Are you Hungry?

Lent has begun!  Did you know that the count for the 40 days actually doesn't start till the first Sunday of Lent?  I didn't either -- you learn something every day.  Ok, enough trivia - time to get busy.

I had shared my Lenten plan in an earlier post - My focus will be on the Corporal Works of Mercy.  This week I am working on "Feed the Hungry."

I started to think about all the ways people are hungry - there is the actual hunger for good nutritious food - even in this country there are people who are hungry let alone all the people in this world.  So, for this, I am donating food to my Parish's Food Pantry and for the first time in many, many years - I picked up a Rice Bowl by  Catholic Relief Services (CRS) at Church last Sunday.  The idea of the rice bowl is that you put your loose change in them and then return the bowl to Church on Good Friday - for example, if you chose to give up gourmet coffee this Lent  - you would put the money you would have spent on the coffee into the bowl - this takes your sacrifice to another level by helping to feed others.

As I continued to ponder hunger - it came to me Jesus' instructions to Peter "Feed my Sheep" (John 21:17.)  We all hunger (or should be) for God - for his word, his love, and for his mercy.  And it's the Priest and religious (Sisters, Nuns, Brothers, etc) who help guide us to God - but the numbers of Priests and religious are quickly diminishing.  I found this 2017 Vocation Report from the Vatican - it also shows that there is reducing numbers of the faithful.  I had heard the numbers were dwindling, but this report put it in cold hard facts.  My question was - are the numbers of the faithful going down because the reduced number of priest and religious or are the number of priest and religious reducing because of the diminishing numbers of faithful (it's the chicken and egg thing?)  God has placed it upon my heart to pray this Lent for Vocations - we are in dire need.

In my research I found this wonderful prayer by Pope Francis:

Lord of the Harvest,

BLESS young people with the gift of courage to respond to your call.  

Open their hearts to great ideas, to great things.

INSPIRE all of your disciples to mutual love and giving - 

for vocations blossom in the good soil of the faithful people.

INSTILL those in religious life, parish ministries, and families with the 

confidence and grace to invite others to embrace the 

bold and noble path of a life consecrated to you.

UNITE us to Jesus through prayer and sacrament, 

so that we may cooperate with you in building your 

reign of mercy and truth, of justice and peace.

Amen.

Isn't that such a lovely prayer?  I am asking you to join me this Lent - to pray for Vocations so that those who hunger for God's love will have good, holy shepherds to lead us to the Lord.