IDEAS

-Begin a Holy Hour, prayer, or personal reflection to promote Church vocations in your parish

-Ask your pastor if he would include an intercession for Church vocations

-Promote Team Vianney (for high school boys at St. John Vianney College Seminary) and Theotokos (for high school girls on the St. Thomas campus) for faith formation on the first Thursday of the month during the school year.

-Encourage and support young people in starting a “Grill a Priest” or “Theology on Tap” in the parish with neighboring parishes

-Promote teen Holy Hours during Advent and Lent. Encourage them to bring their problems to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

-Instigate a game each year of teens vs. their parent (basketball, volleyball, bowling, card games, etc.), sell tickets as a fund raiser for different Religious Orders or the Order’s work, such as the local Missionaries of Charity. Teens can take proceeds to the Order, meet them, see their work, hear about their life. Can be done with younger children, too.

-Place notices in your parish bulletin of upcoming events of active Young Adults parish clubs around the archdiocese.

-Interest youth in supplying material for parish Web site.

-Hold youth competitions prior to or during your parish festival, with the winners performing at the festival and receiving a prize. (Some performance ideas: sing a religious song or hymn, or recite a story of a saint, a Catholic poem, prayer, or other writing.

-Help young adults begin a local Frassati Society chapter. Information about the Society online at www.frassati.org.

-Construct & paint “cut-outs” of a priest, a Sister, a Brother, showing clerical garb, vestments, and Religious habits, but with the “faces” cut out so that children can stand behind and have their picture taken to show them as a priest or Religious (Serran idea). Charge a small fee for the cost of each instant Polaroid or computer printed photo and donate any profits to a Religious Community.  Easier yet, borrow the North Minneapolis Serrans priest and Sister cut-outs for a weekend—call the Vocation Office for contact information.

-Arrange an “On the Road” visit to a monastery, convent, friary, motherhouse, or shrine once a summer for young people and parents or youth minister or priest.

-Organize a Hall of Fame in the parish hall to feature the photographs and names of people from the parish who have chosen Church vocations (Serran idea).