How do you "promote" priestly Vocations?

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catechizeme

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Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get some ideas on what your parish or school does to promote priestly Vocations. “Promote” may not be the best word because I know becoming a priest is a call from God, but what does your parish or school to help people learn about vocations, get people talking about them, etc. so that young men especially, have a mind that is open to that call when it comes, and it’s something that families openly talk about, etc.

I’d like ideas on womens’ vocations too, but I’m more interested in promoting priestly vocations for right now. Thank you!

Some basic ideas I have already to help form a “Vocations mindset” in a parish/school
  • Hang up poster of our seminarians in the parish hall
  • create a ‘seminarian of the day’ prayer card, where each day of the year people are asked to pray for a specific seminarian
  • have kids create 'Happy Ordination Day" anniversary cards for priests and nuns in their parish
  • Show the “Fishers of Men” video and hold a discussion afterward
  • Adopt a seminarian - where a class of kids adopts a particular seminarian and prays for him each week, sends him cards, letters etc.
  • Eucharistic Adoration hour to pray for Vocations
 
Stand in the vestibule after daily Mass once a month, and hand out invitations to all of the young men there to consider and pray about the priesthood.

Hold an hour of prayer for vocations in the Church itself on a regular schedule (once a month, or during certain months of the year), with a group. Invite all of the young men to come and pray with you.
 
Here in the LA Archdiocese, some parishes have been doing these events called Training for Discipleship that are focused on young single adults for spiritual development and discussing how we can be more active in the Church. Sadly, I tried to go to one tonight but it was canceled at the parish closest to me because of a lack of interest in the program. 😦 Now I have to go find another parish that’s having one and hope they haven’t canceled the program either. :crying: I just graduated from college a couple months ago, and I’m feeling kind of directionless right now in my search to better serve the Church (as either a lay person or an ordained minister), so I was hoping an event like this would help me. sigh
 
catechizeme said:
Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get some ideas on what your parish or school does to promote priestly Vocations. “Promote” may not be the best word because I know becoming a priest is a call from God, but what does your parish or school to help people learn about vocations, get people talking about them, etc. so that young men especially, have a mind that is open to that call when it comes, and it’s something that families openly talk about, etc.

I’d like ideas on womens’ vocations too, but I’m more interested in promoting priestly vocations for right now. Thank you!

Some basic ideas I have already to help form a “Vocations mindset” in a parish/school
  • Hang up poster of our seminarians in the parish hall
  • create a ‘seminarian of the day’ prayer card, where each day of the year people are asked to pray for a specific seminarian
  • have kids create 'Happy Ordination Day" anniversary cards for priests and nuns in their parish
  • Show the “Fishers of Men” video and hold a discussion afterward
  • Adopt a seminarian - where a class of kids adopts a particular seminarian and prays for him each week, sends him cards, letters etc.
  • Eucharistic Adoration hour to pray for Vocations
Click to expand...
I suggest loving and praising the willing heart of your parish priest, for starters. Who would want their job nowadays? “See the Roman collar? Watch him closely” “Do you suppose he’s one of them?” “He’s frustrated because he can’t marry” It goes on and on. I go out of my way to thank the priests, and to pray for them. I have a litany of names which I pray for daily. When the priest is loved, respected, confessed to, invited to dinner, associated with and treated like the man of God that he is, others will aspire to the vocation.

Yes, it’s a calling. But the free will of a youth can be overcome with kindness, love and direction. How many times have we lamented over a young man for his lack of direction? Let’s work on it, pray about it. And they all do marry - the church. They will have more brothers and sisters, grandparents, babies and other family members than they ever imagined. Let’s make the vocation desirable by praising it and honoring those who make the sacrifice. Honor the vocation and they will come.

God Bless you and Christ’s peace.
 
randomguy0187 said:
Here in the LA Archdiocese, some parishes have been doing these events called Training for Discipleship that are focused on young single adults for spiritual development and discussing how we can be more active in the Church. Sadly, I tried to go to one tonight but it was canceled at the parish closest to me because of a lack of interest in the program. 😦 Now I have to go find another parish that’s having one and hope they haven’t canceled the program either. :crying: I just graduated from college a couple months ago, and I’m feeling kind of directionless right now in my search to better serve the Church (as either a lay person or an ordained minister), so I was hoping an event like this would help me. sigh
Click to expand...
To see if you want to be a Priest or a Deacon,
sign up for minor orders, readers and such, if
you have a calling you will want to go into major orders.
 
Catechizeme,

I think it has to go deeper.

I think you have to have a strong CCD and Youth Group program, and I think that the kids have to be raised to be “Catholic in their bones.” They have to have the thread of Catholicism running through their life all through their growing up years. Do they go to Mass weekly? Do they confess at least once a year? Do they know how to pray the Rosary? Do they own a Bible? Do they attend Holy Days of Obligation, Ash Wednesday, Holy Thursday Mass, and Good Friday Veneration of the Cross? Do they go to Stations of the Cross at least once during Lent? Do they attend Adoration on occasion? Are they altar servers? Do they participate in parish activities?

They need the Church to be a significant and natural part of their lives long before they reach 16, 17, or 18 years old and consider what to do with their future.
 
I agree with everything written.

I can only add, pray the rosary.
 
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