A conversation with Bishop Michael O. Jackels

Whenever I meet with young men who are applying to be seminarians, they talk about the origin of their vocation.

A lot of times it’s attributed to family and how they were taught the Catholic faith. Sometimes young men refer to the priests they know. Sometimes it’s through stewardship that they first hear God’s call. A lot of young men talk about the time they spent in prayer in churches where the Eucharist is reserved and how that has deepened their knowledge and love of Jesus contributing to their desire to serve.

And sometimes it happens where you find a young man who doesn’t have any of those things. Yet the mystery of God’s call is that if God wants you, He is going to keep pursuing you until you say yes.

I often encourage young people to ask themselves not only what they want to do when they grow up, but more importantly, what they want to be because God hasn’t made us to be an engineer or a policeman, a doctor or a nurse.

God has made us all for heaven and laid out a path for us to get there – either as a married person or as a religious, as a dedicated single person or as a diocesan priest. God has a plan. It is our job to discover that plan and once discovering it, to say yes to it and live it as fully and faithfully as we can.

Because this can be difficult, we try to make it as easy as possible for a young man to discern a vocation to the priesthood. Thanks to the generosity of the Catholic faithful, we are able to pay the tuition, room and board for young men studying for the priesthood in the Diocese of Wichita.

We sacrifice for these young men as they prepare for a lifetime of sacrifice for us. We value these young men trying to grow in their conviction that God is calling them to the priesthood. Support, prayer and enthusiasm surrounds priesthood in general and seminarians in particular.

Please continue to pray and support those young people who are discerning God’s will and pray for the men who will be ordained to the deaconate and the priesthood next weekend.

Goals of the TOGETHER vision
• Strengthen the oneness between parish and diocese.
• Deepen our practice of stewardship as a way of life, sharing responsibility for the mission of the Church.
• Invite everyone to help fund seminarian education, Catholic formation programs and a renovation of the Cathedral campus.