Monthly Archives: October 2015

Missionary priest in Georgia honored with Lumen

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CHICAGO  – Father Fredy Angel, a dynamic Colombian-born missionary priest is the recipient of Catholic Extension’s 2015-2016 Lumen Christi Award.
Father Angel has transformed a previously dispersed and struggling Catholic community in rural southern Georgia into a vibrant and growing parish of African American, Caucasian, Latino and Asian American Catholics. These different groups have come together into one family, one “body of Christ” and are setting an example for the larger community. To accommodate and further spur its growth, the recently renamed St. Anthony of Padua Parish, under Father Angel’s leadership, has embarked on the ambitious construction of a large new church outside Ray City in the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia. Scheduled for dedication in March 2016, the new church, much of it being built with volunteer labor, has already instilled new pride among the area’s dedicated Catholics and resulted in a more prominent and visible Catholic presence in an area where they are only a small minority.
Bishop Gregory Hartmayer of Savannah, who nominated Father Angel for the award, said, “Father Fredy was named properly in having been given the family name ‘Angel,’ because he is an ‘angel,’ a messenger of God to the people he serves. He brings them hope, joy and the presence of Christ in the sacraments, so he is truly a light of Christ.”
Bishop Hartmayer was in the gathering of the U.S. bishops Pope Francis addressed on Sept. 23 during his visit to Washington, DC. “Toward the end of the pope’s address,” the bishop remembered, “he spoke to us about both the challenge and the enriching gift of diversity. ‘Do not be afraid to welcome people,’ the pope said. ‘Offer them the warmth of the love of Christ, and you will unlock the mystery of their heart.’ I think that is precisely what Father Fredy has done in bringing together the many diverse people that make up his wonderful parish.”
“Here in southern Georgia, a lot of people have that division,” said parishioner Ana Beltrán. “The Latinos hang out more with the Latinos, and the Anglos with the Anglos, and the African Americans with the African Americans. But once we come through that church door, we are one, we are family, just one Catholic community.”
At Queen of Peace-now St. Anthony of Padua-Father Angel has been the energetic, tireless and enthusiastic shepherd, teacher, motivator and guiding force behind what another parishioner called a “revival” among Catholics there.
“It’s been a ‘revival’ of eight years,” said Chris Chammoun. “We’ve been reviving our spirit and bringing in new people who are excited about coming to church. Father Fredy was really the driving force. Since he’s been leading us on this new journey, we’ve seen a lot of growth. Sunday Mass here is overflowing. People have to sit outside, which can be rough in the 100-degree weather. But people still do it and sweat because they want to be here for Mass.”
The Diocese of Savannah’s Bishop Emeritus Kevin Boland has called the community’s transformation a “miracle in the South.” He said, “The reason why the Church there is able to accomplish this-with the help of Catholic Extension and others – is the vibrancy of the faith of the Catholic people.”
Father Angel is a missionary pastor in the Pope Francis mold, a charismatic and compassionate shepherd who, in the pope’s memorable expression, is “living with the smell of his sheep.” At 41 years young, he is the second youngest of the so-far 38 recipients of the Lumen Christi Award and the youngest priest recipient.
The Diocese of Jackson had two connections to the award process this year. The Redemptorist community serving in the Delta represented this diocese as a nominee. While the Guadalupan Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit serving in Birmingham, Ala., do not serve here, several members of their community do so they had lots of support during the nomination and voting process.

Family teaches beauty of keeping promises

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By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Bring honor back to keeping one’s promises, which must be made in full freedom and kept by making sacrifices, Pope Francis said.
The beauty of love and promises is that they are carried out in freedom, he said during his weekly general audience Oct. 21 in St. Peter’s Square. “Without freedom there can be no friendship, without freedom there is no love, without freedom there is no marriage.”
The pope also prayed for the intercession of “the pope of the family,” St. John Paul II, whose optional memorial is Oct. 22. He asked that the Synod of Bishops on the family “renew in the whole church the meaning of the indisputable value of the indissoluble marriage and healthy families, based on the mutual love between a man and woman and divine grace.”
The pope dedicated his catechesis to the promise of love and fidelity made between a husband and wife.
“The identity of the family is founded on promise,” he said, which can be seen in the loving care families provide one another in sickness and in health, and by accepting each other’s limitations and helping each other realize their full potential.
It is a promise of love that must not stay holed up in the home, but must expand to embrace one’s extended family, the community and the whole human family, the pope said.
Unfortunately, he said, honoring one’s promises has lost its standing. That is because, on the one hand, “a misunderstood right to pursue one’s own pleasure at all costs and in any relationship is exalted as a non-negotiable principle of freedom,” he said.
On the other hand, people “exclusively entrust the bonds of life’s relationships and the commitment to the common good to the requirements of law,” he said. But in reality, he said, nobody wants to be loved because of selfish reasons or out of compulsion.
“Love, just like friendship, owe their strength and beauty to this fact: that they generate a bond without removing freedom.”
“Freedom and fidelity are not opposed to each other, rather, they support each other” as people grow in the “free obedience to one’s word,” he said.
There is no better place than marriage and the family to teach the beauty and strength of keeping promises. “If we look at its audacious beauty, we are intimidated, but if we scorn its courageous tenacity, we are lost,” the pope said.
But this “masterpiece” and “miracle” of being true to one’s word must be an honest desire rooted in one’s very heart and soul – because promises “cannot be bought and sold, they cannot be coerced with force but nor can they be safeguarded without sacrifice,” he said.
“It’s necessary to bring social honor back to the fidelity of love,” he said, as well as bring to light the hidden miracles of millions of men and women who are building and rebuilding their families and promises every day.
St. Paul says the love which grounds the family points to the bond of love between Christ and the church, the pope said. That means, he said, that the church itself can find in the family “a blessing to safeguard” and always something to learn – even before it tries to teach or apply church discipline to it.
“Love for the human family, for better or for worse, is a point of honor for the church,” he said.
The pope asked that God bless the work of the Synod of Bishops that has gathered to discuss, “with creative fidelity,” the vocation and mission of the family.
He asked for prayers that the church would “uphold and strengthen the promise of the family” with an “unfailing trust in that faithful love by which the Lord fulfills his every promise.”
(Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)

Healthy ego displaces narcissism

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IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
The Buddhists have a little axiom that explains more about ourselves than we would like. They say that you can understand most of what’s wrong in the world and inside yourself by looking at a group-photo. Invariably you will look first at how you turned out before looking at whether or not this is a good photo of the group. Basically, we assess the quality of things on the basis of how we are doing.
Rene Descartes must be smiling. He began his philosophical search with the question: What’s the one thing that’s indubitable? What’s the one thing, for sure, of which we can be certain. His answer, his famous dictum: I think, therefore I am!
Ultimately what’s most real to us is our own consciousness. And it’s so obsessively real that, until we can find a maturity beyond our natural instincts, it locks us inside a certain prison. What prison? Psychologists call it narcissism, an excessive self-preoccupation that keeps us fixated on ourselves and on our own private headaches and idiosyncratic heartaches.  Like the Buddhist commentary on the group-photo, we worry little about how others are doing; our focus is first of all upon ourselves.
And this condition is not a childish thing that can be brushed off by glibly affirming that we have grown-up, are beyond ego, and are unselfish. Ego and its child, narcissism, do not go away simply because we consider ourselves mature and spiritual.
They’re incurable because they’re an innate part of our make-up. Moreover, they’re not meant to go away, nor are they, in themselves, a moral defect. Our ego is the center of our conscious personality, part of our core make-up, and each of us needs a strong ego to remain glued-together, sane, healthily self-protective, and able to give of oneself to others.
But it usually comes as a shock to people when someone suggests that great people, spiritual people, have strong egos. For example, Francis of Assisi, Theresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and Mother Teresa, for all their humility, had strong egos, namely, they had a clear sense of their own identity, their own giftedness and their own importance. However, in each case, they also had the strong concomitant sense that their persons and gifts did not originate with themselves and were not meant for them.
Rather, like Israel’s sense of itself as chosen people, they were clear that the source of their giftedness was God and that their gifts were intended not for themselves but for others. And, in that, lies the difference between being having a strong ego and being an egoist.
An egoist has a strong ego and is gifted, but he understands himself as both the creator and objective of that gift. Conversely, great persons have strong egos but are always aware that their giftedness does not come from them but is something flowing through them as a gift for others.
The goal in maturing then is not to kill the ego but rather to have a healthy ego, one that is integrated into a larger self that precisely is concerned with the group-photo. But coming to that maturity is a struggle that will leave us, too often, in either inflation (too full of ourselves and too unaware of God) or in depression (too empty of our own value and too unaware of God).
Maturity and sanctity do not lie in killing or denigrating the ego, as is sometimes expressed in well-meaning, though misguided, spiritualities, as if human nature was evil. Ego is integral and critical to our natural make-up, part of our instinctual DNA. We need a healthy ego to be and remain healthy. So the intent is never to kill or denigrate the ego, but rather to give it its proper, mature role, that is, to keep us sane, in touch with our gifts, and in touch with both the source and intent of those gifts.
But this can only be achieved paradoxically: Jesus tells us that we can find life only by losing our lives. A famous prayer attributed to Francis of Assisi gives this its classic, popular expression:  O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek: to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying to self that we are born to eternal life. Only by denying our ego can we have a healthy ego.
Finally, some wisdom about ego from the Taoist master, Chuang Tzu: If you are crossing a river in small boat, he says, and another boat runs into you, you will be angry if there is someone steering that runaway boat; but you will not experience that same anger if the boat is empty. Why no anger then? Chuang Tzu’s answer: A person who has let go of his or her ego “leaves no trace.”  Such a person does not trigger anger in others.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser, theologian, teacher and award-winning author, is President of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX.)

Silver rose travels across diocese with Knights

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PEARL – The Knights of Columbus in the Diocese of Jackson again hosted the Silver Rose for the month of September. The silver rose is a pro-life program sponsored by the Knights honoring our Lady of Guadalupe.
Knights in parishes across the diocese host rosaries and prayer services using the rose as a focal point. The rose made stops at numerous schools and parishes including Madison St. Joseph and St. Anthony as well as Jackson St. Richard schools, Pearl St. Jude and Madison St. Francis parishes.
The program started many years ago with one rose that traveled from Canada to Mexico.
In 2015, six roses have been making different journeys, most starting in Canada and making winding trips across many states where Knights’ councils host similar prayer services and rosaries.
The one that stops here starts its run in Manitoba, moving south through the central United States and along the Mississippi before turning to Texas.
The program ends on Dec. 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when all the roses are presented in the Basilica of our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.

In memoriam: Sister Manette, nurse, gardener, friend dies

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Sister Manette Durand, CSJ, born on March 2, 1937, and named Dorothy Jeanette Durand, died Oct. 11. She began her lifelong ministry in healthcare, serving in North Dakota and Minneapolis. Feeling a draw to serve in areas where there are fewer medical resources, she accepted a scholarship from the Edmundite Home Missions to study for an master’s of science in nursing at the University of Alabama. She also obtained certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner in exchange for her agreement to work in their mission in Selma, Ala, for five years.
When she finished her service with the Edmundites, she responded to the request to reopen a clinic in Jonestown, Miss. She said, “I heard Jonestown needed a nurse practitioner and I arranged for an interview.
When I drove up to the clinic building, I saw that the windows were boarded up and that poison ivy and raspberry vines covered the walls and doors. The mayor and some of the townspeople, waiting for me in front of the building, interviewed me on the steps.
Everyone kept saying, ‘Come! You can do it! We need you!’ They promised to take the boards off the windows and clean the place. I promised I would come back if I could find others to help me run the clinic…” This story was the beginning of a deep and heartfelt love between Manette and the people of the Mississippi Delta that continued for 30 years.
When the Jonestown Health Clinic closed in 2005, Sister Durand worked in Cleveland with the chemically dependent, and in 2007 came to work with Doctors Wells and Mangren at the Children’s Clinic of Clarksdale.
Nursing gave her an avenue for relationship, caring and healing. She said, “I don’t like the ‘saving of souls.’ My job is to help save bodies so that the souls can come alive because when bodies fall apart it is hard to pay attention to what the soul is telling you.” She found people in the rural areas of Alabama and Mississippi who may never have seen a doctor and who lacked the money or resources to address their physical pain and suffering. After she had a few minutes to visit with them and hear their stories, they trusted her to care for them and help them to heal.
Another avenue of relationship came through Manette’s gardens. She engaged people in working with her in the various gardens she tended and of course, shared the produce and flowers.
Sister Durand  never stopped caring for people, whether at the Children’s Clinic, the Clarksdale Care Station, delivering bread, or sharing her garden vegetables. On Aug. 19, 2015, she received a diagnosis of advanced thyroid cancer, a very rare type that was fast-growing and aggressive. Deciding to return to St. Paul was difficult for her.
She wanted to stay in her beloved Clarksdale/Jonestown area in Mississippi and struggled with her desire to live as simply as the people she served. She said, “Why would I go somewhere else for treatment when these are the doctors and services my patients have?”
On September 3, before she left, the students at Clarksdale St. Elizabeth School presented her with a scrapbook and thanked her for service.
One evening toward the end of her life, Sister Durand was sitting with friends at Carondelet Village who were getting ready to play her favorite game, Rummikub with her.
A nursing assistant came into the room to help her prepare for bed. Regardless of her friends shuffling of the Rummikubes and wanting to start the game, Manette stopped everything to embrace the aide and say “Tell me your story first.” Within moments, the aide was sharing her story while she listened intently and asked occasional questions oblivious of everyone else in the room.
Though she was “still holding out for a miracle” so she could go back to Mississippi, Sister Durand was gradually losing her voice and strength. Breathing was challenging and in the early morning of Sunday, October 11th, she drew her last breath — only seven weeks after her cancer diagnosis.
To honor Sister Manette with a gift, see below.

Seminary posts record enrollment numbers

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By James Shields
Saint Joseph Seminary College, located near Covington, La., welcomed a record 137 students this year for the Fall 2015 semester, an 83 percent increase from just five years ago, when 75 seminarians enrolled. Seminarians for the Diocese of Jackson study at St. Ben’s, as it is commonly known, before they complete their formation and graduate studies at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans.
Saint Joseph Seminary College is a community of faith and learning in the liberal arts rooted in the Benedictine tradition that promotes the development of the whole person. The formation program fosters the commitment of seminarians to the Roman Catholic priesthood in accordance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops› Program of Priestly Formation.
The Seminary College also supports preparation for service in lay ministries and makes available its educational and other resources to the local community.
Father Gregory Boquet, OSB, president and rector of the seminary college, credits not only the presence of the Benedictine community to the growing student body over the years, but also the reputation of the baccalaureate and pre-theology programs.
“Our seminarians not only have the opportunity to live, learn and grow spiritually alongside the Benedictine community, who have made this their home since 1889, but also benefit from a stellar group of faculty and staff who are dedicated to making sure students achieve their full potential,” Boquet said.
“We realize the decision to attend Saint Joseph Seminary is a defining moment for students and strive to make sure everybody is on the right path. This sentiment goes a long way with our students and is a big part of the reason so many young men decide to pursue their education here,” Boquet added.
One of those young men who didn’t take the decision to attend Saint Joseph lightly is Luke Mayeux, a second year seminarian from Orange, Texas. Mayeux believes that the enrollment has increased so much within the last few years because of the growing awareness of the need for priests that young men are witnessing today.
“I truly believe that most guys have a genuine desire to do something with their lives that is greater than themselves. The priesthood is just that,” Mayeux added.
In addition to Mayeux, students this year are representing 20 archdioceses and dioceses from across the Gulf South region, including: Atlanta, Ga.; Galveston-Houston, Texas; Mobile Ala,; New Orleans; Alexandria, La.; Austin, Texas; Baton Rouge, La; Beaumont, Texas; Biloxi, Miss,; Corpus Christi, Texas; Dallas, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Houma-Thibodaux, La.; Jackson, Miss.; Lafayette, La.; Lake Charles, La.; Memphis, Tenn.; Shreveport, La.; St. Augustine, Fla.; and Victoria, Texas.
Joseph Hastings, a senior from Memphis, Tenn., thinks word of mouth plays a large role in the decision for students across the South to visit campus and eventually make it their second home for four years.
“Another cause for the increase is the example that Pope Francis is setting for the world. He not only preaches the Gospel, but he goes out and lives it; by encountering people in the streets. He’s an example of what a true shepherd is called to be, a man of prayer and action, and this example is attractive to men everywhere,” Hastings said.
(James Shields is the manager of Communications for Saint Joseph Abbey + Seminary College in Saint Benedict, Louisiana.)

Education Endowment donations needed to earn matching Extension grant

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Each fall the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors gathers. This year, Archbishop Joseph Lucas of Omaha reflected on the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation ‘I Shall Give You Shepherds.’ This exhortation followed the 1990 synod of bishops reflecting on priestly formation. Pope Saint John Paul wrote, “Pastoral work for vocations needs especially today, to be taken up with a new vigor and more decisive commitment by all the members of the Church…[It] is an essential part of the overall pastoral work of each church.”
Archbishop Lucas explained, “The church is a community of those being called.” He continued that all have been impacted by the sexual revolution, the consumer culture, and relativism. The church must have priests, and God is calling young men. They are imperfect, but they can grow.
The Diocese of Jackson has 12 seminarians currently in formation, an expensive prospect for any diocese. The faithful can help by donating to the Seminarian Education Endowment, and now their gifts can go even farther, thanks to Catholic Extension Service’s Seminarian Endowment Challenge.
Extension will give $500 for every new $1,000 donation to the endowment, but the diocese has to get $75,000 in donations by the end of the year to earn the match.  Groups of people can donate, but the donation must be a new one, not a renewal from last year and it cannot come from an organization such as the Knights of Columbus.
It costs between $32,700 and $40,650 to educate a seminarian for a year depending on whether he is going to St. Joseph Abbey or Notre Dame Seminary, both in Louisiana. The men pay for part of their education, but the diocese also pays. Being able to build up the endowment is critical to help these men complete their discernment and formation as well as being a catalyst for local vocations.
All donations should be payable to the Catholic Diocese of Jackson and earmarked for the Seminarian Endowment Challenge. Send them to 237 East Amite Street, Jackson, MS 39201. For more information contact Father Matthew Simmons at 601-960-8484 or matthew.simmons@jacksondiocese.org or Aad de lange 601-960-8459 or aad.delange@jacksondiocese.org.

Former pastor, Sister earn leadership positions

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Two consecrated individuals who have served in the Diocese of Jackson have been elected to national leadership positions in their orders. Sister Maureen Delaney, SNJM, and Father Michael Barth, ST, will act as provincial and superior general respectively.
Sister Delaney is one of five sisters who will become the new Province Leadership Team for the Sisters of the Holy Names U.S.-Ontario Province beginning in January 2016. Joining Sister Delaney (who will serve as Provincial) are Mary Breiling, Guadalupe Guajardo, Margaret Kennedy and Mary Rita Rohde.
The Leadership Team serves a five-year term, leading a religious community that includes 17 Mission Centres across the United States and Ontario, Canada. Sister Delaney, who is the founder and executive director of the Tutwiler Community Education Center, has been developing education, recreation and enrichment programs and activities for children, teens and adults in a poor rural area of Mississippi for the past 28 years. She announced earlier this year that she will retire from that position. The center is currently in the midst of a search for a new director.
The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (SNJM) is an international congregation of Catholic Sisters, associates and lay consecrated who are dedicated to the full development of the human person through education, social justice, contemplation and the arts. Holy Names Sisters work to heal and repair the world by engaging in education, arts and culture, social service, advocacy, social justice and systemic change.
Father Michael Barth, ST, has been elected Superior General of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity (Trinity Missions). Father Barth served for many years as the pastor of Camden Sacred Heart Parish in the Diocese of Jackson. His election came at his religious congregation’s fifteenth General Chapter, held in Fort Mitchell, Alabama. Father Barth, ordained in 1979 and 63 years old, is a native of Berwick, Pennsylvania. In his first four-year term, Father Mike will be assisted by Rev. Jesús Ramírez, ST, of Guadalajara, México, who was elected his congregation’s Vicar General.
Among other actions taken by the General Chapter was a statement urging the passage of a comprehensive and humane immigration reform bill in the United States. In reference to statements made by the bishops of the United States, the document calls upon federal and state governments to recognize both the moral and human rights of people to migrate for political, economic, and religious reasons.
“We ask others, including religious and political leaders to join us in working together to bring about justice for our immigrant brothers and sisters,” Father Barth said.
The Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity are a religious congregation founded in Holy Trinity, Alabama, in 1929, by Rev. Thomas Judge.
Sacred Heart Parish in Camden and Holy Rosary Indian Mission in Tucker, are two of 30 Trinity Missions found in 11 dioceses in the United States and Puerto Rico, and eight dioceses in México, Colombia, and Costa Rica.

Vocation Awareness Week offers opportunity to support those discerning

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WASHINGTON—The Catholic Church in the United States will celebrate National Vocation Awareness Week, November 1-7. This observance, sponsored by the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations, is a special time for parishes in the U.S. to foster a culture of vocations for the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life.
Pope Francis, in his message of April 26, on the 52nd Day of World Prayer for Vocations states; “Responding to God’s call means allowing Him to help us leave ourselves and our false security behind, and to strike out on the path which leads to Jesus Christ, the origin and destiny of our life and our happiness.” The Holy Father stresses, “The Christian vocation, rooted in the contemplation of the Father’s heart, thus inspires us to solidarity in bringing liberation to our brothers and sisters, especially the poorest.”
National Vocations Awareness Week is designed to help promote vocation awareness and to encourage young people to ask the question: “To what vocation in life is God calling me?” Parish and school communities across the nation are asked to include, during the first week in November, prayer and special activities that focus on vocation awareness.
“The epistolary readings at Sunday Mass recently have been from the Letter to the Hebrews, expounding on the priesthood of Jesus Christ. Priests are beset by weaknesses and so need the prayers of the faithful. That the faithful pray for priests is humbling to the priest but certainly a blessing,” said Father Matthew Simmons, vocations director for the Diocese of Jackson. “Please pray for priests and seminarians that they be conformed to the likeness of Christ the Shepherd. Also, actively encourage those men whom you would like to see conformed to the likeness of Christ for service in the Diocese,” added Father Matthew.
“Encouraging others to recognize the promptings of the Holy Spirit and to follow Christ without reservations are key elements in supporting a culture of vocations,” said Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Raleigh, North Carolina, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.
“With God’s grace, we can have a positive impact on others who may be open to considering a vocation to priesthood or religious life, by simply inviting them to think and pray about it. Our enthusiasm and willingness to speak directly to others about vocations just might be the conversation someone need to respond to God’s call.”
A 2012 study, “Consideration of Priesthood and Religious Life Among Never-Married  U.S. Catholics,” conducted by the Georgetown University-based Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), highlighted the role community encouragement plays in the discernment process. Find the full study online: www.usccb.org/beliefs-andteachings/vocations/survey-of-youth-and-young-adults-on-vocations.cfm.
“Over and over again when asked, newly ordained priests and newly professed men and women religious, credit the encouragement of family members, coworkers, friends and clergy, as being a significant factor in their pursuing a vocation.” said Fr. Ralph O’Donnell, USCCB’s executive director of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.
Observance of Vocation Awareness Week began in 1976 when the U.S. bishops designated the 28th Sunday of the year for the celebration. It was later moved to Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January. The Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations moved the observance of National Vocation Awareness Week to November to engage Catholic schools and colleges more effectively in this effort.
More information and resources for National Vocations Awareness Week, including a prayer card, suggested prayers of the faithful and bulletin-ready quotes are available online at www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/vocations/national-vocation-awarenessweek.cfm
(Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news services may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to, such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method in whole or in part, without prior written authority of Catholic News Service.)