Parents, Nurture Vocations
EIGHT CHALLENGES TO FAMILIES
The Pastoral Plan of the Third Continental Congress on Vocations in North America asks challenging questions of families in reference to the encouragement of vocations to the priesthood and or consecrated life.
Parents, how do you respond to these challenges from the American Bishops?
- Am I willing to allow God to act in the inner life of my children, leading them to ordained ministry or consecrated life it is to be His will?
- How does my plan to fulfill the call to holiness include a loving openness to whatever call God has chosen for my children? Does it include encouraging them to investigate the possibility of a call to ordained ministry or consecrated life, as well as marriage or single life?
- In what ways is my family a community with an intense life of faith encouraging a generous response on the part of those called to ordained ministry or consecrated life?
- How am I seeking opportunities to strengthen my understanding of the faith in such a way that I can respond to the young who seek answers?
- The youth and young adults of today are seeking “authentic joyful witnesses” to all vocations in the Church. How do I demonstrate this witness, having received the Sacraments of Baptism and Matrimony and having been blessed as a parent? What more can I do to reorient my life making this joyous witness more obvious?
- How will I discuss the call to ordained ministry or consecrated life with friends and parents who resist their children’s interest in either of these calls from God?
- Do I seek opportunities to participate in programs for youth and young adults in my parish? Do I assist them in identifying the specific call that is theirs?
- What more can I do to create a “Vocation Culture” in my family? In my neighborhood? In my local church?
The fundamental pastoral challenge is that of creating a “Vocation Culture” in the Church in North America: that is, a culture in which each Christian is empowered to identify and respond to the mission to which he or she is called as a member of the body of Christ, in and for the world.
