Father Gregory Galvin, Director of Priestly Vocations
With the new year here, I hope and pray that the grace and blessings of God’s Love will continue to fill our hearts with joy for the gift of life we all share, and the gift of faith that has made us all children of God’s family.
Please continue praying for priestly vocations for our diocese. Please always include in your prayer for vocations those young people preparing to enter Holy Matrimony, and those young women or men who sense a call to religious life. May they all continue to grow in a firmness of heart to accept the gift of the vocation to which our heavenly Father calls them.
I hope that during the past year you enjoyed the monthly reflections our seminarians shared about their vocation journey. We truly are blessed with men who desire to embrace the Father’s will for them, and step forward to labor for His sons and daughters in this part of His vast vineyard.
The eight men studying for the priesthood will return to seminary in the next week to continue their academic, spiritual, pastoral and human formation after having worked remotely on their first semester exams beginning after Thanksgiving. Then they were each able to spend some of the Christmas season with their families in addition to taking an important mental break from their studies. As they head back to their respective seminaries, please keep them in your prayers these next five months.
The year 2021 hopefully will continue to bear fruit for the diocese as we anticipate two of our men preparing for ordination. Jacob Ramos is just a few months away from being called to ordination as a Transitional Deacon in May. Deacon Larry Barile will finish his studies this semester while anticipating a Call to Orders from Bishop Cote to be ordained a priest for the Norwich Diocese on the final Saturday of June, 2021. As the months go by, these men and each of our seminarians continue to ready themselves to lay their lives down so that each of you, their brothers, and sisters in Christ, will always have access to the sacraments of the Church and the opportunity to continue to grow in faith.
On behalf of each of our seminarians, thank you all for sending prayer postcards to our men throughout the year. Thank you for continuing to pray for an increase of vocations and joining us each month for our Holy Hour for Vocations. The seminarians will gather with Bishop Cote early in January for our annual Christmas get together, this year for a luncheon. It is always at this gathering that the men receive from all of you the gift cards that have been sent in for them. Thank you to all from across the diocese who participated again this year in the Advent Gift Card Drive for our seminarians. It truly does make a big difference for them with many of their personal needs.
Finally, I thank you for your prayers and support of the Vocation Office. May each of us continue to pray for the end of the coronavirus, the dissolving of fear that the virus has brought to so many, the end of families having to be away from loved ones when ill and most importantly a rebirth of devotion to the sacraments of the Church.
May those of you who have been separated from our Eucharistic Lord not hesitate to return to Him. We must remember, our greatest and most powerful prayer is the Holy Mass. With grateful hearts may we fill our Churches in appreciation for the love and protection our Lord has given us through these past 10 months. God bless you all and may each of you have a great 2021.