which rests, of course, entirely in prayer, with a focus on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated correctly in all its Glory.

Related: Archbishop Carlson links Vocations “crisis” to contraception at Serra Conference.

(Many thanks to Brian Kelly, formerly of Relevant Radio Wisconsin, for recording this talk, and Mary Uhler, editor of the Madison Catholic Herald, for the original invitation.)

His Excellency Robert Carlson

The world won’t understand this, but I’ve just upgraded my opinion of Archbishop Robert Carlson, the newly appointed AB of St. Louis, Missouri. With this audio clip (fast-forward to 3:10), I’ve got from fan to uber fan to super duper fan.

I’m on a roll today on the link between good families and vocations–which seems like an obvious link, right?–and will hopefully write a more in-depth article on the connection between fruitful family life, NFP and vocations.

Congratulations, St. Louis! Keep on rockin’ in the free, total, faithful and fruitful world, Archbishop Carlson!