St. Augustine Parish
Vocation Committee
Contact: Lisa C. Round, 978 686-8507 or Jim Hauer, 978 474-0133
Vocation News
The Vocation Committee at St. Augustine Parish formed in late fall of 2005 at the request of the Archdiocese. The committee consists of Lisa Round co-chair, Jim Hauer co-chair, John Markiewicz, Paul Dollard, Jim Connolly, and Fr. Joe Narog, O.S.A. advisor.
The Committee has been working under the guidelines offered by the Archdiocese to increase awareness and provide education regarding vocations, and to encourage parishioners to focus and pray to determine their vocations. Accordingly, several presentations already have been given primarily by Fr. Dan Hennessey, who heads the Office of Vocations for the Archdiocese, to our religious education students. Interestingly, Fr. Dan is from our own St. Augustine parish! He grew up in Andover and enjoys visiting!
All this leads us to the obvious, what is a vocation? Often, when we hear the word vocation or hear someone say, "pray for vocations", we may think that we need to pray for more priests. Although we need more vocations to the priesthood, this is not completely right!! Very simply - a vocation is a calling. We even may expand this and say that a vocation is a call to holiness from God.
OK, so far? - a vocation is a calling. So what is the calling, you ask? The calling can be in the form of a question; here is the question we need to ask ourselves: "What does God want me to do with the life that He has given me?" The answer to this question can first be put into a framework of living out one's vocation as a married person, as a single person, or as a Nun, Brother, religious or diocesan Priest, etc. Within this framework, further answers to the question can be determined. For example, perhaps God is calling you as a married person to teach religious education, or perhaps God is calling someone as a priest to be a missionary - as in our former pastor, Fr. Al Ellis, O.S.A. Perhaps, God is even calling someone right at this moment, in our town of Andover, in our St. Augustine parish to become a priest. It happened to Dan Hennessey, now Fr. Dan Hennessey.
So, what can we do to answer the question, "What does God want me to do with the life that He has given me?" LISTEN! Listen to God. How do we listen to God, you ask? Pray, attend Mass, be in quiet presence with Him.
This does require extracting a cell phone from one's ear and perhaps an Ipod from the other! It also requires some time, patience, and an openness to God.Prayer for Augustinian Vocations
Let us pray to the Lord of the harvest
who calls men and women to
loving service:
pause for silent prayer
All glory and praise are yours,
God of truth, light of our hearts,
for you guide your people
in the ways of holiness.
Help those who follow
in the footsteps of Augustine
to seek you through mutual love and worship
and to be servants of your Church
as examples that others may follow.
Enlighten men and women
to see the beauty of common life
in the spirit of Saint Augustine,
and strengthen them in your service
so that the work you have begun in them
may be brought to fulfillment.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.