Dear Brother Priests, Deacons and Subdeacons, Consecrated Men and Women, Lay Faithful,
In January of 2023, I invited some clergy, religious, and married lay people to form an Eparchial Vocations Team to help our Eparchy to intentionally focus efforts on promoting all vocations in the Church.
The vision of the Eparchial Vocations Team is to cultivate, strengthen and encourage vocations to the priesthood, married life, consecrated life, and to the generous single life in our parishes and families, through prayer, resources, accompaniment and retreat opportunities.
The current members include myself, Monsignor Peter Azar, Monsignor James Root, Fr. Joseph Daiif, Fr. Simon El Hajj, Fr. Boutros Hachem, Fr. Dominique Hanna, Fr. Nemtallah Oniessey, Fr. Gary George, Subdeacon Antoine Nammour, Mrs. Maribel Rizk, Mrs. Pascale Tawk and Sister Therese Maria Touma (Secretary).
Since last year, the Vocations Team has been meeting regularly and working diligently to create different resources that we have sent you; a vocation video, a poster for all the parishes promoting vocations; a vocation curriculum for grades K-3, 4-6 & MYO; vocation prayer cards, and an icon of the Holy Family mailed from the Chancery to each parish to encourage individual families to pray for vocations in their own families and parishes.
This year we have the Consecration and Dedication of the Church on November 3rd and 10th. During these two Sunday’s I would like each parish to focus on the call to serve that all of us share.
As a pastor you could help create a culture of vocations in your parish in a variety of ways.
Here are some suggestions:
In your homilies, share the importance of reading Scripture, time for Adoration, Confession ongoing prayer and discernment to help young people to better understand God’s calling, and the four vocations in the Church: priesthood, religious life, married life, and the generous single life.
Read and share the Vocation curriculum (K-3, 4-6 & MYO) with your catechists, families and MYO leaders to help them to understand and teach on the various vocations in their classes.
Share the vocation video created by the Eparchy on your different social media platforms and encourage young people to think about their own calling and gifts. Ask them to take quiet time each day to listen to God and to discern how he might be inviting them to follow and serve him.
Invite clergy, married people and religious to come and visit your parish to share their vocation story with your children, MYO and MYA.
Encourage families to learn more about the different vocations, and invite them to take the icon of the Holy Family home for a week to pray daily for vocations as a family.
Promote the different religious communities in our Eparchy of Saint Maron: the Maronite Monks of Adoration in Petersham MA and the Maronite Servants of Christ the Light in Dartmouth MA. Encourage them to visit and contact them with their questions.
For a possible visit of a priest or religious to your parish to promote vocations, please contact Monsignor James Root of the Vocations Eparchial Team.
Offer a weekly Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament for vocations, along with Confession.
I would be glad to hear from you about any successful strategies and/or feedback that you might have to help promote vocations in our parishes. Let us continue to pray and work for vocations to the holy priesthood, religious life, married life and the generous single life in our Eparchy. Thank you for your care and support as we cultivate this ministry together.
+Gregory