Nine Days with 250 Bishops

Vocations are the subject of Bishop Murphy’s “Reflections” column in the July 1986 edition of The Harvest. He focused on the pressing need for new vocations to lay ministry, religious life and the priesthood. Bishop Murphy placed a heightened degree of emphasis on vocations to the priesthood by offering the following thought, “Yet, if we are to be a people committed to the mission and ministry of Jesus, a ministry of Word and Sacrament, there is the urgent need for the presence of the ordained priest, a person asked to proclaim the Word of God, to celebrate the Eucharist and other sacraments, and to gather together and to lead the Christian community.”