Thursday, 15 July 2010

At the beginning of July 2010, various young people from the diocese went to Oscott College in Birmingham for the Invocation weekend. It was a weekend to help young people discern their vocation. 

Read below for two accounts from our young people. Visit the Gallery for more photos.

Alex Smith writes:-

During my stay at Oscott College roughly 200-300 people gathered there for the weekend including key members from Salford Diocese. The event was not only a fantastic way to discern whether I am being called to the priesthood by spending the weekend in prayer and chatting to diocesan vocations directors, but it gave me a chance to meet other young people discerning a vocation to the priesthood or religious life. A thing I found wonderful about the festival was that everyone was friendly and whilst walking round the college you could stop and immediately build a friendship with someone walking by. I met a few young people there whether it was in the queue for breakfast or in a workshop and we were able to share our thoughts on our vocations. The weekend also gave me the opportunity to socialize with the boys in my vocations group and build a stronger friendship with them.

To give an outline to the event I travelled down to Oscott with a group of seminarians, Lorraine Leonard and some members from my vocations group. When we arrived we started to construct our tent but quickly left to attend our welcoming Mass and left our tents unfinished. By the time we got back it was 11 o’clock and we struggled, but managed to finish our tents in the dark and prayed they would still be up in the morning.

Over the weekend we said daily prayers and took part in different workshops such as: a prayer-building workshop, a workshop on catechesis, priesthood, and monastic life to name a few. We also attended some keynote speeches, which were spread out over the whole weekend. The speeches were led by Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Abbot Christopher Jamison, Sr Gabriel Davidson and Dr Andrew O’Connell. The subject of these talks included what a vocation is and how it is relevant to my life? The speakers told stories of their vocation and offered their thoughts on vocations. These speeches were very uplifting and were full of wise words. We also had the opportunity to receive the sacrament of reconciliation whilst we were away.

The part of the weekend that I found the most remarkable was being able to pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament throughout the night. The way people were ready to stay up through the night so that the Blessed Sacrament would not be left alone really touched me and so I did my part and sat there with the lads from my group for an hour in the middle of the night. There was also the chance for an optional midnight rosary, which left you calm and relaxed and ready for bed.

The part of the weekend that I found the most helpful was hearing the stories of priests and listening to their advice. There was one priest whom I spent a lot of time talking to and he was happy to come over and say ‘Hello’ to our group. He told us stories about the highs and lows of his priestly life and being a vocations director he spoke to us about vocations in his diocese. The festival has sent me home with a completely different attitude towards the priesthood. Whilst I still feel the same strong calling towards the priesthood I have now got a more realistic picture of what the life of a priest is like and it is something that I will constantly think about. I pray that there will be an opportunity to attend this festival again next year.