By Sallie Bachar
Catholic Herald correspondent
St. Francis Xavier Parish in Merrill kicks off Vocations Awareness Week
MERRILL -- The vocations committee from St. Francis Xavier in Merrill kicked off Vocations Awareness Week a few days early by inviting Corey Mehlos to speak to the sixth, seventh and eighth graders at St. Francis School. Mehlos, an alumnus from the school, is currently a freshman enrolled in the pre-seminary program at the University of Notre Dame. "I explained to the students that I was in the seminary but that vocations are not necessarily to the religious life only," he said.
Betty Ann Tubbin, chairperson of the committee, agreed. "It is important that all vocations are stressed. God gives us this vocation, and we are to live it out the best we can. We want to present the young people with options in all vocations. We think it is so important, not only for priests and religious, but for marriage and the single life. That is really important and a big goal of the committee," said Tubbin.
The vocations committee, a diverse group which includes several adult lay persons, two nuns and two high school students, has accomplished much in its first year. Beginning this past Advent, a prayer for vocations was added to the Sunday liturgy and specific intentions included in the offertory petitions. Each member has also committed to writing letters to the seminarians in the diocese to encourage them and let them know they are praying for them. This will be an ongoing effort until ordination, explained Tubbin, and the group hopes to get the school children involved also so that these young men will know even the children are praying for them.
"I feel there is such a great need for priests and sisters," said one committee member, "but people also need to know that the single and married life are vocations also. We look at the whole picture."
To celebrate Vocations Week parishwide, the committee also invited Sr. Marla Lang, FSPA, from Marywood Spirituality Center in Arbor Vitae, to speak at all the weekend liturgies which celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord. Lang began her talk by explaining that Jesus was ready to accept his father's call and anointing at his baptism because he had been prepared through years of living with and observing his mother and St. Joseph live out their vocations. He stood on the shoulders of those holy ancestors before him who answered God's call, she said. She challenged parents, grandparents and godparents to ask their children occasionally if they ever thought about a religious vocation. Those questions from her own family, she said, enabled her to open her heart to hear God's call.
She encouraged the congregation to take time away from the busy world and retreat into silence that God's voice may be heard in their hearts and concluded with the thought that where the needs of the church, the community or the world meet with one's particular gifts, that is where one's vocation lies.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2005