May 9, 2025

HABEMUS PAPAM – WE HAVE A POPE

Dear Friends in Christ,

As this was being prepared the good news came in . . . we have a Pope. And amazingly, he is the first American born pope, Cardinal Robert Prevost, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. Please pray for our new pope, Leo XVI, that he will be a good shepherd for the whole church after the heart of Christ.

“God cares for us, God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail! We are all in God's hands. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward.” POPE LEO XIV

PRAY FOR VOCATIONS

The 4^th Sunday of Easter is called Good Shepherd Sunday because the gospel each year reminds us of Christ being for us the Good Shepherd, the ultimate shepherd, who watches over us in love.

Whether pope, or bishop, or priest, all of us are called to take the Lord Jesus for our example and model.  We pray for good shepherds for the Church, and ask the Lord’s help to follow in his way. We especially need priestly vocations, for many more young men to head the call the Lord. For this reason, it is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Some years ago, Pope Benedict, gave this beautiful encouragement to vocations to the priesthood which is still relevant today:

“let us pray that all young people may listen to the voice of God who speaks in the depths of their hearts and calls them to leave everything to serve him. This is the purpose of today’s World Day of Prayer for Vocations. In fact, the Lord is always calling but all too often we do not listen. We are distracted by many things, by other, more superficial voices; and then we are afraid to listen to the Lord’s voice because we think he might take away our freedom.

In fact, each one of us is the fruit of love: of our parents’ love of course, but more profoundly, of God’s love. The Bible says: even if your own mother does not want you, I want you because I know and love you (see Is 49:15). The moment I realize this my life changes. It becomes a response to this love, greater than any other, and in this way my freedom is completely fulfilled. 

The young men whom I ordained priests … are no different from other young men, except that they were deeply moved by the beauty of God’s love and could not but respond with their whole life. How did they find God’s love? They found it in Jesus Christ: in his Gospel, in the Eucharist and in the community of the Church. In the Church we discover that every person’s life is a love story. Sacred Scripture clearly shows us this and the witness borne by the saints confirms it to us.

St Augustine’s words are an example of this. Addressing God, he says in his Confessions: “Too late I loved you, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! Too late I loved you! And behold, you were within and I abroad.... You were with me, but I was not with you... But you called and shouted and burst through my deafness” (X.27.38).

Dear friends, let us pray for the Church, for every local community, that it may be like a watered garden in which all the seeds of vocation that God scatters in abundance sprout and ripen. Let us pray that this garden may be cultivated everywhere, with the joy of feeling that we are all called, in the variety of our gifts. 



May families in particular be the first environment in which we “breathe” the love of God that provides us with inner strength in the midst of the difficulties and trials of life. Those who experience God’s love in the family receive a priceless gift which, with time, bears fruit. May the Blessed Virgin Mary — a model of free and obedient acceptance of the divine call and Mother of every vocation in the Church — obtain all this for us.” POPE BENEDICT

May we all listen for and follow the call of the Lord in our lives! Blessings on your week!

Fr. Johnson