Summer Shorts – Ten-Sentence Sermons for Sunday Mass 2008

For 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus said: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

When the Church suffers a shortage in priests and religious, it becomes increasingly difficult for the faithful to receive the assistance they need, we need, to grow in virtue and prepare for Heaven.

Under Poe Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the popes of the last 40 years, the Church has clearly discerned that the vocation shortage is manmade.
We know that in asking for a grace, like an increase in religious vocations, the Lord will give us the grace to deal with the situation and address the problem. So, we know that when we ask for this grace, He will first give us the grace to teach children how to pray. We know that when we ask for this grace, He will give dads the desire to make the practice of the Faith a priority in their own lives and their families. We know that when we ask for this grace, He will encourage couples to abandon the contraceptive mentality and will give them an openness and the means to have larger families. We know that when we ask for this grace, He will inspire priest, bishops and religious to be free a preoccupation about their comfort and their career, and instead have a zeal for souls and embrace the New Evangelization. Finally, we know that when we ask for this grace, He will move all of us to fight for the dignity of each human person by fighting against a cult of self-indulgence, especially in our culture that treats people like objects in the industry of pornography.

Your homework, if you will, is to spend some time this week either with the Rosary or before the Blessed Sacrament, asking Our Lord for these graces in your home, in our parish and in our diocese, so that those whom the Lord is calling to become shepherds will heed their calling and will receive the support they need.