Vocations as a call to hope

By Emily Chaffins -

 

MIAMI | For Anne Roat of Lafayette, Indiana, supporting vocations means everything.

“We know we need Jesus… [and] the Eucharist. And we know we need priests to give us the Eucharist,” said Roat, president of the USA Council of Serra International.

That’s the motivation for Roat and many who traveled across the nation – even as far as Australia – to attend the 2025 Serra USA Rally for Vocations in Miami.

The Serra Club of Miami, a chapter of the worldwide Serra International organization, spearheaded the event. This Vatican-recognized lay organization educates Catholics on vocations to priesthood and religious life, supporting those living out that call.

The 2025 Serra USA Rally, uniting national efforts on behalf of vocations, took place at Miami Marriott Dadeland Jan. 23-25. Held at different locations around the country, the rally occurred in Miami in 2024 and 2025. The Serra Club of Miami is an example for U.S. clubs because it has flourished from successful membership drives at parishes.

A variety of speakers presented at the rally this year, including Archbishop Thomas Wenski of the Archdiocese of Miami; Mother Adela Galindo, foundress of the Miami-based Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary; Msgr. Pablo Navarro, rector/president of local St. John Vianney College Seminary; and Bishop Thomas Daly, national chaplain for Serra International.

The speakers’ main focus was “hope,” according to Kimberly Rocha, president of Serra Club of Miami and member of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in South Miami. As the Church enters the Jubilee Year focusing on what it means to be “Pilgrims of Hope,” the speakers honed in on what this entails in vocations.

 Hope: more profound than optimism

Archbishop Wenski in his keynote speech Jan. 24, said modern society’s most pressing problem is a shortage of hope.

“The social pathologies of our time – abortion, drug abuse, promiscuity, suicide, divorce, and the breakup of the family – are symptomatic of a loss of hope,” he said. “Even those who nominally identify themselves as Christians or Catholics betray a loss of hope in their abandonment of regular church attendance and reception of the sacraments: for prayer is essentially an expression of hope. Only those who hope pray.”

Since the sacraments are directly tied to the priestly vocation, it follows that such vocations are connected in a unique way to bringing hope. However, as Bishop Daly explained in his speech Jan. 25, many people do not understand hope.

 “Hope is reality grounded in faith. That’s different than optimism, which is wishful thinking,” remarked the bishop of the Diocese of Spokane.

Archbishop Wenski noted the Jubilee Year is an invitation to rediscover the source of hope: “At the Incarnation, when Mary said ‘yes’… she opened the doors of our world to hope. That hope became flesh in her womb… and [Jesus] is a hope that will not disappoint.”

This trust in Jesus “enables us to face our present,” added the archbishop. “The present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads toward a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey, namely eternal life with God.”

As Bishop Daly asked, what does it mean to have faith in God?

“Faith is never a theory,” he said. “It’s meant to be not only expressed in thought and in word, but in deed.”

The archbishop concurred. “Our task is not to change the Gospel, but to present [it] in such a way that it changes us – and those with whom we share it…The Jesus we meet in the Gospel – who is the same yesterday, today and forever – is demanding and bold. And therefore, he is not always convenient.”

As Bishop Daly put it, “A living faith must reach out to others. If it remains hidden, then eventually, as George Weigel said, ‘Coke Light becomes Coke Zero. And Catholic Light becomes Catholic Zero.’” 

Being rooted in Christ’s hope within one’s vocation

Both Archbishop Wenski and Bishop Daly suggested practical ways to draw others to authentic hope and discover this hope within one’s vocation.

Archbishop Wenski addressed what Christian Smith in a 2005 study termed “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” a prevalent belief system in today’s society.

“This MTD is a religion that believes in a distant God… who simply wants everyone to be nice to each other and for everyone to be happy,” the archbishop explained. “This faith, Smith says, is parasitic… feed[ing] on established traditions of historical religions like Christianity and Judaism to survive and grow – but it changes and distorts the theological substance of those traditions… to create its own distinctive theological and religious viewpoint.”

Caving to MTD for the sake of attracting people to the Church is not the answer, said the archbishop. “Simply to accommodate our ministries, programs and practices to this alternative religion… is not a formula that will ‘save the world for Christ’ or inspire the right young men to answer a call to the Catholic priesthood.”

In response to the anti-vocational MTD, the archbishop highlighted St. John Paul II’s answer: “If Christ is presented to young people as he really is, they experience him as an answer that is convincing, and they can accept his message, even when it is demanding and bears the mark of the Cross,” he quoted.

Bishop Daly agreed that today’s young adults express yearning for the real Christ. “I just sense in this younger generation… a real desire to have the faith expressed in reaching out to others, that missionary zeal.”

Sharing the faith with others is at the heart of every vocation. Bishop Daly noted a trend: Eucharistic adoration has been helping young people become attuned to Christ.

“I think there's a grace that God gives in a very deep and generous way to young people who are unplugged from technology and stay present,” he said. He cited this as the reason for the “technology fasts” implemented for seminarians in their first stage of formation.

In addition to being “committed” to a daily “time of quiet prayer,” Bishop Daly said people of any station in life should be practicing another form of prayer: doing small, everyday things for God – which is integral to every vocation. “There has to be that time of quiet prayer simply with the Lord… You with your family and your job or other obligations, it might be hard for an hour [of quiet prayer every day]. But your five minutes has the power of an hour for us [priests], because we pray our experiences and we pray our vocations. And God understands that,” explained the bishop.

Archbishop Wenski concluded, “No ministry in the Church is sustained without faith – but has to be the faith we proclaim when we recite the Nicene Creed and not that of MTD – Moral Therapeutic Deism. And no ministry will be sustained without prayer.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Those interested in learning more about the Serra Club of Miami can reach out via email at [email protected] or can visit their website.