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"My bride is wounded, and I am asking you to help her." This was the invitation the Serra Club of Spokane heard from their chaplain, Father Daniel Barnett, at a board meeting just before the beginning of Lent. “The Church, the bride of Christ, is suffering because of the sins of her members — all of her members. And all of us are called to help,” he observed.
In response, he invited the Serrans to join him in every first Thursday in a monthly Holy Hour of Reparation for the sins of the members of the Church, and to pray for more and holy vocations to the priesthood for the Diocese of Spokane.
“The crisis has been on my mind and heart for a long time, and, like many others, I wondered how I could help,” said Father Barnett, who serves as director of vocations for the diocese and as a Missionary of Mercy appointed by Pope Francis. When it became clear that the incorrupt heart of St. Jean Marie Vianney would be coming to the Diocese of Spokane on the first Thursday of Lent, the idea of a first Thursday devotion began to take shape.
At times of crisis, God always responds by raising up saints. Each member of the Church is called to holiness, which is lived in different ways depending upon one's vocation. Especially at this time in her history, the whole Church is called to respond by becoming holy. The question before each Catholic is: “How is God calling me to holiness?”
Jesus calls priests to become holy through the sacrament of holy orders. When they fail in this, the rest of the Church is still called to become holy. The vocation of a Serran is to grow in holiness by fostering and affirming vocations to the ministerial priesthood and vowed religious life. This initiative affirms that each of the members of the Church is responsible for the holiness of all.
Why Thursday? Because that is the day Our Lord instituted the holy priesthood and the sacrament of the Eucharist. What better day to pray for a renewal of the Church?“I pray that this initiative will spread to each parish, so that in every parish men and women offer prayers of reparation for the sins of our brothers and sisters, and beg the Good Shepherd to send more shepherds after His own heart."