Parishioners invited to pray for one seminarian a day beginning Ash Wednesday

Cathy Sitzwohl’s dream for this Lenten season is that Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore take a few minutes to pray every day for each of the 54 seminarians preparing to become priests for the archdiocese.

The parishioner of St. John the Evangelist in Severna Park has even set up a prayer schedule, designating prayer days for different seminarians beginning Ash Wednesday and extending through Lent and into the Easter season.

“I’m hopeful that these men will eventually become future priests,” said Sitzwohl, who also organizes “spiritual bouquets” for priests, deacons and seminarians. “They’re not there yet. There’s a lot going against them. They are still discerning and they need all the support we can give them.”

Sitzwohl, whose cousin is former Baltimore auxiliary bishop Cardinal James Francis Stafford, has conducted similar prayer campaigns in the past, picked up by a handful of parishes. She hopes this latest effort will be promoted in every parish of the archdiocese. She has a spiritual bouquet website at www.spiritualbouquetministry.weebly.com that offers resources such as special prayers that can be offered for seminarians and clergy.

Father Steven Roth, vocations director for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, is promoting the prayer campaign and encouraging as many people as possible to participate. Prayer that is “purposeful and particular” can be powerful, he said.

“I think it very much encourages our seminarians to know that as they are giving themselves to formation, they have the prayerful support of the whole archdiocesan family,” he said. “Also, by asking people to pray, it raises awareness that we are blessed to have men who are desirous to give of themselves in such a profound way to seminary formation and perhaps the priesthood.”

Father Roth said he hopes the prayers will “unite us as an archdiocese in praying not only for the men we have, but that the Lord might send us many more to follow in their example.”

Download the Lenten seminarian prayer calendar here.

Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org

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