Pray for the Holy Father
Serra Club Essay Winners from Sts. Joan of Arc and Patrick School. Also pictured: Serra Club President Todd Richey, Serra Club Vice President of Vocations Linda Flodder, STSJP Principal Nick Kanable and Fr. David Huemmer
St. Patrick Parish Serra Club Essay Winner Clare Mula. Also pictured: Serra Club Vice President of Vocations Linda Flodder, SRE Coordinator Lisa Sipes, Fr. David Huemmer, Fr. Tony Rowland, Fr. Ted Dudzinski and Fr. Joshua Bennett
From the Catholic Moment – January 9th, 2011 ( http://www.thecatholicmoment.org/articles/January/010911b.html ) “The Serra Club is a 75-year-old organization devoted to the promotion of vocations to the priesthood and vowed religious life. The Lafayette diocese has three Serra Clubs: in Lafayette, Kokomo and the Carmel Deanery. Other organizations, including the Knights of Columbus, promote vocations, too, but not as single-mindedly as the Serra Club. Pope John Paul II designated Serra as the lay vocation arm of the Church. “We are only dedicated to vocations. We don’t collect for children’s homes or do drives opposing abortion. We concentrate on one thing. We concentrate our efforts and prayers for vocations — not just new ones, but for perseverance in the priesthood,” said Tom Hausladen, of Lafayette, a 13-year member.
The Kokomo Serrans help sponsor annual “nun run” convent visits for girls and young women. They also organize a school poster contest. With the help of Father David Hasser, they developed a “traveling chalice” program in which classes at Sts. Joan of Arc and Patrick School compete to host the “Father Serra Chalice” for a month and pray for vocations. “It’s a big honor to win it,” said Jim Harris, a parishioner at St. Patrick Church and president of the 30-member club. The Kokomo Serrans have been recognized nationally for the chalice project, which has been copied in South Bend Catholic schools. The club gives each local seminarian or prospective woman religious a yearly stipend of several hundred dollars, but Harris said the biggest gift for them is prayer. “We have a pretty good presence here in Kokomo. There are the two churches, and about everybody knows everybody else,” Harris said. “There is an awareness of Serra, and the priests have been very good about saying the Serran Prayer for Vocations at Mass almost every Sunday. It’s posted in our song books in the pews.” Other activities include:
- Attend Sunday Mass once a month as a group (alternates monthly between St. Patrick and St. Joan of Arc)
- Meets the first Tuesday of the month. Meetings usually include speaker and refreshments
- Send birthday greetings to diocesan seminarians, permanent diaconate candidates and religious at Sisters of St. Joseph in Tipton
- Host annual Religious Appreciation Dinner at St. Joseph Hospital
- Hold annual Serra Poster and Essay Contests for students at Sts. Joan of Arc and Patrick School and Sunday Religious Education Students of St. Joan of Arc and St. Patrick parishes
- Pray, Pray, Pray for our clergy, religious and those discerning a vocation.
From CNS (February 10, 2011) Church must offer more encouragement, support for vocations, pope says
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Catholics must be more courageous in highlighting and fostering vocations, Pope Benedict XVI said. “Every Christian community, every member of the church needs consciously to feel responsibility for promoting vocations,” especially in an era when God’s voice “seems to be drowned out by ‘other voices’ and his invitation to follow him by the gift of one’s own life may seem too difficult,” he said in his message for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Those who experience a clear call to priestly or consecrated life need encouragement, support and the possibility of feeling “the warmth of the whole community as they respond ‘yes’ to God and the church,” he said. The papal message for the day of prayer, which will be observed May 15, was released Feb. 10 at the Vatican. The 2011 theme is “Proposing Vocations in the Local Church.” In his message, Pope Benedict said proposing vocations on the local level means “having the courage, through an attentive and suitable concern for vocations, to point out this challenging way of following Christ which, because it is so rich in meaning, is capable of engaging the whole of one’s life.”
Serran Prayer for Vocations:
O God, who wills not the death of a sinner but rather that he be converted and live, grant we beseech you, through the intercession of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin, Saint Joseph, her spouse, Blessed Junipero Serra, and all the saints, an increase of laborers for Your Church, fellow laborers with Christ to spend and consume themselves for souls, through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
