By Father Eugene Hemrick

You can't recruit vocations to the religious life unless you have burning love in your heart.

These words by keynote speaker Bishop Sam G. Jacobs of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, La., kicked off the 25th J.S. Paluch Annual Vocation Seminar in Rosemont, Ill., last fall.

As the lecture developed, I remembered a similar admonition by Jesuit Father Walter Burghardt: Preach with fire in your belly.

We have 17 million inactive Catholics, Bishop Jacobs pointed out.

As I pondered his opening remark and the inactive Catholics that exist, I wondered what would happen if they came in contact with priests, nuns and Catholic laymen and laywomen who possessed burning love in their heart.

Hate was absentTo speak of this is one thing, to practice it is yet another. How does one cultivate and maintain it, this fire in the belly?

In his schema on love, St. Thomas Aquinas spells out its essential qualities: mercy, beneficence, almsgiving, peace, joy and fraternal correction. There are several ways to practice these types of love and perhaps be an example of a person who has this fire in the belly.

The word for mercy in Hebrew is womb, meaning to forgive from the very depths of our being.

When a man broke into a classroom and shot 10 children, killing five of them, to the surprise of the world, the Amish community forgave the killer. Hate was absent. This very type of surprise creates burning love in the heart.

Kindness, or beneficence, and a loving heart are the direct antithesis to a world that is often filled with resentments and jealousies. Kindness steers us to be well-disposed toward life, our neighbor and God.

Love at its best

One of the essential qualities of joy is self-sacrifice. It echoes the principle of the preposition for, upon which Christianity is built. Christ came down to earth for us, lived for us, died for us and rose from the dead for us.

It is love at its best and our best means for cultivating lasting joy.

Today, war is everywhere. Although there is talk of peace, it seems to be only talk. Even though we can't stop these wars, within our own communities we are given the opportunity to practice peace every time we are faced with disruptions that erupt into a type of war.

In his lecture, Bishop Jacobs pointed out that when Andrew came in contact with Christ, there was excitement: a loving heart touching a loving heart.

The message is simple and its power is its simplicity: Create a burning heart of love.

All types of programs have been created to bring inactive Catholics back into the church and to recruit vocations to the religious life. For these programs to succeed, burning hearts of love must run them. It is as simple as that.

Father Eugene Hemrick is a priest of the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., who works as a researcher in Washington, D.C. Contact him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. document.getElementById('cloaka650adee861619dcc46e44f4321af106').innerHTML = ''; var prefix = 'ma' + 'il' + 'to'; var path = 'hr' + 'ef' + '='; var addya650adee861619dcc46e44f4321af106 = 'national' + '@'; addya650adee861619dcc46e44f4321af106 = addya650adee861619dcc46e44f4321af106 + 'catholicnews' + '.' + 'com'; var addy_texta650adee861619dcc46e44f4321af106 = 'national' + '@' + 'catholicnews' + '.' + 'com';document.getElementById('cloaka650adee861619dcc46e44f4321af106').innerHTML += ''+addy_texta650adee861619dcc46e44f4321af106+''; .

Posted March 11, 2013