This summer, Sr. Martha Lopez, MSC attended a Vocational Accompaniment Course at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She shares her experience with the Cabrinian Community…
“Hope is the dream of the waking man…”
… And we awake, we await the dawn and the flowering of new vocations in the Church and in our Institute. I want to share with you that I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in an interesting Vocational Accompaniment Course, taught by the Vocation Animation Services of the Diocesan Operative priests, whose charism is to promote vocations today.
The Workshop was held at the facilities of the University of the Incarnate Word, in San Antonio, Tx., led by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who gave us a beautiful and generous welcome. We were around 35 participants who, aware of the urgent task of promoting Hispanic female vocations, arrived from different parts of the southwest of the country, with the conviction that we need formation to “accompany” our candidates. It’s about knowing how to walk with them, of being true companions. Many young people are hungry for spiritual life, for faith (they need to believe in “something”) and also hungry for vocational accompaniment.
It is motivating for all of us to verify that there is a resurgence of the religious vocation today. Today this concern has re-emerged strongly in youth and there is more sensitivity to this approach. Perhaps because we have heard the voice of Pope Francis who constantly invites us to go out to meet others.
The experiences of service, of the mission, of being touched by reality, are spaces in which young people discover their vocation because they question and uninstall them. That is why sisters and brothers, let us continue to be in the middle of town, in the middle of people, in parishes, with immigrants, with those who suffer. Young people want to see in the face of the religious today, the joy of Consecration, the joy of service, the joy of living the Gospel. They thus realize that their lives make sense and that it is worth playing their whole lives in response to Jesus. Let’s continue to show the beautiful face of our vocation!