WCR Letters to the Editor

The right way to find vocations

Our young people need to hear from our priests how much they enjoy their priestly mission. If I hear from a priest that he enjoys his gardening behind the rectory, then most certainly we will not get priests.

Good guys do not have to wear black. It is my very own friend who has and also is the cause that missionaries wore white instead of black. He is a Dutchman. Father Cornelio Lagerweg who has served the Church in the Philippines for 43 years, and of whom Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila said after Father Cornelio had passed away we had a saint living among us, and we have never seen it.

What does it mean to become a follower of Jesus? It means stepping away from material wealth and even deny oneself. But on top of that, one must deny his/her own family and as father, mother, brothers and sisters.

To be a true follower of Jesus, you have to become like him (Matthew 4:22). Often one leaves his/her boats and nets, or in the case of Matthew he left his tax collecting office. In many cases one also leaves his/her family.

The North American culture has great difficulty listening to that which is said. St. John of the Cross, puts a great emphasis on this.

In western culture today, most of us have an atrophied contemplative faculty, a muddy self-awareness.

God is present to us, but we are not present to God because of narcissism, pragmatism and an unbridled restlessness. Which is very much more part of the North American continent.

In 1993, I visited Holland, a month long. I have visited also a number of universities. In that short time I talked six guys into the seminary.

Five are ordained to deacons the Saturday before Pentecost. Number six is to be ordained a deacon, June 5, 1999. Pentecost 2000 all will be ordained priests.

My question is, What is it that I have and APC does not have?

John Flipsen
Edmonton

Article on Mass should've been longer

I hesitate to send this letter and yet I need to comment on this positive event that did not receive too much attention (especially as I no longer have school age children).

I would like to commend Father Michael Troy, director of the archdiocese's Holy Childhood Association, and all other individuals who promoted and participated in the fundraising for this association.

I think it is wonderful that the efforts of the children and teachers of the Edmonton Archdiocese will make life a little easier for their peers in Ethiopia, Sudan, Haiti, Sri Lanka, Peru, Nigeria, Cameroon and Vietnam.

It was a significant way to create awareness of the circumstances of children who live in these economically poorer countries.

Hopefully the celebration of the Holy Childhood Mission Day Mass on May 5 will become an annual event and more schools will participate.

However, will there be enough space in the letters-to-the-editor section for my letter of praise?

Marie Mockford
Edmonton

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