How to Promote Vocations
There are many ways to promote vocations and vocations awareness in our daily lives as well as the Diocese of Sioux City. The best among them is prayer. Here are a few suggestions to help individuals and parishes to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Young men and women who often feel they might have a vocation sometimes hesitate to come forward before answering the Lord's call. The following suggestions provide opportunities to dialogue with those considering a vocation to priesthood or religious life, and to support them in as many ways as possible.
Eucharistic Adoration for Vocations – Begin Eucharistic Exposition for Vocations in your parish. Prayer before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is particularly fruitful for vocations. It is not a coincidence that parishes that have perpetual Eucharistic Adoration or frequent times of Eucharistic Exposition have much higher rates of vocations from their parish than parishes that do not. A parish rosary for vocation intentions is also very fruitful.
Encourage Prayer for One’s Own Vocation – Encourage and lead young people to pray to the Lord for discernment in their vocation. Encourage them to frequently ask the Lord if he is calling them to priesthood, religious life, married life, or the single life?
Mass Intentions for Vocations – Have your parish offer a Mass on a regular basis for the intention of increased vocations to priesthood and religious life.
Ask – Speak with promising young boys and men who show interest in their faith, compassion for others, and an aptitude for the spiritual life that they would make a fine priest. Ask them to pray and consider the priesthood. Likewise, ask promising young girls and women to pray and consider religious life, and tell them they would make a fine sister or nun.
Work with your Parish Priest – Work with the pastor at your parish on vocation awareness activities. Let him know the names of young men and women whom you feel may have a priestly or religious vocation. The parish priest is a primary influence on young people considering priesthood and religious life. For example, at confirmation interviews the priest can ask the candidates if they’ve considered priesthood/religious life.
Encourage Parents – Invite the parents of priests, sisters and seminarians to give a talk at your club’s meeting or at the end of Mass about the joy of being the parent of a priest, sister or religious. Parents need to hear other parents speak on vocations. Speak to parents groups and parish organizations about their role in vocations.
Celebrate Vocation Dates – Have special Masses, talks, or events during National Vocation Awareness Week, World Day for Consecrated Life, and World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Make use of materials provided by the Office of Vocations of the Diocese of Sioux City.
Parish Bulletin Articles – Include a weekly or monthly article or “corner” in the parish bulletin on vocation reflection or vocation prayer. Place a vocation prayer card in the hymnals or parish missalettes.
Parish Mission or Retreat – Host a parish mission or retreat. Prayer often brings discernment and conversion.
Recognize Altar Servers – Recognize servers with a reward night or other outing and use part of that event to address vocations with them.
Encourage young people to attend conventions, rally’s, retreats and other events that promote Catholicism – Gatherings of young Catholics such as NCYC (National Catholic Youth Convention) Youth 2000, Steubenville Conferences, World Youth Day, FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) conventions, retreats, etc. are times where young people find themselves considering their lives and their faith and are often graced occasions of personal discovery and discernment.
Invite the Vocations Director to Speak – The Director of Vocations can be invited to speak about vocations at your school, club, meeting or other event.
Vocations Committees – Start a vocations committee at your parish to encourage young people to consider vocations.
Vocations Presentation at Parish Schools and Religious Education Classes – periodically talk about vocations to students in parish schools or religious education programs. Often a panel format with priests, religious sisters and brothers, and others is a great way to show the unity of the Church in vocations.
Ask TEC, SEARCH, ANTIOCH or CLI members or those particularly skilled in youth ministry to speak on vocations. Also, highlight the lives of saints in religious education classes – they are the heroes and models for young people.
Vocations Literature – Put up pictures of diocesan seminarians and make available other vocation literature from the Diocese of Sioux Office of Vocations. Have pictures of priests, brothers, or sisters who came from the parish displayed with a short biography in the parish hall.
Sponsor a Visit to a Seminary, Monastery, or Convent – Having young people visit religious houses and seminaries provides tangibility to priesthood and religious life.
Youth Ministry and Young Adult Discussion Groups – These ministries are the seedbed of vocations. Youth ministry and young adult groups allow young people to consistently pray and examine issues of faith that help them grow in the spiritual life.
Prayer by Shut-Ins, Elderly, and the Sick – Ask those who may be physically limited to offer their prayers and suffering for vocations.
Host Catholic Movie Nights – Ask youth or young adults to attend a Catholic movie night at the parish. The night could consist of prayer, a meal or refreshments, a Catholic movie, and discussion.
Host Parish Youth or Discernment Nights – Invite youth, high school students, or young adults to separate or combined discernment nights. Possible components could include prayer, socials, panel discussions from priests and religious, meet the pastor sessions, question and answer sessions, movies, trips to cathedrals or other churches, book reviews or discussion groups, etc…
Host a Chalice/Cross/statue Program – Work with your parish priest to have families gather (perhaps for a meal) to pray for vocations, and then circulate a chalice/cross/or statue (for example a statue of: St. Mary – Mother of all priests, St. Aphonsus Liguori - the Patron Saint of Vocations, the Saint your Parish is named for, or other appropriate saint), from family to family as each family prays for vocations. This chalice/cross/or statue is then given to the next member of the parish who becomes a priest, brother, or sister. This gives each family a wonderful opportunity to talk about vocations and their role in fostering vocations.
Invite Candidates to Speak to the Vocations Director – Invite those showing interest in priesthood or religious life to speak to the Director of Vocations for the Diocese of Sioux City. You can call him at (712) 233-7523. We never pressure young men or women, but rather help them to grow in their spiritual life and discern and pray about their vocation, and encourage them to learn more about possible vocations. The Lord wants a free response from those whom He calls.
Visit the Vocations Website of the Diocese – Young men thinking about the possibility of a priestly vocations are encouraged to visit our soon to be completed website at www.thinkingofpriesthood.org, young women are encouraged to visit the "Women Religious" section of the Diocese of Sioux City’s Vocations webpage. Both of them are easy and exciting ways for Catholic school students and religious education students to interactively learn about vocations.
Vocation Prayer in Parish Hymnals and used at Masses – A vocation prayer can be used as a regular part of parish worship – whether at Masses, at Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, or at private or communal prayer. Perhaps your parish could conclude its Daily Masses or school masses with a prayer for Vocations. The Diocese of Sioux City Office of Vocations has sample prayers available for parishes.
Support Our Seminarians – Parishes and parishioners are encouraged to write letters to our seminarians, especially on their birthdays. Children in religious education programs or Catholic school’s often write beautiful letters that seminarians find touching. The Office of Vocations will happily supply contact information for our seminarians.
Join the Serra Club or Knights of Columbus – In the Diocese of Sioux City there have been two organizations, the Serra Club and the Knights of Columbus, whose work in promoting Vocations has been both invaluable and exemplary.
If you have any interest in joining or assisting either of these fine organizations you can visit them at their websites: http://www.serraus.org/ or http://www.kofc.org/ or contact the Office of Vocations for the Diocese of Sioux City and we will be very happy to put you into contact with the council nearest you.