Vocations Talk

I've just read an excellent talk on vocations ('Bout time yous lot joined up!) by Fr Ephraem over (or rather down under) at Dominicanus, which would be very useful for all those thinking about applying to a diocese or an Order. Here's the first paragraph, just to wet your appetite, stressing that the Priestly vocation, though extraordinary, is in some ways quite common and ordinary:

There is a lot of nonsense talked about vocational discernment. I suspect that some of it may have put you off or caused you to wonder about becoming a priest. The fact is that being a Christian priest is a pretty ordinary thing to do – it’s a trade like many others as Evelyn Waugh remarked in his diary. Some men see to the water, electricity and gas. Others lay on Grace. When a priest goes to the altar or font or confessional he has his tools like any other tradesman. He has to do an apprenticeship. He has to practice and listen to the older journeymen. He has continually to see if the same thing can be done better. He isn’t a pagan shaman who lives in constant contact with the Spirits of the Ancestors or Nature. He doesn’t conduct auspices over the entrails of small birds and animals - except in reputable restaurants. He most certainly is not a psycho-therapist whose job is to make people feel good about themselves. He just has a job to do – bringing Christ into people’s lives by preaching the Gospel and celebrating the sacraments. It is the easiest and most difficult of callings. It requires nothing except everything.