Discernment
Most schools 'have reduced careers advice'
Careers advice has been reduced in more than eight out of 10 schools in England in the past year, research suggests. A survey of professional careers advisers working in 1,500 secondary schools reveals "dramatic reductions" in the amount of professional careers guidance on offer.
Spanish Olympic athlete to enter seminary after London games
Carlos Ballve – known as “Litus” to his friends – plays defense on the Spanish field hockey team that is competing in the London 2012 Olympic Games. But as soon as the competition ends, he will head to a Belgium seminary to begin the process of becoming priest.
Former atheist poet reveals details of her Catholic conversion
“Until two years ago, I was a really committed atheis", she says. A 41-year-old Englishwoman, Sally Read is regarded as a rising star within the world of poetry. Her publisher describes the former psychiatric nurse as “one of a new generation of younger poets shaping the future of British poetry.”
Sally Read: Outfoxed by God
For almost all of her 40 years, a Suffolk-born psychiatric nurse-turned published poet and passionate atheist felt little but contempt for Catholicism. But then, in less than a year, after a springtime epiphany she was received into the Church. This is her journey.
Discernment groups are an excellent idea: they remind us lay people that we have a vocation too.
A serious approach to discernment provides profound recognition of each individual’s worth and dignity. As well as forming new priests and nuns, this initiative will also help to remind lay men and women that each one of them has a specific calling.
Call for Catholic schools to foster vocations
As we promote vocation in schools we will be promoting both the universal call to holiness for all the baptised and also the call to the priesthood or religious life for some; and, as we will see, this means that fostering a culture of vocation lies at the heart of the Catholic school.
“Open Your Hearts in Prayer” – Papal Nuncio Challenge to Young People at Invocation 2011
“Never forget too, that when God calls us by name and asks us to follow him, he offers us true freedom. God asks us, in the face of all that seems wrong in our world, to be positive, to build up his Kingdom and to change the world for the better. There is no place for pessimism here, for his call to each one of us is, in fact, liberation.” the Nuncio said.
‘Today, young Christians face a new reality for which they are unprepared’
Today, young Christians, together with young believers of all faiths, face a new reality for which they are unprepared. Most of their contemporaries will live together first, have children out of wedlock and only later might they think of marrying, if at all. To create a culture of vocation in this context is to show that marriage, celibate priesthood, and religious life are all vocations that demand our whole being and run counter to the prevailing culture.
Help with making decisions.
The young people with whom we work live with their peculiar succession of decisions which mould them in a particular way. And it is not always easy to make the right decisions.
What do we mean by Vocation?
The word vocation means calling and the reality is that all of us have received a call. We have been called by God to be all that God wishes us to be. For some people that may mean becoming a priest or a religious. For others it means being married or being involved in serving the wider community. The reality is that the notion of vocation raises a whole host of issues tied up with our sense of identity.
Daily Word
Mark 9:30-37 "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all."
| Readings | Commentary |
| Liturgy | Calendar |
- The God we believe in, the God we announce
- Fatima, May 13th - all Catholic life is here!
- Educating women is the key to lowering maternal mortality
- Guidelines for the Long Haul - Revisited
- “Instead of us closing parishes and closing schools, we’re doing the opposite. We’re in total growth mode,”
- 2013 Pontifical Yearbook: Permanent diaconate booms in Europe, U.S.
- Same-sex marriages: what do the children think?
- Commentary to The Solemnity of Pentecost
- Final days of Jesus' life to be performed in St Neots
