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A Plentiful Harvest

Accounting for Numerous Alumni Vocations

(Fall 2007 Newsletter)

Last spring, the Pontifical Work for Vocations, an office of the Holy See's Congregation for Education, published in its journal, Seminarium, an article submitted by Thomas Aquinas College president, Dr. Thomas E. Dillon. In recent years, that office's director, Fr. Francis Bonnici, had become aware of the large number of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life among alumni of Thomas Aquinas College. Surprised that a co-educational institution of higher education that was both founded and administered by laymen would produce such results, Fr. Bonicci asked Dr. Dillon to give an accounting of the ways in which the College encourages vocations.

Though aware of some of these, Dr. Dillon surveyed alumni priests and religious, and presented his findings in an article entitled, "The Pastoral Work for Vocations at Tertiary Level: The Case of Thomas Aquinas College." In it he discusses six primary ways in which the College helps to dispose students to hear and answer God's call to the priesthood and religious life:

• Institutional fidelity to the Magisterium of the Church;
• Rigorous study and discussion of theology, especially that of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, under the guidance of the teaching Church;
• The example and ministry of the College's chaplains;
• An ordered and peaceful community life;
• The example of the faithful lay men and women of the College's faculty;
• The encouragement of like-minded friends.

It was not surprising to learn from alumni that the first four influences contributed to their discernment of and response to God's call. What was striking, however, was the testimony by the College's priests and religious about the powerful influence that faculty members and fellow students had had on the discernment process.

What cannot be overestimated are the many prayers offered for our students by members of the College community, including its friends and benefactors. Pope Benedict XVI commented recently on Our Lord's words in the Gospel of St. Matthew: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

He said, "We must continue to pray the Lord of the harvest, to stir His heart, and touch the hearts of others through our prayer. And He, according to his purpose, will bring to maturity their 'yes,' their readiness to respond; the constancy, in other words, through all this world's perplexity, through the heat of the day and the darkness of the night, to persevere faithfully in his service."

In that spirit, you are asked to keep our young men and women in your prayers that they may indeed persevere.

-- Qtrly Newsletter, Fall 2007