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• Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

  As Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon for the past six years I am truly blessed to have been invited into Jesus’ own ministry of calling men to consider the priesthood. It is a privilege and a joy to accompany men discerning God’s will.
  
  Through involvement in vocation ministry over the years I have learned there is a linear process to authentic and diligent discernment that follows the path of relationship, identity, mission. Our relationship with Jesus Christ gives us an identity as sons and daughters of God, and it is from that identity in God that we come to realize our mission to the world. This threefold process of discernment is founded on Jesus’ own words to his disciples in his exhortation, “Remain In Me.” (Jn 15:9). For priests, and future priests, our greatest pastoral activity is to remain in relationship with Jesus at every moment of the day because it is from that relationship that our ministry “happens”.
  
  During this time of pandemic, I am encouraged by Pope Francis’ words to the Church and to the World (Urbi et Orbi) on March 27 at St. Peter’s Basilica when he said, “we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disorientated, but at the same time important and needed, all of us are called to row together.” Imagine if all of us “rowed together” in a particular mission of providing priests for the future by supporting seminarian education. When everyone rows together, it doesn’t matter the size of individual strokes. A Church rowing together on mission, with Christ in the stern, is a Church that always reaches her destination – life with God now and in eternity.
  
  Please consider rowing with us by supporting seminarian education in Western Oregon.
  
  Sincerely yours in Christ,

  

  
  
  
  
  Rev. Jeffrey M. Eirvin
  Director of Vocations

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