The Father Francisco Hernández Nuño, LC, is clear about it: “It is a privilege to have a priestly or consecrated vocation in the family.” He knows this from personal experience, as he entered the Vocational Center, in the apostolic, of the Legion of Christ and has two sisters consecrated in the Regnum Christi Movement. LomásRC interviewed him and he explained how in Seville they are promoting the search for vocational fulfillment: first as Christians, then wherever God calls each one: to marriage, priesthood, or consecrated life.

Father Francisco is from a town in Jalisco, Mexico; but his relationship with Spain has been very close: 4 years studying in Salamanca, later 4 years of apostolic practice at ECyD in Madrid, and he has been a chaplain at Highlands School Sevilla for 4 years now.

When the father arrived in Seville, he discovered that, in general, there was a negative view of the priestly or consecrated vocation, or at least that was his experience: “It was almost a disgrace for a son to feel that call.” In fact, he recounts, “the first times I invited some boys to get to know the Apostolic, the parents were scared. Talking about a possible priestly vocation among children was not a comfortable topic.”

The beauty of the vocation

[caption id=”attachment_6683″ align=”alignright” width=”225″>Father Francisco Hernández Nuño, LC

In his opinion, this view was not correct, so he gathered a group of families who perceived the importance and beauty of the priestly and consecrated vocation, to help radiate a positive vision of this call from God. The first thing he told them was: “I am not looking for your children to enter the seminary. That is above us. The vocation is given by God when He wants, to whom He wants, and how He wants.”

“We must help each person reach their vocational fullness – he continues – but since marriage is the vocation of everyone, the boy or girl who feels called to the priesthood or consecrated life will feel like a weirdo, and the parents of that boy or girl will feel the same. They need faithful laypeople to accompany them in discerning that inner attraction and to discover its beauty. That’s why we are going to specialize in accompanying these vocations within the Church. It doesn’t necessarily have to be to Legionary or consecrated life in Regnum Christi, but wherever God calls each one. That’s not our decision.”

Laypeople who remove obstacles

Father Francisco began calling these groups Action Vocational Circles (CAV), and in them “we want to do several things: the most important is to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. That alone is enough. We don’t need more. Jesus asked us to pray to the Lord of the harvest… because it is He who truly sows the seed and makes the flower of vocation grow.”

However, Father Francisco explains, “God also wants to have gardeners who help Him prepare the ground and remove obstacles that hinder the development of those little plants… that’s why another need arises: to offer ourselves as God’s gardeners, to be His instruments to radiate that positive vision of vocation in our environment and to let ourselves be used by God to help concretely as He shows us. Where there is authentic faith, this reality is seen simply and without prejudice.”

It’s clear that everything needs support, and that support comes through formation. So the third action of the CAV is to hold formation meetings that prepare them “to give a reason for their faith.” They meet periodically to deepen into some aspect of the Christian vocation, from the most general, which is the call to holiness, to the particular, which is God’s call to serve Him in a specific state of life: priesthood, consecration, or marriage.

“Once this is done,” explains Father Francisco, “we said that the Holy Spirit would show us where He wants us to go.”

Without priests, there is no Christian life

Father Hernández Nuño comments that it is essential for all of us to get involved in the search for vocations: “If there are no priests, what happens? There are no sacraments. And if there are no sacraments, there is no Christian life. And if there is no Christian life, where is the work of Jesus Christ?”

Depending on each country, the search for vocations in the Legion has changed in recent times. In Spain, he explains, “the Legion has in each locality two responsible priests: one for children and another for adults.” In fact, he has a clear vision of where vocations to the Legion of Christ and consecrated life in the Movement will come from: “The normal thing is that they will come from our own people, from those in whom we are helping to develop spiritually, that is, from Regnum Christi.”

“The way to work is that each one reaches their vocational fullness, and the CAV comes to support that process,” he insists. “There must be a change of attitude. Vocations will not come from a vocation director but from the Regnum Christi Family that radiates a positive vision of the vocation to priesthood and consecrated life, and strives to accompany each boy or girl to their vocational fullness.”

Source: Lo+RC