I dropped everything (well, I put down my coffee cup) and scooted over to the Daily Mass Chapel and we started 9:00 am Mass at about 9:15 or so. The irony, of course, was that with three priests available for Mass, not one of us was there for the 9:00 am Mass. (Full disclosure: The scheduling error was mine, all mine.)

After Mass, another parishioner commented, "This was just a little taste of what it's like to be in one of those areas where there are not enough priests!" Many parishes in our country have no resident priests. In some places, Mass is only celebrated once every few weeks.

In our diocese, we see a much different picture. There are currently 25 men preparing for priestly ordination and ministry for our diocese. The projections point to as many as 28 seminarians next year.

This is a great blessing, of course. That core of seminarians almost certainly includes future pastors and associate pastors for Our Lady of Grace and the other parishes of the diocese.

With the blessing come responsibilities, including the responsibility of providing for the educational costs of our seminarians.

For that reason the diocese conducts the Seminary Fund Appeal in every parish on an annual basis. This year, the appeal officially takes place on the weekends of June 13-14 and 20-21. Envelopes are in the pews this weekend and will remain there through the end of June.

Each parish has a financial goal for the appeal. The goal at Our Lady of Grace is $18,760. This is a proportional amount of the diocesan goal of $425,000. And while $18,760 sounds like a lot of money to raise in two weeks, it's not unreasonable to expect that we will do so as most other parishes do. For a sense of perspective, our parish goal is not even half of the average annual cost of tuition, room, board, and support for one seminarian.

Needless to say, I am fully in support of the Seminary Fund Appeal. I know that these are difficult times financially but I encourage everyone who is able to make a generous and sacrificial gift to the appeal.

More on the Seminary Fund Appeal next week.