Poster and essay contest and lesson plans help Catholic educators become more comfortable teaching about priestly religious vocations

In this article, the diocesan vocation director describes a program he developed to help engage Catholic schools and parish schools of religion in teaching about vocations.

By Father Joseph S. Corel

At some point each year in every Catholic school in the diocese, most of the hallways outside the primary grades would be decorated with pictures of what the children want to be when they grow up. This is typical for helping the student realize there is something in the future waiting for him or her, and that he or she has a say in it. It also helps the students as they learn about the various jobs, occupations and careers available to them.

As a vocation director, I have often noticed that there are no priests or sisters in the pictures. On one level, that is good to notice, because being a priest or sister is not a job, career or profession; it would be the equivalent of looking at the pictures and seeing one of them planning on getting married and having children. Many times, as I've gone into classrooms and given presentations and asked questions, the students have told me they do not want to be a priest because they want to have a different job or career - a different means of receiving a paycheck. Again, I would tell them that they can have any career they want and still be a priest or sister.

The process of discerning a career involves looking at your skill sets (all your gifts, talents and abilities) and finding a career that matches that skill set. God knows your skill set, because He gave it to you. If He is asking you to use that skill set to be a priest or sister, you will be very happy if you say yes to Him.

To help grade-school students realize that God really is calling some of the boys to the Priesthood and others to the religious life, and really is calling some of the girls to the religious life, I thought about borrowing the concept of having them draw their career choices. I asked the teachers to spend one day describing the vocation of Priesthood to the boys and religious life to the girls. The next day, the boys in kindergarten through third grade would draw a picture of themselves doing what priests do, and the girls would draw what religious sisters do.

Fourth- and fifth-graders would draw a picture and write a paragraph explaining the picture. Sixth through eighth would write an essay explaining how they were called and what it is like to live the life they were called to live as a priest or religious sister. The best from each grade at each school would be turned in to the Diocesan Vocation Office, where an overall winner of priest and religious sister from each grade would be chosen. Each winner would receive a prize. The office has held this contest for two years.

What we have discovered in the process is that many teachers and principals say they do not feel comfortable teaching on the Priesthood or religious life, and that they don't have enough information to do so adequately. What do priests do besides celebrating Mass on weekends? And since in many places, we don't see religious sisters as often as we used to. So who are they, and what do they do?

Looking through many textbooks, I noticed a lack of clarity between the ordained Priesthood and the universal priesthood of all who are baptized. Also, the way discernment is described in most of the books emphasizes the American Culture: Be whoever you want to be; do whatever you want to do; be happy and God will be happy. Granted, call stories are included, but they seem distant and hard to grasp in today's culture.

So, Fr. Corel, seeing a need and not wanting to waste time figuring out who is at fault, accepted that more information needed to be given so the next generation could be catechized in vocation, formation and discernment. Five days worth of lesson plans for kindergarten through eighth grade were made and distributed to each Catholic school in the diocese to help principals and teachers teach about vocations. Each lesson is age-appropriate and builds logically on past lessons. PSR/CCD Lesson plans will be available by next academic year.

If you are a home-school parent or would simply like a copy of the lesson plans, contact the Diocesan Vocation Office. It is our hope that by academic year 2010-11 every grade in every school will submit entries for the poster and essay contest, and that every teacher is using the lesson plans as a guide to their vocation curriculum.