I can’t believe it’s already time for Homegrown Harvest 2024! As we get ready for this great annual event where we support our seminarians and work to bring forth more men to be priests from our diocese, I’m proud to announce a new partnership that is designed to bring forth more excellent young men to consider the priesthood. We have partnered with Vianney Vocations for an initiative called Vocation Pathway.

Vianney Vocations has been working with dioceses for more than 15 years to provide excellent resources like books, posters, promotional items and more. After all that time, they’ve seen ‘what works’ and ‘what doesn’t work’ when it comes to promoting vocations. Vocation Pathway is a systematic approach to vocation promotion that Vianney has developed. We are working with Chris Kreslins from Vianney Vocations to build a plan just for our diocese. That plan is already in motion, and I’m excited to share more details in the coming weeks and months.

The most important part of Vocation Pathway is forming a team of priests who can run discernment groups at least twice a year in various parts of the diocese. I spent the summer putting together a team, and it includes priests from almost every deanery. Our team has undergone four weeks of training to run six-week discernment groups each fall and spring. These groups are not only for men who say, ‘I want to be a priest,’ but they are for any man who is a strong Catholic and wants to grow in his faith.

The Vocation Team is already in place and is starting the invitation process to young men in their area. The team consists of: Fathers Augustine Palimattam, St. Patrick/St. Joseph Meridian, Aaron Williams, St. Mary/Assumption Natchez, Mark Shoffner, St. John Oxford, Jason Johnston and Tristan Stovall, St. Joseph Starkville, Kent Bowlds, Our Lady of Victories Cleveland, Matthew Simmons, St. Joseph Gluckstadt, and me. Please pray for these team members, and if you have suggestions of who should be invited to these discernment groups, let one of the team members know!

Our rep from Vianney Vocations will be in Jackson to speak to the full presbyterate and all our parish leaders next month. We are excited about this new chapter, and I’d like to share a goal with you that I believe we can reach, although it is lofty. Our goal is to have 33 seminarians by the year 2030. Please keep that in your prayers, and ‘ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest!’

                                                Father Nick Adam, vocation director