Posted on 07/25/2012 2:55:34 PM PDT by NYer
When Luke Strand started college nine years ago, he wanted to earn a marketing degree, a job in the business world, then a house and children.
Now he's a priest and that's not all. His brother, Vincent, is on his way to being ordained a Jesuit priest and their youngest brother, Jake, was ordained in the spring.
The family calling is remarkable at a time when fewer men, especially in the U.S., are choosing the Roman Catholic clergy. More than 3,200 of the 17,800 U.S. parishes don't have resident priests, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. As of last year, the total number of priests in the U.S. had decreased 14 percent from 2000.
So why did three men from one family sacrifice what they thought they wanted in their lives to become priests? Even their family was blindsided. The brothers' parents, who live in Dousman, Wis., never encouraged it or discouraged it — they just never discussed it.
"It takes you off guard, (having) one after the other come and talk to us," said their mother, Bernadette Strand.
The boys went to Catholic grade school, attended church every Sunday and prayed before dinner but weren't "eccentric," according to their father, Jerry. Their aunt is a member of the Poor Clare Sisters in Kokomo, Ind. His mother, Ruth, said she and her husband hoped one of their grandsons would join the priesthood.
"Grandma would always say, 'Maybe one of you boys is going to be a priest' and I think we'd just laugh: 'Whatever, grandma.' I mean we're not going to study to be a priest," Luke Strand said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Good news ping for the day!
God Bless ‘Em!
Reminds me of a family down the street; they have 6 children, only one was a boy. He became a priest last year.
Best wishes to all of them.
Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
Glad they’ve got a daughter to give them grandkids.
Fod bless these brothers and the entire family!
Oops
God bless these brothers and the entire family!
OMF!
A negative story from ABC News and Georgetown on priest vocations. From what I have been reading these last couple of years, the number of men in diocesan seminaries has been on the increase. I know that in my diocese, we will be ordaining an average of 8 priests per year over the next several years. That does not count the men in seminaries run by religious orders. Their vocations have been increasing as well. Same goes for those orders of nuns who are not related to the orders of crazy liberal nuns who have lost both their religious garb and their minds.
“I find that is so wonderful. In our parish, we have twin brothers studying for the priesthood, they are close to ordination”
It’s good they are both getting ordained. My wife knew of a priest in Edmonton whose identical twin brother married. Edmonton’s a sizeable city, but finally a parishoner spotted the twin with his wife; some ‘splainin’ had to take place.
I corrected it. Thanks for the jab.
Maybe being a priest is one step up from a public servant, you get every thing you need, a place to live, good pay check, insurance and the best of other benefits plus every one knows that a public servant is a crook, but a priest has to be given the benefit of the doubt by any one who don,t read their Bible.
We thank you for your contribution and wish you well in an extended stay in the rubber room.
Maybe being a priest is one step up from a public servant, you get every thing you need, a place to live, good pay check, insurance and the best of other benefits plus every one knows that a public servant is a crook, but a priest has to be given the benefit of the doubt by any one who don,t read their Bible.
We thank you for your contribution and wish you well in an extended stay in the rubber room.
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