EDITED: Has your parish...[celebrated Vocations Awareness]?

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Oneofthewomen

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done anything to celebrate Vocation Awareness Week?

If so, what?

I am sad to say it seems that it has gone un-noticed in my area. :o

I found this prayer, I have added it to my daily prayers this week, and prayers are good, but shouldn’t we be doing something to increase vocation awareness?
Prayer for Openness to God’s Call
Lord Jesus, once You called the first disciples in order to make them fishers of men. Continue to let resound today Your sweet invitation: “Come and Follow Me.”
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Grant to young men and women the grace of responding promptly to Your voice. Sustain our bishops, priests, and consecrated souls in their apostolic work. Give perseverance to our seminarians and to all those who are fulfilling the ideal of a life of total consecration to Your service.
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Enkindle in our communities a missionary zeal. Send, Lord, workers into Your fields and do not let mankind be lost because of a lack of pastors, missionaries, and people dedicated to the cause of the Gospel.
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Mary, Mother of the Church, Model of Vocations, help us say “Yes” to the Lord Who calls us to collaborate in the divine design of salvation. Amen.
~Pope John Paul II
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Mom had a transient ischemic attack late last week, and just got discharged from the hospital, so other than a mention in last Sunday’s bulletin, I didn’t notice anything. However, there were many spot announcements on the local Catholic radio station. I hope at least the Catholic high schools had some priests and religious coming in for school assemblies, that sort of thing.
 
In my parish, a small group of guys gets to have dinner with the bishop. I believe a few are selected out of each parish.
 
We had an article in our bulletin and our newsletter about using Vocations Awareness Week to pray for an increase in vocations, reflect on what our own vocation is, and observe periods of silence in our day to hear God’s voice in our hearts. It was also mentioned that we must nurture those who feel a call from God, and we must nurture the faith in our children and prepare them for whatever God may call them to (priesthood, religious life, marriage, single life). And there was also a listing of parishioners who had a relative who was a priest or religious and the diocese or order the relative was serving in.

Next year, try submitting a short article to your bulletin and newletter editors, to give your parish a jump-start in promoting Vocation Awareness Week in your parish.
 
blanc10 said:
In my parish, a small group of guys gets to have dinner with the bishop. I believe a few are selected out of each parish.
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Our pastor does the same with our altar boys (which, in our parish, covers pretty much all the boys between 5 and 18)

He arranges a “Breakfast with the Bishop” a few times a year. The senior altar boys and their fathers (or other male adult) are invited into the rectory on a Sat morning. Father will cook everyone breakfast and the boys will chat with the bishop.

The altar boys aged 12 and up have regular field trips to the seminary. They (and their fathers) will spend the day with the seminarians from our parish. Mass, Divine Office, meet the professors, see the dorm rooms, pizza lunch in the rec room, basketball against the seminarians in the gym, that kind of thing.

It’s been very sucessful. We have had 12 men ordained from our parish in the last 10 years (out of a parish of about 950 families)
 
We make every day “Vocations awareness”. At the conclusion of every Mass we pray a prayer for Vocations, we support seminarians, we have many young men in the discernment process.
 
We have had a Vocations Awareness Banquet for several years. We have a speaker from the diocese one of the Bishops, the director of Vocations, etc. From the tickets to the banquet, a raffle, and donations we raise nearly $30,000 each year for scholarships for seminarians and women religious.
 
Oneofthewomen said:
done anything to celebrate Vocation Awareness Week?

If so, what?

I am sad to say it seems that it has gone un-noticed in my area.

?
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what we do every week is pray for vocations as part of the prayer of the faithful, and every year at this time have presentations by the Serra Club, and vocations events in every level of CCD. There is also a holy hour in the adoration chapel once a week for vocations.
 
Our diocese hasan excellent vocations program - with high school programs for boys and girls as well as more in-depth vocations programs for those over 18. The Seminarians just had a baskeball game against the boys from the vocations group. Great fun!

During vocations week the bishop visits the Catholic high schools in the diocese. He has a vocations Mass every year for all eigth graders. Our parish school has a program, But I don’t know the details of it.

At the parish level we include vocatins in our prayers of the faithful every week. Vocations are discussed in CCD and during homilies.

I like the prayer in the OP.
 
Nothing particular was done, but the entire homily yesterday was about vocations.
 
Yes, yesterday at Mass, as a matter of fact. The vocations director from our diocese came to do Mass with a wonderful homily about vocations and a table full of Holy cards and a card printed with a photo and name and misc. info for each seminarian in our diocese. This is the first time we have ever had anything like this. This priest hopes to visit each parish over the next three years. It was very nice and his homily was tremendous.
 
Thanks everyone for participating!!

Sounds like some places are really getting it right!! 👍

The parish I usually attend had a wonderful bulletin article the on January 8th, written by the Permanent Deacon,
and this Sunday, he preached a wonderful homily on vocation.
The prayers of the faithful last week did mention vocations, this week, it did not.🤷

As far as the rest of the diocese, the bulletins I could read on-line (about 25 within a 10-mile radius of my home),
for the most part there was no mention at all of Vocation Awareness Week.
I asked a a few friends/family members what happened in their parishes, and for the most part,
this Sundays homily was “generally-speaking”, about vocations. How everyone has one, and listening to “the call”,
but nothing “specifically” about vocations to the holy orders or religious life.

I started this thread to try and get ideas of what was happening elsewhere,
so I could bring some new ideas to the table.
I have a friend in the vocations office, and we have talked about how, we, as a diocese, may not be doing enough.
I have received many good ideas here, and your suggestions have made my creative juices to flow,
so I think I will have some great suggestions for things we can look into for our diocese!

Thank you all!! 👍😃
 
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