Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei – From a Pastoral Letter
Vocations
As we witness the number of vocations—priests, teaching brothers, and religious novices—steadily declining each year (this year only 14 major seminarians, 9 teaching brothers, and 15 religious novices enrolled), our hearts are filled with sorrow, and the future appears deeply concerning.
Given the low number of seminarians in China, His Excellency Archbishop Riberi sounded the alarm last year. Recall the appeal of Bishop Haouisee, calling for priestly vocations. In our churches, prayers should be offered that God may grant us a greater number of holy priests. Redouble your supplications. Pray also for a greater number of teaching brothers devoted to sacred learning and for Sisters of the Holy Presentation.
Along with prayer, we must also seek practical means of fostering vocations. A vocation is like a delicate flower. Planted in the hearts of children, it grows and blossoms only after receiving much care. Ordinarily, the school and the family are called to work together in nurturing this gift. In principle, the responsibility of parents is essential, and even the Christian influence of a school can accomplish little without their cooperation.
Offering one's children to God is a painful sacrifice for parents. Yet Christians, aware of the honor God grants them, should, despite the cost of this sacrifice, recognize this extraordinary grace—the exquisite flower of a vocation—that may be unfolding in the heart of a child within their own home. They should strive to surround that child with a healthy family environment filled with a fervent love for Christ, devotion to His Church, purity of heart, and a spirit of sacrifice.
The Cry of the Forty Hours
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, may these Forty Hours of Prayer that we offer You not be merely a passing moment. Multiply the number of women who join in this cry. May every hour spent in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament become a powerful blow of grace that shakes the world.
We are certain that the prayer of a woman who loves and makes reparation can change the course of history. Therefore, we ask You for a new, profound, and fruitful renewal of the evangelization of the world through the holiness of Your religious.
Satisfy us with Your love, hide us within Your sacred wound, and do not allow us to leave Your Heart until grace has won the victory for our beloved Church.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us and for our priests.
Amen.
Vocational Testimony of Sister Mary of Mercy
How is it possible that a young woman working in New York City during the 1990s would discover and enter a religious congregation that had been founded only a few years earlier in a small town in Argentina? As with every vocation to the religious life, Divine Providence intervenes and, through faithful instruments, God draws to Himself what belongs to Him.
I completed my university studies in 1990 and immediately found a job in New York City. I had made it! I would find a wealthy husband and have everything I wanted. My life unfolded in a materialistic and worldly environment in which I felt completely at ease—until God intervened.
Without my seeking Him, God came in search of me in New York. I learned as much as I could about my Catholic faith and met extraordinary people who helped change the course of my life: Father Benedict Groeschel, Father Andrew Apostoli, Cardinal O'Connor, Mother Agnes Mary, and many others. I saw Pope Saint John Paul II at World Youth Day in Colorado, experienced my faith in a new and courageous way, and witnessed many others coming to the faith as well. My whole life had changed!
In the midst of all this, the Blessed Virgin Mary entered the scene.
In 1993, a young man from our group of friends met some Argentine priests, and shortly afterward he entered the Institute of the Incarnate Word and began his novitiate in Brooklyn. This shook all of us! I had never realized there was this other vocation, and my heart became restless.
My plans were already made, and at that time my boyfriend had converted to Catholicism. Yet there remained a deep longing in my heart. How could I become the mother of a large family while also giving myself completely to the Church?
I prayed to Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, and it seemed that even she was not helping me. During a novena in December I asked for a sign: if the next rose to bloom was red, it would mean God wanted me to become a religious sister; if it was yellow, I would marry and become a wife and mother.
On the last day of the novena, the rose blossomed—it was yellow! But when I looked more closely, I saw that it was yellow on the outside and red on the inside. Now what?
Freedom.
God was asking me to give Him my life freely so that I might share with Him in the work of redemption.
As I searched for the right community, I decided that it had to be a well-established congregation—nothing connected with a new charism. It had to be completely faithful to the Church in every respect: in its liturgy, prayer life, community life, the wearing of the habit, deep respect for the vows, and profound devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It was also important to me that I be able to complete my formation in the United States and, of course, that the sisters speak English, because I was certain I could never learn another language.
Once again, I was making my own plans.
When the young man who had entered the Institute of the Incarnate Word invited us to his clothing ceremony on March 25, 1994, our entire group of friends gathered together and bravely made our way to East New York, Brooklyn.
The Sisters—whom I had never even heard of before—had arrived only the day before!
I entered the Servidoras, and on February 2, 1995, I received the religious habit. A few days later I traveled to Argentina to begin my formation—in Spanish!
By then I had had enough of making my own plans and placing limits on God.
I thank Our Lady, Mother of Mercy, for all the graces and gifts I have received through her, especially for the gift of my vocation.