Wenski: Prayer is anecdote to modern society's most pressing problem -- a shortage of hope

MIAMI (OSV News) -- For Anne Roat of Lafayette, Indiana, supporting vocations means everything.

"We know we need Jesus … (and) the Eucharist. And we know we need priests to give us the Eucharist," Roat told the Florida Catholic, Miami's archdiocesan news outlet.

Roat, president of the USA Council of Serra International, was among the many who traveled from across the nation and even came from as far away as Australia to attend the 2025 Serra USA Rally for Vocations in Miami in January.

The Serra Club of Miami, a chapter of the worldwide Serra International organization, spearheaded the event. This Vatican-recognized lay organization educates Catholics on vocations to priesthood and religious life, supporting those living out that call.

The Jan. 23-25 rally, uniting national efforts on behalf of vocations, took place at Miami Marriott Dadeland. Held at different locations around the country, this was the second year in a row the rally took place in Miami.

The Serra Club of Miami is an example for U.S. clubs because it has flourished from successful membership drives at parishes.

The rally speakers' main focus was "hope," according to Kimberly Rocha, president of the Serra Club of Miami and member of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in South Miami. With the church's Jubilee Year 2025 having as its theme, "Pilgrims of Hope," the speakers honed in on what this entails in vocations.

Speakers included Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski; Bishop Thomas A. Daly of Spokane, Washington, who is national chaplain for Serra International; Mother Adela Galindo, foundress of the Miami-based Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary; Msgr. Pablo Navarro, rector/president of local St. John Vianney College Seminary.

Modern society's most pressing problem is a shortage of hope, Archbishop Wenski said in the rally's keynote address.

"The social pathologies of our time -- abortion, drug abuse, promiscuity, suicide, divorce and the breakup of the family -- are symptomatic of a loss of hope," he said Jan. 24. "Even those who nominally identify themselves as Christians or Catholics betray a loss of hope in their abandonment of regular church attendance and reception of the sacraments: For prayer is essentially an expression of hope. Only those who hope pray."

Archbishop Wenski noted the Jubilee Year is an invitation to rediscover the source of hope: "At the Incarnation, when Mary said, 'Yes' … she opened the doors of our world to hope. That hope became flesh in her womb … and (Jesus) is a hope that will not disappoint."

This trust in Jesus "enables us to face our present," added the archbishop. "The present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads toward a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey, namely eternal life with God."

"Our task is not to change the Gospel, but to present (it) in such a way that it changes us -- and those with whom we share it. …The Jesus we meet in the Gospel -- who is the same yesterday, today and forever -- is demanding and bold. And therefore, he is not always convenient," he said.

Many people do not understand hope, Bishop Daly explained in his speech Jan. 25. "Hope is reality grounded in faith. That's different than optimism, which is wishful thinking."

What does it mean to have faith in God, he asked.

"Faith is never a theory," he said. "It's meant to be not only expressed in thought and in word, but in deed."

As Bishop Daly put it, "a living faith must reach out to others. If it remains hidden, then eventually, as George Weigel said, 'Coke Light becomes Coke Zero. And Catholic Light becomes Catholic Zero.'"

Both Archbishop Wenski and Bishop Daly suggested practical ways to draw others to authentic hope and discover this hope within one's vocation.

Archbishop Wenski addressed what Christian Smith in a 2005 study termed "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism," a prevalent belief system in today's society.

"This MTD is a religion that believes in a distant God … who simply wants everyone to be nice to each other and for everyone to be happy," the archbishop explained. "This faith, Smith says, is parasitic … feed(ing) on established traditions of historical religions like Christianity and Judaism to survive and grow -- but it changes and distorts the theological substance of those traditions … to create its own distinctive theological and religious viewpoint."

Caving to MTD for the sake of attracting people to the church is not the answer, said the archbishop. "Simply to accommodate our ministries, programs and practices to this alternative religion … is not a formula that will 'save the world for Christ' or inspire the right young men to answer a call to the Catholic priesthood."

In response to this anti-vocational MTD, the archbishop highlighted the words of St. John Paul II: "If Christ is presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as an answer that is convincing, and they can accept his message, even when it is demanding and bears the mark of the Cross."

Today's young adults express yearning for the real Christ, Bishop Daly said. "I just sense in this younger generation … a real desire to have the faith expressed in reaching out to others, that missionary zeal."

Sharing the faith with others is at the heart of every vocation. Bishop Daly noted a trend: Eucharistic adoration has been helping young people become attuned to Christ.

"I think there's a grace that God gives in a very deep and generous way to young people who are unplugged from technology and stay present," he said. He cited this as the reason for the "technology fasts" implemented for seminarians in their first stage of formation.

In addition to being "committed" to a daily "time of quiet prayer," Bishop Daly said people in any station in life should be practicing another form of prayer: doing small, everyday things for God -- which is integral to every vocation.

"There has to be that time of quiet prayer simply with the Lord," he said, though acknowledged that "it might be hard" to find an hour of quiet prayer every day, with personal, family and job obligations. "But your five minutes has the power of an hour for us (priests), because we pray our experiences and we pray our vocations. And God understands that," explained the bishop.

"No ministry in the church is sustained without faith," Archbishop Wenski said. "But (it) has to be the faith we proclaim when we recite the Nicene Creed and not that of MTD -- Moral Therapeutic Deism. And no ministry will be sustained without prayer."