For the last three years, I have received countless invitations to speak at parishes, academies, youth groups, high schools and college Newman clubs on the topic of vocations. It has been, and continues to be, a great joy to meet so many people in this ministry.
I was in the fifth grade at St. Teresa School in Woodside when I first felt an attraction toward the priesthood.
More than 2,000 middle school and high school students from nearly 60 parishes across the diocese spent their Saturday at St. John’s University for Brooklyn Catholic Youth Day. Part day-retreat, part praise and worship concert, the full-day schedule was coordinated by the diocesan School of Evangelization.
Reawakening the Call: A Pastoral Letter from Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio
Nearly 100 members from the diocese’s different parish vocation ministries and Catholic schools were accompanied by clergy for the bilingual Hundredfold Workshop April 14 at the Immaculate Conception Center, Douglaston.
THIS SUNDAY MARKS the 55th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The purpose of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations is to publicly fulfill the Lord’s instruction to “Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest.”
There is no greater joy than accepting the invitation, the challenge even, to love God more each day. He calls me to draw nearer to Him every day in my community as His spouse. This is religious life: an invitation to love.
A vocation is, like all graces, divinely initiated and totally unmerited. But as incarnate beings, vocations come to women and men in particular circumstances.
When I was in the seventh grade at Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Kensington, I told my parish priest, Msgr. Gerry Langelier: “I want to be like you.”
Auxiliary Bishop Raymond F. Chappetto ordained two men as transitional deacons on their way to priestly ordination at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Astoria, March 24.
