The St. Raphael Prayer Society is a new diocesan initiative to encourage prayer for vocations to the priesthood.

“It’s an opportunity for the faithful to come together to pray for priests, seminarians, and for more vocations to the priesthood within our diocese,” said Fr. Jared Holzhuter, director of vocations. “It’s an opportunity for the people to unite and pray, for things they’re probably already praying for, but just to do it in a concrete way and join together.”

Commitment to prayer

The society is easy to join and involves no meetings or dues. 

It consists of a commitment to pray for the priests in this diocese and for vocations in this diocese in a specific rhythm — daily, weekly, monthly, and “always.” 

The daily commitment is simply to pray for this intention, and the weekly commitment is to offer a Holy Hour or Rosary for Bishop Donald J. Hying of Madison, the priests, and the seminarians of the diocese.

For the other commitments, “There’s a tradition of the First Friday being devoted to the Sacred Heart, First Saturday devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and so we’d ask that they offer Communion on one of those days, monthly, for more holy vocations to the priesthood within our diocese,” said Father Holzhuter. 

“And then the ‘always’ commitment is just, any suffering, sacrifices, they can offer, for the priests of our diocese, for vocations.”

Father Holzhuter encouraged people not to be intimidated by the schedule. 

“Sometimes when people hear those commitments, they think it’s too much. But I think it’s something that they can just add to their prayer intentions that they’re already doing. We have many holy souls in our diocese, and they’re probably praying a lot already, but it’s just an intention they can add to their daily prayers.”

He also feels that prayer for priests can be especially beneficial now, in this diocese. 

Into the Deep has brought challenges for everyone, including the priests. 

Much has been asked of them, and they’ve risen to meet the challenge. 

“I think this is giving people a way to unite around their priests,” said Father Holzhuter. “I think it’s very welcome, very needed.”

Asking for laborers

The faithful in the diocese are encouraged to join, whether they already pray for vocations or not. 

Adjusting one’s prayer to unite with others can be an act of humility, and this consistent rhythm of prayer enables the faithful of the diocese to be united in prayer for this one intention: please, Lord God, give us holy priests!

“It’s important to pray for all vocations,” said Father Holzhuter, “and I wouldn’t even say that priesthood is the most important, because in many ways, priests come from good families, so maybe we could go to the root. But there’s a tradition of asking the Lord for laborers for His harvest, and we know much of the health of the diocese depends on the health of the presbyterate. We want to give people a chance to pray for these intentions.”

Father Holzhuter knows that this prayer is important. 

“My work as a vocation director is really dependent on the prayer of the people, because without that, there won’t be holy vocations to the priesthood.”

The society looks to St. Raphael as its patron.

“He’s the patron of our diocese. He’s an archangel, which is pretty cool. But also, in the Book of Tobit, he has powerful intercession for Tobiah and Sarah in their marriage, for them finding their vocation, for healing Tobit from [blindness], for protection from evil. So we just see his role in bringing joy and healing, and we thought, ‘What a great patron we can run to for this need.’"