A Challenging Read...

There's an interesting article in the Homiletic and Pastoral review by a Fr Ference entitled Why Vocation Programs Don't Work.  One could certainly transpose this article into an Irish key and ask why the life of the Irish Church seems to be in terminal decline.

The root of our current vocation problem is a lack of discipleship. Of course, a disciple is one who encounters Jesus, repents, experiences conversion and then follows Jesus. All too often those of us in positions of Church leadership presume that all the folks in the pews on Sundays, all the children in our grade schools, high schools and PSR programs, all the kids in our youth groups, all the men in our Men’s Clubs and all the women in our Women’s Guilds, and all the members of our RCIA team are already disciples. Many are not. (The same can be said of staffs and faculties of Catholic institutions.) Our people may be very active in the programs of our parishes, schools and institutions, but unfortunately, such participation does not qualify for discipleship.

Read the whole thing and I think you'll find that the discipleship orientation proposed by Fr Ference seems to resonate much more strongly with the Sermon on the Mount than the suggestions coming from some other quarters about a path to renewal.