Spotlight: St. Peter Parish
OUR ROSARY CRUSADE
St. Peter Parish Vocation Committee was led by the Holy Spirit to the idea of a Rosary Crusade, back in 2007. We had been trying to discern a way to involve our whole parish community in praying together for religious vocations. Rosary Crusades date back to the Battle of Lepanto in 1570 and in more recent times they were a popular devotion in the 1950s being promoted by an Irish priest Fr. Patrick Peyton. Mary’s Rosary is our most powerful prayer outside of the Mass, because Mary is our most powerful intercessor, remember Mary at the wedding feast at Cana. Mothers are very powerful at getting things done.
So, our vocation committee wanted to use an easy to remember acronym and after much deliberation decided on RFP, which stands for Rosaries For Priests, understanding that this also includes all religious vocations. We then designed the pledge forms that we would hand out at Mass on Priesthood Sunday in 2007. After a short explanation of the Rosary Crusade we were initiating, we distributed the pledge forms asking our fellow parishioners to fill in their pledge and return it in the collection baskets. We were astounded that young, elderly, and whole families had promised to pray a total of 2,000 rosaries a week. We have repeated our pledges in 2008 and 2009, each year on Priesthood Sunday. St. Joseph Cathedral Parish and Immaculate Conception Parish have joined us in this Rosary Crusade.
We hope to spread this crusade of prayer for our Priests and all vocations throughout our Diocese of Jefferson City, starting with our own Deanery. All it takes is an introduction at weekend Masses which has already been written and we would gladly share. We also have pledge forms available.
POSTER PROJECT
St. Peter Parish Vocation Committee has made 12 large framed posters featuring pictures and short biographies of priests, sisters, and brothers native to our parish. Our committee felt this was an excellent way to honor the many religious vocations we have from our parish and a way also to inspire our children to think about a religious vocation. Much research had to be done to build these framed collages of 46 sisters, 23 priests, and 3 brothers from our parish. Currently the posters are displayed in the school and in the church entrance and are rotated on a monthly basis. The committee also displays them at special occasions such as the parish picnic, ordinations, and events sponsored by the vocation committee.
VOCATIONS TABLE
In our chapel at St. Peter Church we have set up a Vocation Prayer Table.
A PRAYER FOR PRIESTS sets in a frame on that table. There are brochures from different orders of priests and sisters, such as the Christian Brothers, the Carmelites, and etc. We have an assortment of prayer cards for vocations. The brochures and prayer cards are for anyone to take and use.
VOCATIONS AWARENESS WEEK
Our vocation committee encouraged our students and teachers at St. Peter School to participate in the projects and contests that the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City promoted during Vocations Awareness Week.
We also sent a letter home to the parents of all our students reminding all parents to pray for and encourage their children to discern God’s will in their lives.
We put an insert in the bulletin requesting prayers for all our seminarians in this diocese. We included pictures of the seminarians so parishioners would know who they were praying for.
HOLY HOUR
We have Benediction for the students at school at regular intervals in our chapel The students attend by age groups. Special books, “Be Not Afraid”, with age appropriate songs and prayers have been made up for this. We are trying to introduce to the students the idea of being still and listening to God in their lives.
Our committee also helps with annual events that take place on the St. Joseph Cathedral Campus such as Diocesan 6th grade Vocation Day and Vocation Reflection Days.
As individuals we are on this committee because we love God, and our Catholic Faith. We know our Catholic faith will survive for future generations because Jesus has promised it, but our Priests and Sisters and Brothers sure could use some help! We know God is still calling, “Come Follow Me” but some can’t even hear Him because it is a “noisy” world out there.
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