Vocations are calls to embark on exodus to Promised Land, pope says

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Following a vocation to the priesthood or religious life is to live an experience of “exodus” — to joyfully leave behind all that enslaves and journey to a Promised Land of love, service and mission, Pope Francis said. “Responding to God’s call, then, means allowing him to help us leave ourselves…

Discernment: God’s search for you

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National Vocation Awareness Week • November 2 to 8, 2014 Seeking and finding the Lord’s will is a wonderful adventure of the Christian life. It is the great adventure! At first it can seem a kind of treasure hunt — Jesus hiding answers to our questions and requiring us to gather clues leading to that…

Work of vocation directors vital to church’s future, says archbishop

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HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (CNS) — Archbishop Jorge Patron Wong, secretary for seminaries at the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, understands the need to affirm, assist and support priests involved in vocation ministry. During his weeklong participation at the 51st annual convention of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors, held Sept. 19-26 in Long Island, the archbishop…

Prayer, planting seeds key to increasing vocations

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We can’t expect the Voc ations Office to do the job alone By Doug Scott News flash: We need more priests and religious sisters in the St. Cloud Diocese. I know. This isn’t news. We feel the effects of this shortage every day. Twinned or clustered parishes share a single pastor, consolidate or sometimes drop…

Rich family prayer life credited with fostering vocations

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Nov. 22, 2013, edition By Jennifer Janikula For The Visitor Patricia Wolfbauer, from St. Andrew Parish in Elk River, is the mother of a priest. When asked how she helped foster her son Michael’s religious vocation, she quickly answered, “I didn’t!” She “made” her three boys go to Mass every week, but she won’t take…