Vocations, vocations, vocations. Whew.
It’s certainly rare – but not nonexistent! – to hear of a diocese or a religious community where vocations to priesthood and religious life are abundant. There’s a myriad of reasons for this, accurate or overstated, to varying extents. If I had to put it concisely, I’d say we still generally take for granted that people who are baptized Catholic as infants and the families raising them will belong to a parish and participate in that community by Mass attendance and/or more. As a result, we struggle even to sustain the amount of parishes and ministries we have, let alone cultivate vocational awareness and discernment of one’s invitations from God.
In my time as a pastoral minister, and in four years and counting specifically focused on vocations ministry, I’d say there are two extremes too often envisioned or practiced. On the one hand, an old guard remembers a time when novitiates and pre-seminaries had ten new candidates each year with little more effort than prayer and invitation (often “invitold” invitations, at that), and assumes modern vocations will spring forth simply from private prayer and devotions, just “from God.” On the other hand, some folks imagine a very overt, recruitment mindset that is almost head-hunting faithful teens and young adults and trying to track them toward theological studies and religious formation.
In reality, an effective vocations ministry in the 2020s and beyond, one that will speak effectively to GenZ and subsequent generations, has to embrace some evolving norms. Here’s a few that I think are integral:
1. You have to present vocations with universal call language.
Start with baptism.
Identify the theologically central belief that we are all called to holiness.
Remind all the baptized faithful that they are all called to holiness, all called to embrace their nature as God’s beloved children, and all called to respond in loving service to others and God.
This needs to be something that all Christians understand at their spiritual cores.
2. Focus on states of life, vocational awareness, and a culture of discernment.
When speaking to youth and young adults, always acknowledge the full validity and complete fulfillment possible in living as a single person, married person, priest, or professed religious. We have to establish a new paradigm that sees vocation as one’s response to the gifts, passions, and talents that God gave each of us in creating us in love.
From there, we need the witness of people from each state of life to bring color and depth to their lived experience. And this must include religious men and women and priests and deacons. In this full palette of life, young people can see all paths possible and consider them each in good faith.
A major part of this is putting religious women and men and priests and deacons before young people to give witness. And when these religious and ordained people speak to youth, they need to state this spiritual truth: God is inviting young women to religious life, and God is inviting young men to religious and ordained life. And then ask them the question, not necessarily in a personal one-on-one way but at least to the young people as a group: could God be inviting you to religious life or priesthood? The seed needs to be planted intentionally.
3. Commit to accompaniment.
I always liked being a campus minister at a school rather than a pastoral minister at a parish. I liked the “captive audience,” knowing I had my students eight hours a day, five days a week, for the better part of nine months. It enabled me to focus on getting to know them, connecting their gifts and passions with ministry and service opportunities, and seeking to form them to be people of committed and lively faith. I know I would struggle immensely in a parish, where, at best, people come for Mass and maybe one youth event a week or month (or year!), and you’re often trying to build communities from scratch.
Now, with Catholic school enrollments often decreasing and parish populations, attendance, and Mass counts often decreasing, the opportunities to help young people discern and live out a vocation will come less from traditional avenues. We cannot rely on religious ed programs, Catholic high schools, and parish youth groups as strongly as we may have in past times. There needs to be more emphasis on tracking young people as they move on to college, trades, the military, and next steps, communicating by texts, social media direct messaging, calls and videochats, and perhaps videoconferencing or hybrid events (inasmuch as is possible and can be done according to safe environment standards as relates to minors and appropriate relationships between adults).
Vocations still do sometimes come through undergraduate years with young women and men entering formation out of college. But there needs to be more openness and attention to the mid-to-late 20s, 30s, and even 40s, as people live out different faith journeys and progressions, as people mature at different (often delayed) rates, and as people perhaps consider religious life and priesthood more seriously only at later points.
This is a trickier prospect since adults at these ages are only in familiar ecosystems at lower, less reliable rates and we may need to go and meet and engage them anew. We need to honor the differences between these older adults and teens/undergrads and invite their lived experience as independent adults, as professionals, and even as seekers and strugglers. And all of this newer ground has to be seen as potentially fertile for discernment and religious life/priesthood vocations.
* * *
In Chapter 4, Adam lets on, bit by bit, that he may be considering religious life, even just as a teen and new college student. Yet, for his apparent maturity and earlier sharing, it doesn’t mean his discernment will be direct, decisive, and final. As he invites his priest, his friends, and his parents into the circle of trust, there will be bumps in the road, mixed reactions, and a young man who is still growing and learning amid it all. For all the joy of his grace-filled discernment, there is a lot happening and a lot yet to come!
As religious communities and dioceses navigate new and changing norms, the ideals I’ve described here may not even be ideal in just a few years or so. But just as individuals need a growth mindset to be able to understand new things and adapt in positive ways, so, too, do institutions and leadership groups. Our vocation directors and ministers need to keep trying to understand generational trends and changes and do their best to be where young people are. If we can do this faithfully, I believe we will have the vocations we need to sustain the Church, and if that’s a lower number than we’re accustomed to having, then I believe the Holy Spirit can help us toward the evolutions needed to keep fueling our Church’s fire.
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