Dioceses across U.S. preparing to observe National Vocation Awareness Week

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PROVIDENCE — With the U.S. Catholic Church preparing to observe National Vocation Awareness Week from Nov. 7-13, it is an especially important time for the faithful to show their support for all men and women discerning a religious vocation, as well as for those who are already living a life of Christ.
Rosemary Boisclair views this as a special time each year to offer her prayers in support of priests across the Diocese of Providence, especially those who’ve made an indelible impact on her family over the years.
A lifelong parishioner of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Cumberland, Boisclair recalls vividly when then-pastor Father Dennis J. Kieton came into the lives of her family decades ago.
“From the first interaction, his genuine concern for souls touched our hearts,” she remembers. “His care for our extended family was heroic.”
Known as the “family chaplain,” Father Kieton made himself available to assist his parishioners through all the joys and sorrows they experienced with his blessings, prayers and anointing whenever necessary.
“It was Father Kieton who touched my husband’s heart in the most profound way,” Boisclair said, noting how in the last 25 years of her husband’s life he suffered from many grave illnesses.
The pastor visited him before he would undergo major surgeries and treatments to anoint him, bringing the family peace and strength for the journey ahead.
Boisclair is also grateful that Father Kieton confirmed her mother during an Easter Vigil Mass many years ago when she was 80 years old.
“She was an immigrant who was the oldest child in a very large family in a poor village,” she said. “Back then, in her country, it seemed that confirmation was not required.”
When one of the children in the family was preparing for confirmation, her mother wistfully said, “I never made my confirmation,” Boisclair recalled.
After asking her mother if this is something she wanted to do, she went to Father Kieton to ask if it would be possible to confirm her during the upcoming Easter Vigil, and offered to prepare her mother to receive the sacrament in any way she could.
Boisclair said she will never forget her pastor’s response.
“He looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘Rosemary, what on earth are YOU going to teach your Mother? She is the devoted Mother of 14 who has suffered every possible hardship,’” she recalled.
“I was so happy to hear his words. I flew out of the church that day with so much love in my heart. From there, he prepared her himself and she was confirmed at the Easter Vigil Mass.”
Boisclair is equally grateful for the support shown by Father Kieton’s successor at Our Lady of Fatima, Father Fernando Cabral.
Near the end of their mother’s life, Boisclair and her sister would take their mother to Mass in a wheelchair on her birthday and place two dozen roses before a statue of the Blessed Mother near the altar as they offered prayers.
The first year that Father Cabral was pastor at Our Lady of Fatima he noticed how the sisters cared for their mother during the special observance and went over to greet them.
When they explained why they were there, the pastor immediately embraced the family matriarch and insisted on preparing a small snack for them in the rectory, all the while speaking to her in her native Portuguese and praising her for leading such a fruitful life.
“Father Cabral was so incredibly kind to our Mother. She was so happy that Father noticed her — a poor and humble soul who had devoted herself to the care of and unconditional love for her many children and who, by the world’s barometer, was no one of any majesty. But, to her children, she was the most majestic of all. For us, she gave everything. She went without everything to ensure that we had what we needed. That day, Father Cabral gave her special recognition, treated her with the dignity she deserved, and, once again, we flew out of Our Lady of Fatima Church with so much happiness, gratitude and love for Father Cabral and for our God.”
While she offers her gratitude to God all year long for the joy she and her family have experienced from such positive interactions with the priests they have been blessed to worship with, Boisclair offers additional intentions during the times of Priesthood Sunday and National Vocations Awareness Week so that more such men of God discern a vocation.
“We have so many beautiful and devoted priests in our diocese led by our precious Bishop Tobin who never strays from truth,” she said. “We need our priests to reconcile us to God, to heal our wounds, to teach us the truth and beauty of our Catholic faith. I am so grateful to each and every one. My life and lives of those I love with all my heart have been touched by the beauty of these men who give themselves to God to help bring souls to God and to eternal life.”
During National Vocation Awareness Week, dioceses across the U.S. will hold events to foster an appreciation for all vocations and pray specifically for those discerning a vocation to ordained ministry and consecrated life.
In his message for the 58th annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis offered St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, as a model for vocational discernment. “Amid all these upheavals, [St. Joseph] found the courage to follow God’s will. So too in a vocation: God’s call always urges us to take a first step, to give ourselves, to press forward. There can be no faith without risk. Only by abandoning ourselves confidently to grace, setting aside our own programmes and comforts, can we truly say “yes” to God,” he said, and exhorted the Church to look to St. Joseph as an “outstanding example of acceptance of God’s plans,” the pontiff said.
Bishop James F. Checchio of Metuchen, New Jersey, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations has encouraged dioceses to use National Vocation Awareness Week as a time for fostering vocations in their own local communities.
“Studies of those recently ordained and religiously professed consistently show that the encouragement of the parish priest is the most influential factor in vocational discernment. But the accompaniment of the whole faith community is key for genuine vocational discernment — from one’s parents and family members, to the Catholic educators, as well as the vital role that youth ministers and fellow parishioners play as the early encounters for young people to the faith.”
Veronica Seda, chairperson of the Serra Club of Providence, which supports Catholic religious vocations in the diocese, said that with Vocation Awareness Week coming up it is very important for everyone to pray for their priests and seminarians.
“We are living in times of great uncertainty,” Seda said. “In times like these, we turn to our faith to guide us and show us the way. Our priests are Jesus here on earth. Without them, we do not have access to the gifts our Lord gave us in the sacraments, and without the sacraments, we would be in dire shape. These times have also not been easy on our priests. I am so thankful for their saying ‘yes’ to our Lord. It is important for them to know they are loved and prayed for every day.”
Seda said that seminarians also are in need of continuous prayers because they have accepted the call to discern whether God is calling them to the priesthood in a world full of distractions.
“I am so happy to see the wonderful, faithful young men who are currently in the seminary, and I make sure to pray for them each day,” she said.