Holy Hours to pray for priestly vocations precede Rite of Ordination

IC photo/Marie Mischel

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Deacon Kenneth Parsad, who was ordained a priest on June 13, presides at a Eucharistic Holy Hour at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church on June 10 with the intention of praying for priestly vocations in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. In use is the Pope Saint John Paul II monstrance for vocations, on loan from the Serra US Council.

SANDY — On each of the three days preceding his ordination to the priesthood, Father Kenneth Parsad presided at a Holy Hour at a different Catholic Church along the Wasatch Front. At each, the Pope St. John Paul II Monstrance for Vocations was used.

The monstrance, one of six blessed by John Paul II in 2004 during the Year of the Eucharist, was designated to be used in North America and was presented to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Serra International now handles requests for the monstrance to visit various dioceses. 

At the Holy Hour on June 10 at Blessed Sacrament Church in Sandy, then-Deacon Parsad asked those present “to please make particular petitions for the increase of priestly vocations in our Diocese of Salt Lake City and also for the perseverance for those who have said ‘yes’ to the calling to the priesthood.”

In his homily, he said that “The rhythm of Saint John Paul II’s life is that of prayer, and part of that rhythm is his devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He understood that his first duty to the Church was his interior life.”

Members of the clergy and seminarians share that same duty to cultivate an interior life, “to develop a real, genuine relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ,” he said, and the laity also benefit from this practice.

Quoting John Paul II, he said, “The more deeply people develop within themselves in their interior life, the more prone they are to silence. … Every great work, all holiness, is born in silence and recollection. Only falsehood wraps itself in a flood of words. Truth is brief.”

The Liturgy of the Hours, the Church’s official set of prayers, includes many of the Psalms, which are wonderful, he said, “but sometimes the truth that we need to say is as brief and as simple as ‘Lord, I am tired. Lord, I am anxious.’ … Or, if you’re like me, ‘Lord, I am a bit overwhelmed.’”

During a Holy Hour, Christ is present in the Blessed Sacrament, but the question is “whether we are truly present to him who is in our midst,” he said, and prayed that “at this moment we may be truly present in the midst of Jesus our Lord as we ask him to please inspire us to say ‘yes’ to the Father.”

He ended with another quote from John Paul II: “The Eucharist is the secret of my day. It gives strength and meaning to all my activities and service to the Church and to the whole world. … Let Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament, speak to your hearts. It is he who is the true answer of life that you seek. He stays here with us: He is God with us. Seek him without tiring, welcome him without reserve. Love him without interruption today, tomorrow, forever.”