Pray for vocations before historic monstrance on Feb. 8 in Plainfield

Come out to pray for vocations at 7 p.m. Feb 8, at St. Mary Immaculate Parish in Plainfield – and in the presence of a monstrance that has historical significance for American Catholics.

Pope Pius XI had given the monstrance to Cardinal George Mundelein during the 1926 International Eucharistic Congress in Chicago, the first congress held in the U.S. according to Deacon Greg Alberts with youth and young adult formation at Saint Mary Immaculate Parish.

The congress included a Mass at Soldier Field, Alberts said, as well as a Eucharistic Procession Mundelein Seminary during the closing ceremony of the congress, which nearly 800,000 people attended, according to a news release from St. Mary Immaculate.

“It’s a beautiful monstrance,” Alberts said. “The base of it has beautiful figures at the bottom. It’s very ornate; very beautiful … it’s huge, very tall, very wide. People will be able to see it from where they sit.”

Alberts said one should remember the monstrance is not simply a Catholic artifact.

“It’s an artifact for American history,” Alberts said. “It’s a huge part of American Catholic history.”

Most of the time, the monstrance “lives” at University of St Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Alberts said.

But 2022 is the seminary’s centennial year, so the monstrance is traveling to various locations in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Diocese of Rockford and the Diocese of Joliet.

One reason why the monstrance is appearing at St. Mary Immaculate Parish is because the parish works with the seminarians by giving them practical experience on the parish level, Alberts said.

In fact, Alberts himself has attended the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary since August 2018, where he is working on a Master of Divinity and a Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology, according to the St. Mary Immaculate website.

But here’s the main reason why people should come out to pray on Feb. 8.

“I think the presence of the monstrance itself is an opportunity to direct our minds and hearts toward the place where priests are formed,” Alberts said. “So it’s a humble request on the part of the seminary for people to pray for us who are already in formation and, perhaps, to inspire people who may be thinking about a vocation to religious life to the priesthood to answer affirmatively to that call by God himself.”

Especially right now when the “world is kind of in a crazy place,” Alberts said. While the need for vocations to the priesthood has risen and declined in the history of the Catholic church, “there is always a need to pray that we will answer to the will of God in our lives,” Alberts said.

So coming out to St. Mary Immaculate Parish to pray is one way people can renew themselves, especially since people today are facing many challenges, Alberts said.

“And prayer is a remedy for those things,” Alberts said. “At least, in part.”

St. Mary Immaculate Parish is located at 15629 S. Rt. 59, Plainfield.

For information, call 815-436-2651 or visit smip.org.