Fishers of Men

Tonight I'll be meeting with a group of parishioners to reconstitute the Vocations Committee at Holy Redeemer Parish.

In the past the committee has organized a "Vocations Cross" that different parish families volunteer to take home with them after Sunday Mass - and to pray each night that week for the specific intention of vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

After a few months of pretty sparse activity, I'm going to take over and try to give the group new life.  Tonight we'll be adding about seven people - mainly parents from our school - to the original group of four and we'll do some brainstorming about new initiatives we might undertake.

But we'll start the night by watching a twenty minute video called "Fishers of Men."  This DVD was commissioned by the Vocations Committee for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and produced by Grassroots Film Studios in Brooklyn, New York.  You can see a trailer of the movie at the link.  It's simply wonderful and has gotten lots of rave reviews.  The US Bishops have also put together some very nice reflection questions.

My hope is that after showing this to the committee, we can organize several "vocation nights" where we invite young men from the parish and school to come with their parents for pizza in the rectory.  It would be a chance for them to see a little of our life, to watch the video together, and then to have some conversation about it.  I know some of the CSCs out there have done this with great success already.  Hopefully, the same will be true here at Holy Redeemer.