100 Parish Vocation Projects to try

(From Serra U.S.A.)

Include Vocation Awareness components at each grade level of religious education. Each grade can do a special project - some children might interview clergy/religious and write a report. The reports can be put into resource booklets.
Have a sister speak at Masses on Vocation Sunday and visit the religious education classes to describe vocation and answer questions.
Sponsor a holy hour/Benediction for vocations, especially on Corpus Christi.
Have public citation of the diocesan vocation prayer at Masses on Sunday; e.g. after prayer of intercession; after Communion; after Mass.
Provide Eucharistic adoration on certain days, asking for prayers for vocations.
Send greeting cards to each of the seminarians at the beginning of a new semester, holidays, exam times, closing of a semester, ordination, birthday, holidays, and so forth.
Send spiritual bouquets to the Holy Father, to priests, brothers and sisters or to seminarians on special anniversaries, or have them deposited as spiritual offerings in a basket for that purpose in the church.
Provide group holy hours in church; e.g. youth; parents; senior citizens.
Supply material for bulletin boards - pictures of the seminarians, the pastor or other vocation interest materials ordered from religious orders.
Institute the traveling Crucifix Program, or use the statue of Mary a statue/photo or painting of the Sacred Heart, or of a saint for family prayer in the home. Several churches have three items circulating throughout the parish at a time. Others do this activity two or three months in a year, not continuously, to make it a special event every time.
Handcrafted tote bags for transportation of statues with prayer materials, or for religious vocation literature are a great project for women of the parish. Where the prayer item is not presented ceremonially at Mass or after Mass, bags of vocation literature may be borrowed and returned to a designated place in the church.
Sponsor poster/coloring/essay contests with prizes and exhibition of results. E.g. can be done with Serra, Knights of Columbus, inter-parish, or inter-school.
Older students can present Living Stations of the Cross, organized by the Parish Vocation Committee.
Encourage interviews of pastor, priests, sisters, brothers for the school newspaper or parish bulletin...especially on how they discerned their ‘call.’
Create a parish website with vocation information, or listing of sites where vocational topics can be explored.
Collage created of photos of priests, brothers, and sisters native to the parish.
Seminarian pictures and brief write-ups, photographs changed monthly.
Have the vocation prayer printed on refrigerator magnets and distribute to the parish.
Have Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament by a designated Eucharistic Minister, and reposition when Benediction is not possible. Benediction by a priest or deacon when they are available.
Compile a Resource Book for reference and enrichment. Articles about priests or religious, the breath and depth of their call, lifestyle, and the types of ministry even obituaries, jubilee write-ups...anything that educates is appropriate.
Coordinate regional or cluster vocation awareness afternoons, presenting area priests and religious as role models, speakers.
Insert the diocesan vocation prayer cards in the hymnals or missalettes
Do something creative! One parish hung a priest’s cassock and a sister’s habit in the church for prayer until someone from the parish decided to pursue a vocation. It worked!
Use the VOCATIONized program at one meeting of every parish committee. Names of potential candidates are submitted to the pastor; follow-up by the Parish Vocation Committee, or the pastor as he designates.
Schedule time for Eucharistic Adoration - First Friday, First Saturday, or some other time - to encourage prayer for vocations.
Provide prayer aids...leaflets, prayer cards...for personal prayer for vocations.
Promote the lives of the saints in various ways, e.g. in the bulletin, on the bulletin board, on posters, in a bibliography, have a sale-table for holy cards with depictions and prayers to the saints.
Start a vocation library! Begin by starting a scrapbook of pictures an articles relating to priesthood and religious life. Encourage others to contribute materials.
Sponsor presentations, especially by seminarians - in the classroom, at meetings, or from the pulpit. (Arrange through the Vocation Office!)
Publicize LIVE-IN weekends for high school juniors and seniors; summer overnight retreats for interested teens and for adult men.
Organize a group trip to a seminary or motherhouse and pray for vocations on the way.
Attend the ordination of a diocesan priest. Attend a profession ceremony. Any religious will inform you if you ask
Sponsor a supper for seminarians - one or a few at-a-time, or all together. This is done with a group of high school students or adult men.
Invite a priest to supper to discuss vocations around the family dinner table.
Accept an invitation to accompany a religious sister for a visit of her motherhouse.
Volunteer your services at a fundraiser or festival hosted by a religious community.
Post the pictures from the back of the Knights of Columbus magazines, for perusal by parish youth.
Make tapes or videos available for borrowing and return.
Don’t forget to promote vocations to young people in home schooling situations. Provide materials they can use and involve them in the parish or school projects.
Sponsor a Communion Breakfast with vocation speaker.
Invite interested parishioners to stay a short while after weekend Masses so that a couple of Sisters/Brothers could speak about their Religious Communities. E.g. their foundress/founder; history; charism and ministries.
Provide information for people in parishes who wish to contribute their computer expertise - to establish a website or to provide vocation information available on the Internet - to people interested din pursuing a vocation. Help parishioners’ access vocation information.
Feature seminarians, one-at-a-time, in the parish bulletin or on the bulletin board.
Become involved with the parish youth ministry, and then encourage vocational interest.
Sponsor retreats, days of recollection, suppers, barbeques, or picnics for confirmation classes, with talks on vocations.
Find a way to have young adults hear personal “story of my vocation” talks by priests, brothers, sisters.
Volunteer to help provide school presentations in “road show” of various priests, brothers, and sisters representing several religious communities.
Plan a vocation prayer garden to teach the uniqueness of each vocation, using various shrubs, plants, trees and flowers as symbols - a conversation starter.
Form an Altar Server Society to encourage study of the vocation to priesthood and to encourage personal spirituality.
Periodically, give or send reports to the parish council and the parish-at-large of the activities and goals of parish vocation committees’ monthly projects - for better understanding and participation.
Invite the Director of Vocations to the parish for a weekend, for Masses and homily on vocations.
Invite the Director for Religious Life (or some other sister or brother) to your parish for a vocation presentation. (Every religious community has a vocation director and some have a local contact that could make this presentation.)
Offer babysitting serve so parents can pray for vocations during holy hours.
Ask 31 parishioners to volunteer to pray the Rosary, or attend Mass, etc. on one of the 31 days of the month for vocations, on behalf of your parish and committee. This has been adapted by one parish where parishioners promise to say on decade of thee Rosary each morning, so that 45 15-decade rosaries are continually being said throughout the parish for vocations.
Celebrate feasts of the saints, such as attending Mass on the Feast of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, of Lisieux, the Little Flower, the patroness of missionaries and patroness of many vocations.
Celebrate feasts of the apostles, who were called by the first vocation director, Jesus.
Parish vocation committee members can promise their own daily prayer for an increase of vocations to our diocese. Prayers, works, sufferings and joys also can be offered to God for vocations.
Provide intercessory prayers for vocations for Prayers of the Faithful at Mass, at least for the weekend Masses. Many parishes always have one intention for vocations.
Pray for vocations at the daily Masses when possible.
Provide Bulletin Blurbs to parish bulletin editors (Keep a copy in your resource book. They will be helpful when you need fresh ideas for a project later.)
Celebrate the National Vocation Awareness Week in January, World Day of Prayer for Vocations in April/May, and the Day for Consecrated Life in February by providing the NCCV planning kits, which include homily helps and ideas for parish celebrations. Mission Sunday in October is a great day to highlight the missionary vocations in the Church and in our diocese.
Celebrate the anniversaries of the Pope, the Bishop, the Pastor, the Priests and Religious in the parish, to create a teachable moment for promoting vocation awareness.
Include the top of vocations in World Youth Day activities in October, suggesting the parish ask the Lord of the Harvest to help young people to be generous in giving their lives in service to the Church. Include prayers for those working with the youth of the diocese.
Celebrate All Saints Day with a focus on the saints of our time, the foundresses and founders of religious orders, and all people who give witness to their faith in daily life. Ask them all in prayer to beg the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers to continue their good work on earth.
On All Souls Day, focus attention on prayer for deceased priests and religious, especially those who have served the People of God in our diocese. Publicize the month-by-month necrology for deceased priests (and possibly also religious) for specific prayer intentions. Ask these priests and religious to continue their work on earth.
Print and distribute a prayer calendar of seminarians in the parish a couple of months during the year. By October the men are settled into seminary for the year.
Pray, especially in the fall for new recruits and in the spring for candidates and applicants who are in the process for admission to the seminary for the following year.
Publish a listing of all the seminarians, with names and seminary addresses. Encourage parishioners, parochial schools and religious education classes to send them cards and letters showing support and prayer - without expecting a response from the seminarians, which keeps this activity supportive but not intrusive to the seminarians study time.
Some parishes feature one seminarian’s name and address in the bulletin each week, to keep this activity continuous.
Celebrate the Feast of Christ the King by arranging with the Parish Vocations Committees to bless and commission new altar servers in the parish. Recognize the older servers, thanking them for their dedication and example.
Plan a prayer service using the theme of thanksgiving for Thanksgiving weekend. This is where we pray for all vocations the Lord has sent to our diocese, and from our diocese into the Church throughout the world.
Advent and Lend are excellent times for vocational activities of prayer and fasting.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary Dec. 8 can be a special day to honor our Lady, patroness of our country, and ask her to intercede with her Son for new vocations for our diocese.
Provide National Coalition for Church Vocations (NCCV) resources to your parish religious education program or parish school in plenty of time before Advent for Jan. celebration of National Vocation Awareness Week. Encourage them to use some of the many resources available for grades 1-12.
Develop a Vocation Crucifix Program or Traveling Statue Program. Some parishes have one, two or three crucifixes circulating throughout the parish. The Vocation Crucifix is presented to a family during or after a weekend Mass, in front of the congregation. It is returned in time to be displayed and then presented to another family. The names of parishioners participating in this program are sometimes printed in the parish bulletin and sometimes posted in the vestibules of the church. We suggest the program and let the parish committee work on the details.
Pray a Litany for Vocations.
Pray the Litany of the parish Patrons for Vocations to our Diocese, which includes every title honoring the Trinity, Jesus, Mary and then every parish patron saint, and concludes with a prayer for vocations.
Encourage parents to promote religious vocations at home.
Let children see the example of parents who live a Christian life and who take the Gospel demands seriously and value Church Vocations.
Help children understand, by word and action, that religion is important and that parents build positive attitudes regarding a life of prayer and service to God and humanity.
Read stories to young children (make stories available for children to read) about persons who reached out in service to others. Discuss the stories.
Make a collage with children that illustrates ‘call,’ ‘service,’ ‘healing,’ ‘prophecy,’ and ‘prayer.’ Help the children understand that the work of Christ continues in the world today through people helping people.
Pray at the family table. Spontaneous and personal prayer helps set the scene for prayer around the table of the Lord.
Pray as a family for particular persons involved in priesthood and religious life. This helps children be aware of the esteem with which the Christian family regards vocations to religious life and priesthood.
Instill in children a desire to serve others.
Pray daily as a family, at a time most convenient for ll. Include intentions for those already living a vocation to Church ministry - that they may fulfill their Christian vocation in love and service to God; that those persons faced with a vocational choice consider their own God-given abilities, and decide a vocation in light of God’s Will for them.
Encourage children to become involved in parish projects, organizations, and in charitable activities.
Speak always with respect for priests and religious, even/especially when differences of opinion arise. Be careful of the way criticism of the Church is handled. Be intolerant of humor and innuendo which devalues spirituality, religious life and priesthood.
Invite your parish priest, religious priest, brother or sister to your home - or at least let them know, in the presence of your children, that they are welcome in your home. Encourage them to visit with you and your children.
Be aware of current ideas regarding the formation, life, and role of priests and religious in the Church. Become familiar with their goals and the manner in which their role evolves into new ministries, especially education and social justice.
As a family pray for persons who are in the process of discernment.
As parents, pray the difficult prayer that one of your children will be called by God the priesthood or religious life.
Encourage people 16 - 40 years to age (who exhibit the qualities and virtues you have admired in priests and religious who have been an influence in your life) to consider a religious or priestly called form God. Personal invitation can be the affirmation someone needs to contact a vocation director for further information and discernment.
Promote subscriptions to the diocesan newspaper, which may regularly feature vocation stories/articles. For information contact the Office of Vocation Promotion.
Read VISION Magazine for ideas for your own vocation awareness education. Writ for the free copies and give one to someone you think may have a religious vocation. VISION is the annual publication of the National Religious Vocation Conference (NCCV), which serves vocation directors of religious communities which pay for membership and advertising. VISION is also available on-line at www.visionguide.info.
Write for a copy of A Guide to Religious Ministries, published by the Catholic News Publishing Company, 210 North Avenue, New Rochelle, NY 10801; (924) 632-1220 or (800) 433-7771.
Visit a religious book store and familiarize yourself with what is available in books and tapes and videos on religious topics, lives of the saints, liturgy, and so forth.
Adopt a missionary. Many religious communities have some foreign mission outreach. Ask for a missionary to correspond with, and learn what his/her life is about and then share that with others who could begin to consider life as a missionary.
Adopt a retired priest or brother or sister. They will appreciate the mail you send them, and you can profit from their wisdom. Invite him/her to conversation with one or tow of your prospects - the people you are personally inviting to consider religious life or priesthood.
Recruit a candidate and then, for the rest of your life, celebrate the blessing as you accompany him/her with your prayerful support along his/her way to ordination/profession of vows as a religious.
Please let the Vocation Office know about any creative ideas you develop at (512) 476-4888.

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100 Parish Vocation Projects to try