Newly-ordained Fr. Conrad Jaconette smiles for a photo with Bishop William F. Medley and his parents after his Mass of Ordination to the Priesthood on May 31, 2025, at St. Stephen Cathedral in Owensboro. RILEY GREIF | WKC
Prayer and intentionality
An invitation to participate in fostering a culture of vocations
BY FR. COREY D. BRUNS, DIRECTOR OF VOCATIONS
“How can we change the culture of our diocese in our approach to vocations?”
I have wrestled with this question since Bishop Medley first asked me to pray about taking on this new ministry as director of vocations for the Diocese of Owensboro. We all know that we need more holy priests. We are a Eucharistic people; we need the sacraments and we need priests to celebrate the sacraments among us. But priestly vocations don’t just grow on trees; they come from the family and are the fruit of prayer.
How can we change our culture and encourage young men and women to respond with generosity, courage, and holiness to the Lord’s call? I don’t have a complete answer, but if we look to the Lord’s example and what is working in other dioceses, we find the starting point: prayer and intentionality. It’s really that simple, and it is the core of our approach to vocation ministry these days in the Diocese of Owensboro.
I’d like to invite you to participate in two new initiatives we’re beginning this fall as we work to change the culture of vocations in our diocese: “Vocation Tuesdays” and the “St. Therese Vocation Society.” At their core, both of these initiatives follow two simple activities that I want to invite each of us to do daily: intentional prayer and intentional sacrifice.
Our Lord tells his disciples when they struggle in their ministry that some things can only be carried out with prayer and fasting. In that spirit, I invite you to:
- Choose some prayer that you can pray each day intentionally for an increase in good and holy vocations within our diocese, whether that be a Mass intention, a holy hour, a rosary, or simply saying the Lord’s Prayer or a Memorare for vocations each morning.
- Offer something up! Choose some sacrifice you can make weekly or daily for an increase in vocations.
Vocation Tuesdays
Starting on Sept. 16, the Office of Vocations will begin hosting Vocation Tuesdays for the Owensboro area at Sts. Joseph and Paul Parish in Owensboro. Every Tuesday except for Chrism Mass and Christmas, we will have a holy hour and Confessions at 6:30 p.m., followed by a Mass for Vocations at 7:30 p.m. Bring your family, your children, your spouse, your friends! It’s my hope that this will become a space and time each week where we can intentionally pray as a diocese for an increase in vocations and the grace to live out our vocations, in addition to being a time of intimacy with the Lord, in which we can ask Him where He might be calling us.
For our first night on Sept.16, following the holy hour, we will celebrate a Votive Mass of the Holy Spirit at 7:30 p.m. As we embark on this journey, we will ask the Holy Spirit to renew in us and enliven through our common baptismal vocation those particular vocations of priesthood, religious life, and marriage within our diocese.
St. Thérèse Vocation Society
Inspired by the efforts of the Diocese of Arlington’s vocations office, the St. Thérèse Vocation Society is a new, intentional, prayer society we will begin in our diocese on her feast day, Oct. 1. As a cloistered nun in a Carmelite monastery, St. Thérèse of Lisieux knew deeply the call of God within her. She responded to her “vocation of love” with confidence and embraced the sacrifices that God asked of her. St. Thérèse was known especially for her prayers for priests and her desire to be “an apostle to apostles.”
This is a fantastic opportunity for those who are homebound, suffering from illness, or anyone who wishes to join us in intentional prayer and sacrifice for vocations within our diocese from home.
Members of the St. Thérèse Vocation Society will pledge to:
- Offer daily prayers for an increase of vocations and the sanctification of our priests and seminarians.
- Make a holy hour each week (in church or at home) for an increase in vocations in our diocese, for the perseverance of the seminarians now studying for the priesthood, and the men and women in formation for consecrated life.
- Pray at Mass once a month (illness excusing attendance) for these same intentions.
- Offer any sufferings they may experience for an increase in vocations in our diocese and for an increase in zeal, fervor and grace for our priests, deacons and consecrated religious men and women serving our diocese.
To register for the St. Thérèse Vocation Society and receive regular correspondence, please visit: OwensboroVocations.com/VocationSociety.
Fr. Corey D. Bruns is the director of vocations for the Diocese of Owensboro. Contact him at [email protected].
Originally printed in the September 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.
