REKINDLING A BROAD AND DEEP CULTURE OF VOCATION PROMOTION

Our Salesian vocation is the precious gift that God has given us to continue the Salesian mission on behalf of the young, especially the poor and abandoned, in the footsteps of Don Bosco, our Father and Founder. We have witnessed considerable growth in the past in the number of vocations as well as the quick expansion of our mission in the province spreading across both States of Karnataka and Kerala. However, in the more recent years getting suitable candidates in good number has become a big challenge with numbers and quality going down quite drastically. Vocation promotion is a key area that has to be given urgent and serious attention as it is all-important for the future of our apostolate and for the future of our Province/Society itself.

In seeking to discern how the Spirit has been at work calling men to become part of our Congregation, one insight emerges clearly: The Lord is continuing to call men to our Congregation, but we can and must do more to collaborate with his call and help it be heard. We know our vocation promoters have been making every effort to get good vocations. However, effective vocation promotion cannot rely on the efforts of only a few, no matter how good they may be. In different ways every Salesian and the entire educative and pastoral community are responsible for vocation promotion through their witness, their words, personal support and prayer, so that each young person may discover his human and Christian vocation. We need the energy, passion, and commitment of every Salesian and of our lay partners.

Rekindling the culture of Vocation Promotion

 We must rekindle a broad and deep culture of vocation promotion, one that encourages all of us to involve ourselves to attract the new members needed for the future to which God draws us. This focus on vocations is not an ancillary concern and it is not something we are prompted to do simply in response to decreasing numbers. It is an essential characteristic of our Salesian culture and identity. Vocation promotion must be a substantive part of the life-mission of each member of our apostolic body, not only confreres, but all those with whom we collaborate in the mission. Our Constitutions state very clearly this reality. “We educate the young to develop their own human and baptismal vocation by a daily life progressively inspired and unified by the Gospel. The family atmosphere of welcome and of faith, created by the witness of a community which gives of itself with joy, is the most efficacious setting for the discovery and guidance of vocations. This work of collaboration with God’s design, the crown of all our educational and pastoral activity, is sustained by prayer and personal contact, above all in spiritual direction.” (C. 37)

At the heart of this effort is the graced art of accompaniment that helps young people to listen and discern where God is leading them. It is the Lord who calls people, but we must actively accompany these calls because young people often need help, understanding and discernment. As Scripture so clearly shows us, God’s call frequently appears in surprising ways at unexpected times and places, inviting those who seem least likely. This is why a culture of vocation promotion is so critical. We all must be ready to facilitate and be part of God’s invitation wherever it might appear. This is all the more vital in today’s increasingly secularized world where the lures of riches, honour, prestige and pleasure so easily distract the young and obscure the still, small voice of God. Central to every Salesian vocation is the Lord’s call to a unique style of religious life – a style innovated by our Father and Founder Don Bosco and shared by all confreres, brothers and priests alike.

Special urgency to reimagine and promote the Vocation of Salesian Brothers

Within our region of South Asia and in our Province as well, there is a special urgency today to reimagine and promote the vocation of Salesian Brothers. Without Brothers the Salesian Congregation would lose its real identity; it will no more be the Salesian Congregation willed by Don Bosco. Appreciating the Brother’s vocation in all its fullness helps us to understand better the special identity of Salesian priesthood as well. Brothers embody the Salesian call to the vowed life in an especially clear way, and they model for us ways of participating in the mission that are distinct from and complementary to those of clerics. Their example of religious life is vital in today’s Church as we seek to embrace more fully the synodality needed to follow the path of the Lord together. In the context of the canonization of Br. Artimede Zatti which is a sure testimony to the preciousness of the Salesian Brother vocation let us seek his intercession and be ever more attentive to promoting the vocation of the Salesian Brother.

Plan for Vocation Promotion

 Rekindling a culture of vocation promotion requires having a decisive plan in place. We have the Commission for Vocation Promotion which prepares the annual plan and is responsible for implementing it and evaluating its success. Vocation plans also should envision how best to collaborate with Youth Ministry in the Province. We know that God has given everyone a particular vocation, and we need to help each person discover what his or her vocation may be. This work of accompaniment and discernment is a special characteristic of our youth ministry. As Pope Francis recalled in the March 2019 apostolic exhortation, Christus vivit, all work with youth can be focused on accompanying the vocational processes proper to whatever state of life to which they are called. By fostering creative synergies between youth ministry and vocation promotion programs, we can organize wider networks and establish more spaces for youth to hear God’s call and freely respond.

Active participation of all confreres

The initiatives that we take cannot be fully successful without a robust culture of vocation promotion that requires the active participation of all confreres and of the lay men and women with whom we collaborate. There is much that each of us can do, but I want to highlight two areas in particular. The first and foremost is daily prayer. As Jesus instructed his disciples, “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.” (Matt 9:37-8), many of us do pray for vocations, but can we take the Lord’s urging more fully to heart? Do we at times fall into the temptation of thinking that vocations to the Congregation simply ‘happen’ or that the work of encouraging them is always someone else’s responsibility? Praying constantly, daily, personally and in community not only makes a direct appeal to God, the “Lord of the harvest,” but it also changes us, broadening and deepening our desire and making us more attuned to those whom the Lord might be calling in our local context.

Second, we must create spaces and opportunities for young people to imagine and experience what our Salesian life is like. Examining our lives can help us appreciate the good work that is already being done and open ourselves to new possibilities: How are our communities extending hospitality? How do they express a sense of welcome and reflect a way of life that is attractive and inviting? How are we as a community reaching out to young people and creating opportunities for them to get to know us and our way of life? Do we, as the circumstances of our life and work permit, make ourselves present and available to young people, so that we can accompany them as they struggle with life’s questions? Are we willing to tell a young man that, in the light of his qualities and potential, we could see him as a Salesian? Are we open to sharing their stories and our own?

The best promotion of vocations to our way of life is by us Salesians who cherish our own vocation and reflect real joy in living it out. The yearning for something deeper than the rewards and satisfactions offered by secular society is in everyone, though unaware of it they may be. In some, this yearning constitutes a Salesian vocation, provided they can recognize in us an expression of what is drawing them. Each of us, in our work and our communities, can ask ourselves, how would such a seeker see in me, in us, the life he desires for himself?

We might also ask ourselves, in the work we do, how are we collaborating creatively with the local parish priests, religious sisters, catechism teachers, Salesian Cooperators and all our lay partners to identify young men who might have a vocation? How are we ensuring that vocational discernment becomes an everyday feature of the culture in our local apostolate? Everyone can do something. Every little bit helps and makes a difference. It is good to discuss in the community the contributions that the community and each confrere is making to promote vocations. How are we encouraging the involvement of the whole apostolic body in the work of vocation promotion, so that all those with whom we collaborate in the mission can actively participate in this urgent dimension of our life on which our shared future depends.

Studies and researches have shown that good intentions, sophisticated campaigns and the investment of resources into vocation promotion alone will not attract new members. It is the example of members and the community life, prayer life and/or ministries of the Congregation/Province that most attract new members. True to our specific identity and mission (charism) we cannot but continuously express our solicitude for vocations, motivated not only by the scarcity of the workers in comparison to the harvest which still remains so vast, but by the conviction that our growth in number and quality means the growth of the Province, the Congregation and the Church. We must truly recognise all our efforts, activities or strategies, both personal and communitarian, to promote vocations for our Congregation, must always be accompanied by the irreplaceable value of a happy and courageous personal testimony of our specific identity. Let us through personal witness and earnest initiatives take on the responsibility of vocation promotion individually and as a community, thus sincerely complementing the efforts of our Vocation Promoters and their team. May our Bl. Mother who inspired the foundation of our Congregation and remains its support assist us with genuine vocations!

Affectionately in the Lord,

Fr. Jose Thomas Koyickal sdb,

Provincial