Christ the Great High Priest by Marek Czarnecki (free reproduction for non-commercial sites). Marek writes; "I wrote the icon about 7 years ago for seminarians and priests to be able to see Christ in themselves and themselves in Christ".
There has been a lot of critical comments posted in a certain forum about altar servers dress and if they can wear a clerical collar. In the old days a collar indicated that you were a cleric (you had been tonsured or been through Admission). Now the distinction is not so clear as Brothers in Religious Orders can wear it. I prefer to see it as either a vocation already granted by the Lord, or one being considered.
I'm assuming the critics simply don't know that Vatican altar servers are permitted to wear collars (see below- Palm Sunday in Rome with Pope Benedict as celebrant). If it is good for the Holy Father, what exactly is the problem? What if it encourages youngsters to contemplate a vocation? As it happens, the Vatican pre-Seminary produces a large number of candidates for the major seminary and eventually priests. Quote - Father Enrico Radice, rector of the pre-seminary, said four students graduated from high school in June, and three of them are entering diocesan seminaries in September.
This year's percentage of students going on to a full-fledged seminary is high, even by Vatican standards, he said. About 10 percent of the 700 boys who have lived at the pre-seminary in the past 50 years have become priests.
Or a rather soft-focus photo of a procession taken in USA (MA?) in 1968:
You can click on these pictures for larger images
WOW - I didn't know that! A Vocations Director has come up with an incredible fact, that 80% of new vocations now come via the internet! John has mailed in a comment which has been published that as teens we have done something already. Read the original article (but then come back to us).
Have you got what it takes? Not sure if you make the grade as a future priest? - take a simple 20 point interactive test from the Catholic Diocese of St Petersburg in USA (I took the test and it says I should be thinking about becoming a priest) - that's good news! This might be a good first step for someone not yet able to bring their vocation to a director or parents.
When we launched this site a few months ago (there is still a lot of work to do) we had no idea whether it would do any good - we just felt it was right. Since then we have been overwhelmed by the number of teens (14 to 19) who are so dedicated to Jesus and His Church, who love the liturgy, who want to be priests, who are praying every day or serving Mass, and who want to make a difference to our world. Remember, this is probably the only vocation site run by teens for teens - time to add your voice. We will publish anything except material that attacks belief, undermines the faith, is predatory, or contrary to the teachings of Jesus or the Church.
Tonight I had a look through the Vocations Forum on Catholic Answers. Lots of good stuff inside from 'what age did you feel you had a vocation' to 'What do I do as a parent if my child wants to be a priest'? Quite a few posts that made me sad where quite young teens had told their parents about their discernment, but had been met by a wall of silence or even discouragement.
Although it is by now quite old news, Fox News reported that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops said that the 'Fishers of Men' program is a response to research that found that nearly 80 per cent of seminarians ordained in 2003 had been asked by a priest to consider the vocation (see side box). We have the video links to YouTube on our Resources.