‘Chosen’ retreat opportunity to discern vocational life

Growing up, I do not ever recall having a conversation with my family members or friends about discerning a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated religious life. As a public school student, I wasn’t particularly close to any priests in my diocese (Diocese of Baton Rouge), and I certainly never saw any nuns, friars, monks or religious sisters and brothers. In fact, the only nuns I saw growing up were the ones depicted in the movies “The Sound of Music” and “Sister Act.” 

If you are like me, perhaps you also grew up in an environment where the only time you talked to a priest was at the end of Mass on Sunday while walking out of the church, and the only consecrated religious you have seen were the men and women depicted in movies like “The Exorcist,” “Doubt” and “Dead Man Walking.”

Many of us grew up thinking about getting married, becoming parents and raising our families because we consistently saw marriage and family life in our neighborhoods, schools, churches and of course on our television screens. All this to say, it can be very difficult to consider a calling to the priesthood and consecrated life if we aren’t surrounded by clergy and religious in our churches, schools, neighborhood gatherings and on our media screens. 

However, just because we haven’t been immersed in a society that is filled with great numbers of healthy and holy priests and consecrated religious in our day to day lives doesn’t mean that God is not inviting men and women to discern the celibate vocation. 

Hence, the Office of Vocations in the Diocese of Baton Rouge decided to collaborate with vocation directors from the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, the Benedictine Monks of St. Joseph’s Abbey in St. Benedict, the Covington Carmelites, the Jackson Carmelites, the Springfield Dominicans, the Poor Friars and Nuns of Jesus and Mary, the Mercedarian Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the Josephites of the Sacred Heart, the Community of Jesus Christ Crucified, the Daughters of St. Paul, the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, the Hospitaller Sisters of Mercy and the Holy Family Sisters of Nazareth to facilitate an opportunity for our young adults from the ages of 18 - 40 to gather together for three days of prayer and fellowship at St. Joseph’s Abbey. 

This weekend retreat is designed to provide an atmosphere that is conducive to discernment for our young adults. Along with Sister Josephine Garrett of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, I will be presenting on the importance of prayer for a person who is trying to discover their place in the body of Christ. In fact, while visiting the United States of America many years ago, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI emphasized the magnitude of prayer when he said, “The discernment of a vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God’s call.” 

Many people claim that we have a vocations crisis in the 21st century.  I do not agree with this belief.  I honestly think that our crisis this century is one of prayer.  If we can teach our young people how to share their thoughts and feelings and desires with God before the Blessed Sacrament and how to listen to the voice of God speak to them in the sacred Scriptures then we can trust that they will be able to respond to the invitations our Lord presents to them throughout their walk toward eternity while they are spending time studying, playing, resting, working and in recreation with each other.  

In addition to focusing on the cultivation of the interior life with our participants, we will encourage them to spend one-on-one time and small group time with the priests, seminarians, consecrated religious and novices who will be available throughout the weekend for fellowship. Outside of our structured time for prayer, presentations and worship, we will provide a lot of time for the retreatants to get to know the charisms, apostolates, spiritualities, communal lives, ministries and even the personalities of the clergy and consecrated religious by setting apart a lot of time for visiting at our community meals in the refectory, socials in the courtyard, recreational activities and sports in the fields, emmaus walks around the grounds of the abbey and free time in the afternoons.  

If you are interested in joining us for the inaugural “Chosen Retreat” at St. Joseph’s Abbey, please visit our website diobr.org/vocations to get more info so we can accompany each other in our relationship with Christ and help each other learn if our Lord is inviting us to discern our calling with a vocation director from a diocese or religious congregation.  

Father Johnson is the vocations director for the Diocese of Baton Rouge.