Blog by Sr. June Fitzgerald, OP[/caption]
By the time you read this blog, Sr. Pat Dual and I will have landed in Rome and will be on our way to Convento Santa Sabina, the Motherhouse of the Dominican Order, where we will stay while attending a Congress on Vocational Discernment at the Vatican.
I am so excited!
I’ve been to Rome once before – as a pilgrim following in the footsteps of Dominic, where we traveled from his place of birth to where he ministered throughout France, Italy and to Rome where he founded the convent in which we will be staying.
Our Pope really stirs things up.
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Santa Sabina[/caption]
Our Pope can really get people moving. Since he was elected he has been creating new ways of being and doing his ministry as the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The meeting we will be attending came about when Francis called a Synod (meeting) of Bishops to focus on “Youth, Faith and Vocational Discernment.” In this meeting, those of us in Vocation Ministry will share our reality, hopes and efforts to invite young people to seriously consider what God’s call is in their lives. The results of our meeting will be shared with the Synod next fall.
He wants to smell like the sheep.
Pope Francis really wants to know what youth and young adults experience in the church, how they desire to be more active in it and how together we can grow our church into the future. He wants to get to know them personally and as a group. Thus, youth and young adults will be gathering in Rome early next spring to share their experiences, hopes and dreams. I can imagine Francis anticipating that meeting with much joy and perhaps he is even saying, “I am so excited.”
We are excited and honored to participate in this program and we will be keeping all those who are discerning God’s call in their lives close in our hearts and prayers this week. We’ll be back soon, so if you’d like to start a conversation about a call to religious life, just drop us a line and we’ll be happy to walk with you on this amazing journey of discernment.