Sowing seeds for vocations

By Blanca Morales - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | The fourth annual Focus 11 Vocation Rally did not meet the expectations of sixth-graders in the archdiocese’s parochial schools.

It exceeded them.

Students who gathered to hear about religious vocations did not know they were going to listen to a rap song performed by seminarian Alvaro Vega, complete with a music video and religious sisters as background singers.

Neither did the students know that the day would be spent singing songs and hearing the personal stories of religious sisters and priests.

“I expected a lot of lectures,” said St. Thomas the Apostle student Stephanie Baldor.

Olga Rodriguez of St. Agatha School had similar expectations. “I thought it would be like an assembly with just talking. It’s better than I thought. ”

She said she particularly enjoyed the “warm up” led by Sister María José Socias, of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Sister María José led the students in a session of praise by singing popular Christian songs.

“It was more fun than I imagined it would be,” said Sophie Werner of St. Thomas the Apostle. “I thought they were going to tell us why we should be nuns or priests.”

Instead, the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a Carmelite Sister of the Sacred Heart and a Daughter of St. Paul, along with seminarians and priests, spoke about the moment they were called to live religious life.

Father David Zirilli, the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Miami, explained what a vocation is: a calling from God heard in the heart. It’s a path God has asked you to walk, and a work God has given you to do.

“What we’re doing is sowing seeds,” he said. “We’re inviting them to ask questions.”

The Focus 11 Vocation Rally seeks to introduce approximately 2,100 archdiocesan sixth graders to the call to religious life. Three rallies were held this year:  two at St. Agatha for sixth-graders in southern and northern Miami-Dade parochial schools, and another at St. Gregory in Plantation for parochial schools in Broward County.

At age 11, many children begin to consider their future more seriously, and the archdiocese seeks to create awareness of the possibility of living a consecrated life.

Despite differences in the type of ministry they carry out, all religious make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They experience another common denominator, according to Sister María José: Joy.

“We experience joy beyond what we could understand. We are fulfilled,” she said.

Carmelite Sister Maria Kolbe may be a teacher at St. Theresa School in Coral Gables but she does not consider her job to be her vocation. “Teaching is what I do, not what I am. Who I am is to belong solely to Christ.”

Archbishop Thomas Wenski also made an appearance at the rally to tell the students about living their faith authentically. He told his parable of the three red beans. One bean, afraid of being different, decided to hide himself; the other bean changed his appearance; the third bean noticed the garden around him lacked the color red, and decided to contribute his special trait to the world.

“We’re all called to make a difference, to make the world a better place,” the archbishop said.

His story stayed with many of them as they ate lunch, chewing over the call to be like the third bean.

“What he said is true,” said 12-year-old Adrianna Albelo. “It got me to think what kind of Catholics we are.”

Students burst into giggles when Father Zirilli told them he was going to separate the goats from the sheep — that is, the boys from the girls — for a question and answer session.

Boys from St. Thomas the Apostle already knew what they wanted to ask: What’s the training for priesthood like? What is the experience of a seminarian? Is it challenging?

They were not shy in asking questions about consecrated life, said Alex Rivera, an archdiocesan seminarian who is serving out his pastoral year at St. Thomas the Apostle.

“When they hear I began thinking about priesthood in middle school, they stare in awe,” said Rivera, who decided to enter the seminary after college instead of pursuing a medical degree.

Girls lined up around the parish hall to ask the religious women any question that was on their mind: What was in your heart when you knew your call? Why do you wear those “things” on your heads? How do you ask God what you should do?

The panel was composed of Sister Kolbe, Sister Susan Miriam of the Daughters of St. Paul, and young postulants and candidates for the Servants of the Pierced Hearts.

“You may not always know the answers right away, but keep asking God,” said Brittany Samuelson, who has been with the Servants for five months as a candidate. “He’ll tell you when you’re ready.”

Sister Kolbe wanted to assure students that those in consecrated vocations were not born saints.

“I was a brat,” she said. She would snatch cans of condensed milk and eat them in the closet where her mother wouldn’t see. She even poured “Wite-Out” correction fluid on the seat of an annoying boy in school so that his new jeans would be ruined.

“That’s how I was, but God can take brattiness and convert it,” she said.

She noted that she began to feel the call to religious life after high school, when she felt God asking her, “Are you going say no to me?” And she found that she couldn’t.

“You’re old enough to start thinking about what you want to do in your life,” Archbishop Wenski told the youngsters. “But the question we want you to ask is, ‘What does God want me to be? What does He want me to do with my life?’”

The vocation rally concluded with the “Most Special Guest of All”: Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. During adoration, Father Zirilli told the students to pray about their vocations and ask Jesus, “What do you want for me?”