Dear Friends,

Welcome to our Vocation Ministry webpages! If this is your first time visiting us, please click here.

Pentecost
As we celebrate the feast Pentecost, we are reminded of the importance to call upon the Holy Spirit when discerning religious life. The Spirit came to the disciples who were passionate about following Jesus, but yet at the time they were afraid and unsure about their future. Today, women who want to follow Jesus as a religious sister can also have times of searching and questioning. Pray for the Spirit's gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They can give great insight, comfort and peace, as they did for the apostles and all those who seek God's will.

Coming Events

Affiliate Gathering
Our Affiliates will gather this month at St. Mary's Convent in Haddonfield, NJ, where the Candidacy is located. This is one of several times during the year that we bring together our Affiliates from the U.S. and Jamaica. It is a wonderful opportunity for them to get to know each other and our sisters better, to offer support to one another, and to learn more about our ministries.

Retreats
We are planning Come and See Retreats and Days of Discernment for the Fall 2006 and Winter/Spring 2007, which will be posted on the website.

Evenings of Discernment
We are pleased to introduce a new program, Evenings of Discernment, which will be held in several locations in the U.S. Evenings of Discernment is a monthly gathering of women who wish to learn more about a Franciscan Vocation. Some of the themes are:

-- The First Vocation is a Call to Life
-- Christian Vocation and Ministry
-- The Prophetic Vocation
-- The Vocation of Jesus
-- The Vocation of Mary
-- Consecrated Religious Life
-- The Franciscan Family

Please email me at fsavoc@aol.com if you would like to know if there is a gathering in your area, and if you would like to attend.

We are in the process of starting an e-newsletter, an electronic version of our current newsletter Followers of Francis. You will still receive Followers of Francis quarterly, and the e-newsletter monthly. It will be filled with helpful information on discernment, questions for reflection based on the Scriptures and Daily Mass readings, and news about the Allegany Franciscans. If you would like to be added to our mailing list for the e-newsletter, please click here.

I will be heading to Haddonfield next week to join with our Affiliates. We are all looking forward to it!

God bless,


P.S. We update our webpage frequently, so please visit us again! We welcome your ideas, suggestions, and questions.

To read previous monthly updates, click here.