3-part plan for building a culture of vocations throughout diocese
Vocation ministry is not just a few people who help others answer the universal call to holiness and find their own particular vocation in the Church.
It’s about creating a pervasive culture of calling and inviting.
“Our participation in vocational ministry is also built on an invitation,” said Father Paul Clark, diocesan vocations director and director of seminarians. “We’re inviting others to be part of creating an environment in which all people are aware of the gifts God has given them and then freely respond to that.
“We’re inviting others to respond and consider,” he said. “All of vocation ministry is about calling and inviting at all levels.”
With this understanding, the Jefferson City diocese is implementing a three-part plan to reinvigorate vocational ministry in every parish.
The steps involve prayer, formation and service.
Bishop W. Shawn McKnight is urging parishes to include the diocesan Prayer for Vocations into every opportunity to gather and worship.
Families are also encouraged to pray the prayer together.
Parishes are being asked to set aside and promote regular prayer time and Holy Hours specifically for vocations.
Pastors were directed to bring together a vocation ministry team for each parish, and to send the members to a training workshop.
All priests will be encouraged to preach about vocations the weekend of Feb. 8-9, in keeping with the readings, and invite parishioners to participate in a diocesan-wide “Called by Name” initiative.
This will involve submitting the names of young men and women who have demonstrated lives of prayer and service.
“It will be an opportunity for us as the Church to acknowledge the gifts that the Lord is pouring out on his young people, and also a chance to encourage a response to those gifts,” said Fr. Clark.
The names will be submitted to the Vocations Office, so the individuals can be invited to upcoming vocation events.
Where it came from
Fr. Clark, who is also chaplain of Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City, recently heard a presentation by Rhonda Gruenewald, founder of Vocation Ministry (vocationministry.com).
He and Bishop McKnight talked to the diocesan Presbyteral Council about inviting Mrs. Gruenewald to give a presentation to the priests of this diocese at their annual Priests’ Institute this year.
The members agreed with the idea.
Mrs. Gruenewald shared a clear plan with the priests about setting up vocation ministry teams in their parishes, with the goal of building a perennially pervasive culture of prayer and discernment.
As part of the presentation, she asked the priests to break off into sets of two, with each giving the other a three-minute version of his call story.
“The power of that witness of someone sharing how they heard Christ and responded to Christ — that’s powerful even for us as priests,” said Fr. Clark.
It also caused each man to say what was it about the call that made it particular to priesthood.
“We all have a call to be in relationship with the Lord, to holiness, to be sanctified and to be saints,” Fr. Clark insisted. “But when forced to give the three-minute pitch, it allowed us to pull out what was it that made it specific to priestly calling.”
Fr. Clark and Mrs. Gruenewald instructed the priests to identify parishioners who would be interested in receiving the same message the priests heard during their Institute, and inviting them to attend a gathering in Jefferson City.
Some were surprised at the tight timeline for implementing the plan, “but, when the Lord says drop your net, the Apostles did!” said Fr. Clark.
He said the response among priests to the plan was overwhelmingly positive.
“There’s no doubt among the priests of the need and the desire for men to hear and answer the call of Priesthood,” he noted. “We as fathers want the fulfillment of every person’s heart throughout their vocation.”
Joyful response
More than 80 people from 27 parishes attended the Vocation Ministry training event in Jefferson City on Nov. 2.
There, they helped create a universal vision for the vocation ministry in their parishes in the upcoming year.
They also found out ways to share a unified message with young people throughout the diocese about healthy discernment and what a vocation is, and what a proper response to a vocation looks like, and how everyone can support it.
Fr. Clark said the purpose of all of this is to help parishes in the diocese create environments that promote free and healthy vocational discernment, that help people grow in the knowledge of the Priesthood and Consecrated Life and happy and healthy marriages, “so that our young people know how to listen to and respond to what the Lord is calling them to, and do so with the support and encouragement from their community and their parish and their families.”
It’s no coincidence that the three steps in the plan mirror three of the four pillars of Catholic Stewardship.
“Because, like Stewardship, isn’t our vocation a joyful response to what we have been given?” said Fr. Clark.
So what can the readers of this paper do to help?
“We’re not necessarily asking the readers to be involved in the leadership team,” Fr. Clark noted. “But we want them to know there are people in their parishes who have been onboarded and activated in their parish to bring it into all elements of the parish.”
He emphasized that vocation ministry must be intrinsically woven into every aspect of parish life.
“We are all the vocation directors of our young people,” he noted. “We’re responsible for the vocations of each other.
“It’s not something separate from the parish,” he said, “not something delegated out to one diocesan employee in diocese.”
Toward that end, he encouraged parishioners to take time to read the materials they’ll receive from their parish ministry teams, “as a way to help us have a greater understanding of the beauty of the vocations that exist in the Church.”
Fear not!
Fr. Clark noted that many people look fearfully to the future of vocations in the Church.
future of vocations in the Church.
“Sometimes, we let despair or fear discourage us,” he said. “But actually, statistically speaking, there is great hope for the Diocese of Jefferson City. There are things that are going very well.”
He noted that in current American culture, people are often afraid to ask or invite.
“We fear rejection. We fear judgment. We fear that others won’t love what we love,” said Fr. Clark.
But, that can’t be the end of it.
“The reality is that we have a really good God, and the call to be in relationship with him through particular vocations is a really cool thing, and we just have to share it, we have to invite others to enter into that as well, into that goodness into their vocations,” he said.
“We cannot be afraid,” he stated, “because we offer something so much better than the world offers.”
He said it’s been a treat to hear from people who are already instigating conversations with young people in their families and their parishes in the weeks since the training session.
“It opens great dialogue for that younger person, who actually is sitting there with questions and sitting with something on their heart, and they’re just desiring a space to talk about it,” he said.
These are conversations every Catholic needs to be having, not just the diocesan vocations director.
“We really need everyone to ask themselves, ‘Might I be the one the Holy Spirit is asking about their vocation and about what God is doing in their life?’” he stated.
Surest way to heaven
Fr. Clark emphasized the importance of creating a vocation mindset throughout every aspect of parish life.
“I think ultimately, all of this is about establishing a culture within our dioceses and our parishes and our families and our schools to have young people know who they are and they can proclaim a Gospel that is transformative to a world that is seeking good news,” he said.
“The living out particular vocations is going to flow from that.”
All of this matters because everyone wants to spend eternity with God in heaven.
“We’re not going to be satisfied until we’re in that healthy communion with God, sharing in the wholeness of that with him,” said Fr. Clark.
“And our vocation is our safest and surest and most direct way to get there.”
He said the most powerful thing a parent can do is give their children the freedom to have conversations about what God may be calling them to become.
“Every parent wants their child to be happy and fulfilled,” he stated. “So let them know that. Have that conversation about the things that are eternal and what fulfillment looks like.”
