Dear Friends in Christ:

This Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is observed throughout the Church as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations – specifically, vocations to the priesthood. This Sunday was chosen for that observance because the Gospel for this day is always related to the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. On this day, we ask the Lord to give to His Church more shepherds “after His own heart” to care for the flock in His Name.

It seems to me that here in the Diocese of Madison, our first prayer on the World Day of Prayer for Vocations must always be a prayer of thanksgiving. We suffered a very serious vocations “drought” in the 1990s – seeing only six men ordained to the priesthood for our diocese in that decade – but since then the Lord has been very good to us.

Next month, we will have three seminarians ordained to the diaconate – Brad Grobbel, David Jaramillo and Ryan Ruhle. And they have a fourth classmate as well – an older gentleman who was a permanent deacon in the Diocese of Rockford, Deacon William Kearley. He is already a deacon, of course, and so doesn’t need to be ordained next month, but will be ordained to the priesthood with our three new deacons next spring.

On June 7, we will again have the honor of hosting priesthood ordination in our pastorate – at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church. It is expected that we will have one more Ordination Mass here (in 2025) before St. Bernard Cathedral is ready for use in time for the 2026 ordinations. The two men being ordained this year are David Drefcinski and Anthony Kersting. When everyone was here for the Chrism Mass in March, I heard Deacon David mention that he spent a summer at St. Maria Goretti as a seminarian . . . so some people there may have a memory of him.

I am very happy to tell you that we will have a seminarian at the parish this summer. His name is Todd Ashburn. Todd has been studying for our diocese for the last two years at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. This fall, he will begin his last four years (what used to be called “Theology” and has now been rechristened “Configuration,” i.e. years of being configured to Christ) in Milwaukee. I will let Todd introduce himself further after he arrives. He will begin his work in our pastorate in mid-May.

On this World Day of Prayer for Vocations, we pray also for the two young men of our pastorate in college studies for our diocese at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona – Seth Hakes and Cade Sullivan. Seth is a college sophomore this year – meaning he could be ordained to the priesthood (God willing) as early as 2029. Cade is in his first year at IHM Seminary, which is technically considered a preparatory year . . . but Cade did some college before entering the seminary, so it’s not entirely clear what his year of ordination might be. A lot can happen between now and then – which is why we must pray for these young men, and for all our seminarians, as we likewise as the Master to send more faithful and effective laborers into his harvest.

Join other fathers and sons in grades 1-5 for a virtue talk, group game, fathers/son activity, and snacks and socializing. To RSVP or for more information, contact Brian at bjpreisler@gmail.com.

The SMG Knights of Columbus are organizing parishioners for a trip to participate in the Walk to Mary on Saturday, May 4. Walk to Mary is a 21-mile pilgrimage walk from St. Norbert College (De Pere, near Green Bay) to Our Lady of Champion shrine (Champion, WI). It's a wonderful, faith-growing experience that drew over 5000 people last year. To learn more, please contact Peter at p.g.adamczyk@gmail.com.

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