Religious Vocations Eucharist

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We ask you now to bless this water and to give us your protection on this day, which
 
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you have made your own. Renew the living spring of your life within us and protect us in spirit
 
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and body, that we may be free from sin and come into your presence to receive your gift
 
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of salvation.
 
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We ask this through Christ our Lord.
 
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Amen.
 
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Let us pray.
 
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God our Father, by the promise you made in the life, death and resurrection of Christ
 
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your Son, you bring together in your spirit from all the nations a people to be your own.
 
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Keep the Church faithful to its mission.
 
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May it be eleven in the world, renewing us in Christ and transforming us into your family.
 
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We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and
 
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the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
 
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Amen.
 
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A reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
 
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Here is my servant whom I uphold.
 
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my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have put my spirit, he shall bring
 
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forth justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in
 
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the street. A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench.
 
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Until he establishes justice on the earth, the coastlands will wait for his teaching.
 
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for his teaching. Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched
 
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them out, who spreads out the earth with its crops, who gives breath to its people
 
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and spirit to those who walk on it. I the Lord have called you for the victory of
 
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justice. I have grasped you by the hand. I formed you and set you as a covenant
 
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of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out
 
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prisoners from confinement and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
 
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This is the Word of the Lord.
 
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A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians.
 
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In the name of encouragement, you owe me in Christ.
 
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In the name of solace that love can give, of fellowship in spirit, compassion, and pity,
 
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I beg you, make my joy complete by possessing the one love, united in spirit and ideals.
 
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Never act out of rivalry or conceit.
 
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Rather, let all parties think humbly of others as superiors to themselves, each of you looking
 
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to others' interests rather than his own.
 
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Your attitude must be Christ.
 
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Though he was in the form of a god, he did not deem equality with God something to be
 
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grasped at.
 
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Rather, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of
 
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men.
 
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He was known to be of human estate, and it was thus that he humbled himself, obediently
 
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accepting even death, death on a cross.
 
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Because of this, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every other
 
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name, so that at Jesus's name every knee must bend in the heavens, on the earth,
 
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and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father,
 
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Jesus Christ is Lord. So then, my dearly beloved, obedient as always to my urging,
 
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Work with anxious concern to achieve your salvation,
 
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not only when I happen to be with you,
 
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but all the more now that I am absent.
 
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It is God who in his goodness will toward you,
 
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begets in you any measure of desire or achievement.
 
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our achievement.
 
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And this is the word of the Lord.
 
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Thanks be to God.
 
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My brothers and sisters, may the Lord be with you all.
 
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And also with you.
 
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A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John.
 
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Glory to you, Lord.
 
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If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
 
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Jesus said to his disciples, I solemnly assure you,
 
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unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies,
 
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it remains just a grain of wheat.
 
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But if it dies, it produces much fruit.
 
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The man who loves his life loses it,
 
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while the man who hates his life in this world
 
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preserves it to eternal life.
 
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If anyone would serve me, let him follow me.
 
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Where I am, there will my servant be.
 
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Anyone who serves me, the Father will honor.
 
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And this, my brothers and sisters,
 
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is the gospel of the Lord.
 
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Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ.
 
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And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
 
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Whom shall I send?
 
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And who shall go for us?
 
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And I said, Lo, here am I. Send me.
 
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I take these words from the book of Isaiah,
 
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6th chapter, 8th verse.
 
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Your Eminence Cardinal Knox,
 
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legate of our Holy Father, Pope Paul.
 
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Your Eminence Cardinal Crowell,
 
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eminences,
 
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excellencies,
 
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brethren in the priesthood,
 
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very dear sisters,
 
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and friends all in Christ.
 
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Everyone present at this meeting
 
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has at one time or another
 
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had the experience described by the prophet Isaiah.
 
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Every person, as a matter of fact,
 
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came into existence
 
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precisely in response to a call from God.
 
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Life is a mission from God himself.
 
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Certainly all priests and religious may well recall the very moment
 
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of their reply to God's question,
 
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who shall go for us?
 
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Here am I.
 
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Send me.
 
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But this is true of every way of life,
 
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within which one responds to the Spirit
 
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and places oneself in whatever form of service of God and man,
 
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at the disposition of the Holy Spirit.
 
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Every life, I repeat, is a vocation,
 
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a response to a mission,
 
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A call which came from the very spirit and providential surveillance of God.
 
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One is no longer certain that the appreciation of this truth is as vital and as profound
 
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at the moment as once it was among Christians.
 
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The sense of vocation itself, no matter to what mission or form of life and loving service
 
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it may find expression, seems to have been paralyzed in our increasingly standardized,
 
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impersonal, automated, and regimented culture, where professional consultors, not to say
 
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computing machines and cybernetics have so often replaced spiritual direction
 
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and personal self-analysis, self-study, and like means of discovering the will
 
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of God. There is not so much of the sense that prompts one spontaneously to say
 
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with conscious personal self-dedication, here am I, send me, to the voice of the
 
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Lord asking, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
 
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So programmed has our society become. I have suggested that the very nature of
 
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of our present culture tends to paralyze the sense
 
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of personal vocation, of response to a divine mission
 
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that transcends the regimented, the out automated,
 
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and the depersonalized aspects of our civilization.
 
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But there is a more embarrassing consideration.
 
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Perhaps we priests and religious
 
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have ourselves in a subtle but real way
 
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contributed to the paralysis and limitation of the sense of vocation,
 
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individual, personal, and distinctive among our young people.
 
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We have tended to confine the very word vocation
 
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to our particular form of seeking God's will and serving both the Spirit and our neighbor.
 
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When diocesan statistics are published, for example, the word vocation usually means
 
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means the number of those in the seminary or in the convent.
 
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It no longer seems to me that every life in the diocese is or should be a vocation.
 
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response to a divine call to fulfillment of a providential mission from God himself.
 
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It was not always so among people who believed in God and his holy providence.
 
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Saint Joan of Arc, for example, knew she had a vocation and proclaimed it vigorously and
 
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unashamedly, paid for it with her life.
 
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She knew that she was sent by God as much as any priest or religious.
 
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And she was unshakable in her conviction that her vocation involved, among other things,
 
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a vow of virginity, the life of the battlefield, and the uncompromising recall to his sense
 
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of duty of a stupid king.
 
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Frederick Orsinan knew perfectly well that he was a man with a mission.
 
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A mission to teach in an infidel university.
 
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A vocation to bear witness to the faith in an unbelieving generation.
 
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and a call from God to the personal service of the poor.
 
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Saint Catherine of Siena was obsessed
 
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by her sense of vocation.
 
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So was Saint Monica, as the mother
 
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of a genius who was off on the wrong track
 
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and whom she straightened out.
 
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So were the hosts of laymen and laywomen,
 
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who as lovers and as parents, as poets and scientists,
 
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as persons in political life, or in the humblest
 
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of temporal pursuits, were convinced
 
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that they were people with a mission within which they found themselves because they had
 
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heard the voice of God saying, whom shall I send?
 
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Who will go for us?
 
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to which, in the particular circumstances of their lives,
 
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they had replied, here am I, send me.
 
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It used to be said, and not so very many years ago,
 
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that marriages were made in heaven.
 
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This was another way of saying that they involved a divine vocation, the very sense of which
 
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kept them permanent commitments, holy and fruitful forms of service of the spirit and
 
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of the race.
 
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People who said such things understood better than the self-excusing Adam the meaning of
 
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the line, The woman thou didst give me.
 
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And they knew that their marriage was literally a vocation from God with eternal implications
 
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and immortal longings that far transcended the passions of the moment or the superficial
 
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interests that are no longer likely to preserve fidelity and attachment when all passion is
 
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spent.
 
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the concept of vocation has been replaced by the more pretentious concept of professional
 
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excellence. If this were not true, more doctors would take night calls. There would be fewer
 
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answering services and recorded messages.
 
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More nurses would be available on holidays, as was the case when the healing arts involved
 
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not merely skills and a career, but a vocation.
 
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The answer, here am I. Send me.
 
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Most of our generation had the good fortune
 
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to have been taught by teachers who did not look upon their
 
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work as a mere trade or even a profession, but as a vocation.
 
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One thinks of these with admiration, reverence, and grateful tears.
 
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So it is for many other callings, indeed for all other forms of genuine service to civilization
 
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and God, from the sublime vocation of a saintly king or statesman, to the seemingly ridiculous
 
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antics, if you will, of the juggler of Notre Dame.
 
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I'm sure the preacher in the pulpit at Notre Dame had a charism, but so did the juggler,
 
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who did the tricks that made the people come and listen to him.
 
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This is particularly true in an uptight moment of history like ours, when we need people
 
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who will say, here am I. Send me.
 
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When God calls out for singers, entertainers, people
 
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who by the arts, including the theater, the circus,
 
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and the world of entertainment, simple or highly developed,
 
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volunteered to relax us a bit and bring back a smile to our grim civilization.
 
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These people, one can name examples of some who are secretly saints,
 
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are fulfilling a mission.
 
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It is as if God had said, in this dismal hour for humanity, when everyone has a puss a yard
 
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long, whom shall I send to make my people laugh?
 
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Who will go for us to relax them?
 
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And these people have replied, here am I.
 
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Send me.
 
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The policeman on the conner, the soldier on guard,
 
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the diplomat on an authentically humane mission,
 
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the educator for peace, the mother of a family,
 
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the decent judge, the therapist, male or female,
 
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curing the ills of a sick society,
 
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all of them have every bit as much of a vocation
 
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of a vocation as we priests are religious.
 
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If they don't have, they won't stick any more than we will.
 
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These attitudes, I repeat, were once
 
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characteristic of a civilized people generally.
 
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In the case of the Church, the symphony of these various and distinct vocations was summed
 
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up by St. Paul once, for all, and forever.
 
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When he wrote to the Corinthians, now there are diversities of graces, but the same spirit.
 
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There are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord.
 
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There are diversities of operations, but the same God who worketh all in all.
 
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And God indeed had sent some to the church as apostles, some as doctors, some with graces
 
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of healings and helps, government, tongues.
 
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All is their way of saying, here am I.
 
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Send me.
 
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Are all apostles?
 
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Are all prophets?
 
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Are all doctors?
 
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Are all amusing?
 
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Are all learned?
 
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No.
 
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But you are the body of Christ.
 
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Many members indeed, but one body.
 
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This present Eucharistic Congress has set for our meditation and, please God, subsequent
 
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action some, but by no means all, of the hungers and needs of the world.
 
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To each of these and to the other hungers of the race, there corresponds a vocation.
 
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The Vatican Council document on the religious life calls attention to the rich variety of
 
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vocations among religious, to limit ourselves to them,
 
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who have specifically sacred contributions to make,
 
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which are as various as the vocations given them,
 
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and the charismata.
 
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The decree perfecta caritatis puts it this way.
 
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Some exercise a ministry of service.
 
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Some teach doctrine.
 
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Some encourage through exhortation.
 
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Some give in simplicity or bring cheerfulness.

Side 2

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You and I are invited on this day of the Congress to reflect on the Eucharist and the human
 
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hunger for the Spirit and the ways in which we, priests and religious, can serve those
 
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who suffer from that hunger.
 
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constitute the overwhelming majority of mankind at the moment. In no area of
 
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concern is it more true that the harvest indeed is great and the laborers are few
 
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or reluctant. Cardinal Cushing in his characteristic fashion used to say,
 
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the world is full of shirt distributors, the guys who give you the shirt off
 
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their backs. I'll spare you a dime for a cup of coffee, particularly if you
 
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promise to go right away and buy the coffee immediately.
 
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But there are too few among us who
 
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will listen to people for one half hour
 
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and help them discover the voice of the Spirit
 
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and their vocation.
 
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All the other hungers involve one another,
 
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but all are included in this universal hunger
 
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for the spirit, a hunger toward the alleviation of which
 
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clergy, religious, and laity all have their respective roles
 
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to discharge and contribution to make.
 
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Who shall dare say that leading people to God and opening their ears to the Spirit are
 
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limited to priests and religious?
 
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Many of us had our first insights into the glory of God and our place in his providence
 
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from laymen, beginning with our parents, uncles, aunts,
 
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neighbors, strangers, even playmates.
 
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On the other hand, who shall dare
 
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deny that the leading of people to God
 
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and the opening up of their ears to the Spirit
 
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are the very essence of the sacerdotal
 
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and the consecrated life, and should therefore
 
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find priests and religious in the advanced
 
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guard of that desperately needed vocation.
 
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The hunger for the Eucharist, the hunger for bread, are other cases in point.
 
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It is the calling of priests that provides the Eucharist.
 
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The calling of religious to teach and lead an unbelieving world to the real presence
 
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the sacrificial table and tabernacle.
 
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Would God that the hunger for freedom and the hunger for justice were the only forms
 
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of hunger that plague our consciences and torment our society?
 
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Who will pretend that only professionals, social workers, diplomats, and relief distributors
 
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are the only ones called to take care of our hungers?
 
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In the forefront must be the priests and religious.
 
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Who shall say that it is only the nurse, the doctor, or the technician who instantly answers,
 
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Here am I. Send me to the cry of the aged, the cancer victim, the infirm, the lonely,
 
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the imprisoned. At every bedside where there is suffering, the Christian scheme of things
 
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find side by side with the healer, the priest,
 
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and the sister, all joining in the response, here am I.
 
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Send me.
 
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The voice of the times is the voice of God.
 
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If by these words we mean not merely
 
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the voice of the angry headlines and the raucous newscasts,
 
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but what the great Cardinal Foulharbour
 
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meant when he chose these words for his model, namely,
 
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that there is no crime mingled in the voice of the times
 
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more urgent or more moving than the cry for understanding.
 
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A cry that comes not only from youth,
 
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but from the throats of every group in the world, rich
 
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and poor, black and white, and especially brown.
 
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To whom is that cry addressed?
 
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To psychologists, yes.
 
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Parents, yes.
 
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Police, yes.
 
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Politicians, surely.
 
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But most especially to you and to me.
 
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priests and religious. If we meant what we said when we entered on our vocations,
 
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here am I, O Lord, send me. It cannot be otherwise. And yet we are told that there
 
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is a drop in the number of those who either is priest or religious are
 
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are disposed to live up to that answer,
 
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or to make it in the first place.
 
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It is even said that some priests, some religious,
 
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some parents, actively and effectively seek
 
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to prevent vocations to the priesthood
 
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and the religious life.
 
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Almost all of us have met parents implacably imposed
 
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implacably imposed to the religious life of their children.
 
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And a few of us have encountered young people, inhibited even by occasionally unhappy clergy
 
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disenchanted religious from giving the positive answer, here am I, send me. A like
 
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weird opposition to marriage and particularly children shows up
 
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frequently. I mentioned this last because every one of us has at one time or
 
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never met a boy or girl whose vocation to the church was argued against by an overtired
 
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priest, or a disenchanted religious.
 
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Or we have met young men and young women who are pining away their lives because mom or
 
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Pop did not wish them to marry the person that they had chosen, and more likely than
 
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not, the person that God had sent in to their lives.
 
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Happily, the spirit is not dead.
 
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Philadelphia this week is the proof of it.
 
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Neither is our spirit dead nor fatigued.
 
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We are not one bit disenchanted.
 
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Not one bit.
 
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We priests and religious working as one in Christ, with our various gifts and ministries
 
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or even limitations, this day dedicate ourselves to the guidance of a whole new generation
 
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who will answer in their respective ways.
 
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Here am I, O Lord, send me.
 
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It is not any particular vocation that
 
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is in trouble or in crisis.
 
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Those articles are for the birds.
 
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No single vocation is in crisis.
 
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It's the sense of vocation itself,
 
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the sense of the providence of God.
 
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We no longer look upon ourselves as did our immigrant ancestors,
 
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as the agents of God in whatever state we are called to serve Him and all mankind.
 
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Let us look to it, beginning with the call to the priesthood, but by no means ending
 
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there.
 
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Here I am, O Lord. Send me.
 
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In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
 
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τις то Install patents.
 
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Brothers and sisters, let us be mindful of the great and undeserved gift that God has
 
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bestowed on us by calling us to be religious men and women, deacons and priests.
 
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In the presence of one another and of God's Church, let us express our gratitude for such
 
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a gift by reaffirming our commitment to it.
 
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My brother priests, at our ordination we accepted the responsibilities of ministry out of love
 
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for the Lord Jesus and his Church.
 
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Are you resolved to unite yourselves more closely
 
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to Jesus, the suffering servant, who was sent by the Father
 
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to bring his peace and love to all?
 
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My brothers and sisters in the religious life, at your profession you promise to live faithfully
 
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the gifts of poverty, consecrated chastity and obedience.
 
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Are you resolved to imitate Jesus Christ, who emptied himself in obedience to the Father,
 
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by the total gift of yourselves to God's people in the service and to one another in community?
 
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May God, who has begun this good work in you, bring it to fulfillment before the day of Christ Jesus.
 
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Brothers and sisters, the Lord has formed you and set you as a covenant of the people,
 
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a light for the nations.
 
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him to unite us in spirit and ideals, to empty ourselves in Christ, to be servants of the
 
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Church and of the world.
 
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Father, endow Pope Paul, our bishops, priests and deacons with your own compassion and pity,
 
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that they may always look to others' interests.
 
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For this we pray to the Lord.
 
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Lord, hear our prayer.
 
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Sustain husbands and wives in the mutual love of Christ and the Church.
 
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Accept the gift of single lives spent in the service of your kingdom.
 
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We pray to you, Lord.
 
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Lord, hear our prayer.
 
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Uphold your servants whom you have called to the common life.
 
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Send your spirit upon them to be a sign in prayer
 
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and in labor of your kingdom.
 
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We pray to you, Lord.
 
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Lord, hear our prayer.
 
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Inspire teachers and catechists, scientists, artists, poets,
 
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and musicians to lead from the dungeon those
 
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who dwell in darkness.
 
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For this, we pray to you, Lord.
 
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Lord, we pray.
 
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Grasp the leaders of the nations by the hand.
 
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Make them instruments of your justice,
 
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to share the riches of the earth for the freedom
 
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of every people.
 
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We pray to you, Lord.
 
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Glory to God.
 
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Empty us of rivalry and deceit to bring solace
 
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where there is suffering, hope where there is despair,
 
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Love where there is hatred, acceptance where there is rejection.
 
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We pray to you, Lord.
 
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Enrich the Church with firm vocations in every state of life, so that together the baptized
 
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may proclaim to all who seek salvation that Jesus Christ is Lord.
 
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For this we pray to you Lord.
 
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Lord hear our prayer.
 
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Father you have exalted Jesus and bestowed on him the name above every other name.
 
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teach us to humble ourselves like the grain of wheat, to die and to produce fruit.
 
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You set it by the hungry Lord, we give the plighters free.
 
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A gift to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat.
 
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You, who satisfy my hungry heart,
 
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with gift of finest wheat, a gift to us, O saving Lord,
 
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The bread of life and peace.
 
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And when the shepherd calls his sheep,
 
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they know and hear his voice.
 
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So when you go forth and return, be kind and rejoice.
 
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You satisfy the hungry heart with the end of finest wheat.
 
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Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat.
 
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May our holiness be sang to you,
 
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of praise and gratitude,
 
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that we should now prosper in love,
 
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to share in this heavenly good.
 
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You satisfy the hungry heart
 
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With gift of finest wheat,
 
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Come give to our soul's saving Lord
 
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The bread of life to eat.
 
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Give, thou, what thou only best canst share,
 
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The world, Christ, hath bought,
 
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To God our God, one of deep faith,
 
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Our one lesson of all.
 
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You satisfy the hungry heart
 
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With gift of finest wheat.
 
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Come, give to us, O saving Lord,
 
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the bread of life to eat.
 
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I see all your presence, Lord,
 
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the Lord of love and love.
 
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To all the world, glad I shall play,
 
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a play in my heart's desire.
 
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You satisfy the hungry heart with gift of finest wheat,
 
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a gift to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life to eat.
 
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You give yourself to us, O Lord, and serve us without fear.
 
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Truth's very joy in your name is true and guaranteed.
 
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You satisfy every heart with the gift of my decree.
 
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Come give to us, O saving Lord, the bread of life and peace.
 
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Lord, you have gathered your servants together in your love to share the one bread of life.
 
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Make them one in their concern for each other and in their common dedication to the works
 
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of charity.
 
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By their holy way of life, may they be true witnesses of Christ to all the world.
 
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We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.
 
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Amen.
 
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The Lord be with you.
 
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And also with you.
 
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May the peace of God, which is beyond all understanding,
 
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keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God
 
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and of his son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
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Amen.
 
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May almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son,
 
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and the Holy Spirit.
 
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Amen.
 
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The Mass has ended.
 
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Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.