The National Office for Vocation is preparing for Vocations Sunday by inviting hundreds of people to become Vocation Voices. This is a network of people under the age of 35 ready and willing to speak at the end of Mass on the World Day of Prayer for Priesthood and Consecrated Life, 15 May 2011.
The initiative is supported by Diocesan Vocations Directors, but the ‘Vocation Voices’ will not only be seminarians and young religious, but also married and single, all giving witness to their own faith journey and why priests and religious are an important part of that journey. These young people may not necessarily be called to the religious or priestly life themselves, but they will speak about their faith and why the priestly and religious vocations are important to them. All will receive training from the National Office for Vocation.
“To create a culture of vocation, we all need to take to heart Newman’s insight that ‘God has created me to do him some definite service,’” says Director of NOV, Fr Christopher Jamison. “On Vocations Sunday, we need as many people as possible to witness to that in their own lives while at the same time highlighting the wonderful gift of priests and religious to the Church.”
The theme of this year’s Vocations Sunday is Newman’s ‘God has created me to do him some definite service’ and an icon of Blessed John Henry Newman is being made available to every parish in England and Wales as a focal point of prayer for vocation discernment.
The ‘Vocation Voices’ initiative is building on an increase in the number of people joining seminaries and novitiates (houses of formation for religious life) in England and Wales over recent years. The Church invites people to pray specifically for vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life on this year’s Vocations Sunday.
For more information about how to apply to be a Vocation Voice or to recommend somebody else and for the latest statistics for entry to religious life in England and Wales, go to ukvocation.org
ukvocation.org
National Office for Vocation (NOV)
