Praying for five minutes a day for vocations

It was July 2002 and Father Joe Corel was working on putting together a parish vocation committee at the Cathedral of St. Joseph, where he was serving as associate pastor and an original member of the newly established diocesan Vocation Committee created by Bishop Gaydos.

Members of the parish vocation committee agreed among themselves that the parish needed to pray for vocations more. But how could the parish pray more? Yes, it was important to pray at Masses for vocations, but there also had to be a way to encourage parishioners to pray in their homes for their own family members to consider a priestly or religious vocation.

The idea of taking a crucifix or a chalice into a family's home to pray for vocations was not original to the Jefferson City diocese nor to Cathedral of St. Joseph parish. The idea had been around for many years. What would be unique to this prayer effort, however, would be the homemade prayer book that would accompany the crucifix.

Also unique would be that a very generous anonymous donor would donate the money to purchase a crucifix for each parish and have the multi-colored prayer book laminated and spiral-bound, and for all of this to be shipped to each parish. What an incredibly generous gift!

The title of the book, Praying for Vocations 5 Minutes a Day for 7 Days is self-explanatory. A family takes the crucifix and book home on a Saturday night or Sunday morning and prays the prayers for each day until the following Saturday or Sunday, when it is time to bring the crucifix and book back to church.

What is in the prayer book? Each day of the week has its own page. On the left side of the page is one of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit - one to meditate on each day. At the top of the remaining page is a short Scripture passage. In the middle is an explanation of how that passage applies to being open to the Lord's will. Below that is a prayer. At the very bottom of the page is a "Say what?" section, which answers many misconceptions about priestly and religious vocations. The back of the book has a family prayer for vocations and a prayer to help children find his or her vocation.

Cathedral of St. Joseph parish has had the prayer book and crucifix traveling around to parishioners' homes since the beginning of 2003. About half of the parishes in the diocese have participated in this to some degree or another. It is important to note that the crucifix and prayer book should not be a 12-month-a-year venture. Rather, the process should be intentionally stopped and then brought back to life after a few months in order to keep it fresh and get new people involved.

The goal is for every parish to ignite or re-ignite the power of this prayer during the Year of the Priest (July 19, 2009-July 19, 2010) and that every family will sign up to have this in their home. Wouldn't it be great if there were more than one crucifix and book used at each parish because of the desire to have it in their home? It can happen. Let us work to make it happen!