Some of the July 17-31 workshops in NRVC's Summer Institute still have openings. If you or a vocation minister you know can benefit from one of the following, click on a link below to learn more and to sign up.

July 17-18     Behavioral Assessment II

July 20-22     Behavioral Assessment I

July 24-28     Orientation to Vocation Ministry

July 29-31     Assessment of Family of Origin Issues

Join us at one of four venues across the country to learn about the newest generation of Catholic sisters and why we need them now more than ever. Hear remarkable stories from these modern women who have answered the call and learn how they perceive their mission.

These unique gatherings, hosted by NRVC during the Year of Consecrated Life and made possible due to the generosity of the GHR Foundation, will include young sisters, along with the authors of New Generations of Catholic Sisters: The Challenge of Diversity.

A Q & A session and raffle will follow the main presentation. Refreshments will be served.

This is an excellent chance to generate support for Catholic sisters now and in the future. Please invite your family, friends, discerners, and  parishioners to attend as well!

Schedule

September 12, 2015, 9 a.m. - noon (Central time)
University of the Incarnate Word, Fine Arts Auditorium, San Antonio, TX

Click here for the live streamed videos. There are two videos titled "New Generations of Catholic Sisters."

September 20, 2015, 1-4 p.m (Central time). 
Dominican University, Lund Auditorium, River Forest, IL

Click here for the live streamed video.

October 10, 2015, 1-4 p.m (Eastern time). Mass to follow. 
Immaculata University, Alumnae Hall, Immaculata, PA 

January 23, 2016, 9 a.m. - noon (Pacific time).
Mount Saint Mary’s University, Doheny Campus, Rose Hills Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA

Please RSVP.

Featured speakers

New Generations of Catholic Sisters authors:
Sister Mary Johnson, S.N.D.deN.
Sister Patricia Wittberg, S.C. 
Dr. Mary Gautier

Questions? Call the NRVC offices at 773-363-5454 or email Julie Montague at jmontague@nrvc.net.

NRVC's publications, HORIZON and VISION, recently received eight awards from the Catholic Press Association for excellence in writing, website quality, analysis, and photography.

First place, best essay

HORIZON, “Vocation promotion in contemporary culture” by Brother Sean Sammon, F.M.S.

First place, best magazine or newsletter website

VISION

First place, best regular  column on spiritual life

HORIZON, “Feed Your Spirit” columns by Father Joseph Nassal, CPPS, Andrew O'Connell, Father Mark E. Thibodeaux, S.J.

Second place, best in-depth analysis writing

HORIZON: Journal of the National Religious Vocation Conference, “Vocation promotion in contemporary culture” by Brother Sean Sammon, F.M.S.

Third place, best single photo

VISION, photo by Diego Ortiz Mugica for “5 steps to finding your vocation”

Third place, best photo story

VISION, "Nourishing body and soul" by Sister Sheryl Chen, O.C.S.O.

Honorable mention, best review

HORIZON, “Message to engage online is spot on” by Father Larry Rice, C.S.P.

Best essay,  professional & special interest magazine

VISION, “Can your career fit into religious life?” by Sister Janet Gildea, S.C.

As part of the Year of Consecrated Life, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, along with the men's and women's leadership conferences for religious, have designated September 13, 2015 as a collaborative Day of Prayer with Religious. Events will include vespers, rosary, or holy hours in convents, monasteries, religious houses, and churches. NRVC encourages its members to plan vocation events in their communities for this day of collaborative prayer.

Prayers, intentions, prayer cards, a video on consecrated life, and other resources are available here. 

Fr. Grzegorz Suchodolski, the Secretary-General of the WYD Organizing Commiteee, with VISION Executive Editor Patrice Tuohy, and NRVC Executive Director Br. Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C. at the 2016 World Youth Day headquarters in Krakow.

NRVC Executive Director Brother Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C. and VISION Executive Editor Patrice Tuohy traveled in June to Krakow, Poland with other partners of the English-speaking pilgrim pavilion for World Youth Day (Knights of Columbus, Salt + Light TV, Holy Cross Family Ministries, and the Sisters of Life). The purpose of the visit was to view the proposed venue and to meet with various sub-committees of the National World Youth Day Planning Committee.

Similar to what was done in Rio de Janeiro in 2014, NRVC and VISION will sponsor a “vocation cafe” for pilgrims to “hang out” and meet informally with individual religious priests, sisters, and brothers. We also hope to offer a separate programming piece as part of the cafe.

The dates of the pavilion are Tuesday, July 26, through Friday, July 29.

There will be no fee for NRVC members (or other religious from NRVC member congregations) to participate in the cafe. Travel and lodging is on your own. All volunteers in the cafe must register as World Youth Day pilgrims.

For more information about World Youth Day, please consult the website at krakow2016.com.

During this Year of Consecrated Life, you are invited October 23-25 to Leavenworth, Kansas to join vocation ministers and some of the sharpest thinkers and ministers in the church for the workshop "Vocation Ministry within the Year of Consecrated Life: Trends, Issues, and Best Practices."

Pope Francis proclaimed 2015 a Year of Consecrated Life, and in celebration of this commemorative year, NRVC is offering this seminal workshop. It will feature three professionals treating the topic of religious life, the contemporary context, and implications for vocation ministry. 

Each presenter will discuss the trends, issues, best practices, and skills needed for credible and proficient vocation ministry in three individual, day-long presentations that compose this workshop. The central focus of this comprehensive workshop is for participants to echo the words of Pope Francis: to “look to the past with gratitude . . . live the present with passion . . . [and] embrace the future with hope” as we “wake up the world” during the Year of Consecrated Life.

• Sister Maria Cimperman, R.S.C.J. will speak on "A Call to Encounter/Encuentro."
• Dr. Ted Dunn, Ph.D. will speak on "Vocation Ministry Through the Lens of Transformation"
• Brother Sean Sammon, F.M.S. will speak on "Creating a Religious Life for the 21st Century"

To learn more or to register, click here.

Researcher Mary Gautier presents information from the NRVC study of multiculturalism in religious life.

On June 26 NRVC hosted a symposium on multiculturalism in religious life, held at the offices of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Washington, D.C. The invitation-only event focused on the 2014 NRVC study on this topic and featured the primary researcher, Dr. Mary Gautier, senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, and a panel of newly professed religious from various ethnic groups.

Participants included approximately 50 representatives of national Catholic organizations, major superiors, and formators in the Washington, D.C. area.

NRVC extends its thanks to personnel with the USCCB, in particular the Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, for their gracious hospitality in assisting us in hosting this symposium.

J.S. Paluch Vocation Seminar

The annual J.S. Paluch Vocations Seminar will take place August 17-19, 2015 in Chicago. This invitation-only event features the Very Rev. Frank Donio, S.A.C., D.Min. as keynote speaker on the topic "Vocation Ministry: Keys to Collaboration." Donio is Director of the Catholic Apostolate Center and Provincial Rector of the  Immaculate Conception Province of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallotine Fathers and Brothers). For information on the National Vocations Awareness Division for J.S. Paluch Co., click here.

Catholics on Call Partner Conference

Catholics on Call is sponsoring a conference for its partners (those who minister to young adults) September 24-25, 2015 at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. The theme will be "Walking Together as Disciples - Exploring a Vocation to Ministry with Young Adults."  The keynote speaker will be Kathleen A. Cahalan, professor of theology at Saint John’s University School of Theology∙Seminary, Collegeville, Minnesota. Learn more or register at catholicsoncall.org. Or email: catholicsoncall@ctu.edu.

Communicators for Women Religious

The Communicators for Women Religious is holding its annual conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico October 6-9. Vocation ministers are welcome to take part. The conference theme will be "Spirit of the wind; Spirit of the message," and the keynote speaker will be Father Richard Rohr, O.F.M. Workshops will address social media, branding, magazines, and more. Learn more at c4wr.org

Workshops explore identity of Catholic sisters

St. John Vianney Center is sponsoring a  series of programs for Catholic sisters focusing on “Exploring the Identity of Religious Life in the 21st Century: Who do you say that I am?” Sessions are scheduled for:

• DuPont Education Center, Wilmington, Delaware, October 2-3
• Double Tree Hotel, Kenner, Louisiana, November 20-21

For more information, click here, or contact Pat Weston at pweston@sjvcenter.org or call 888-993-8885.

Symposium "To Wake up the World"

The Council of Major Superiors of Women will host a fall symposium, “To Wake up the World,” November 13-14 at the Drury Plaza Hotel at the Arch in St. Louis. This will be a national event at which scholars and religious come together to discuss the beauty and witness of religious life. The keynote address will be by Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, O.P., adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It is open to all religious, priests, and laity. Learn more at cmswr.org.

As we continue to celebrate the Year of Consecrated Life, a great way to make vocations and this special year more visible is by displaying the banner NRVC has designed. Standing 78 inches by 33 inches, this banner is ideal for use in offices, parishes, campuses, schools, and other ministry sites. It is also perfect for vocation events, fairs, and other occasions.

The banner comes with a carrying case and is easy to assemble. Each banner sells for $115. Please note: This item takes three weeks for delivery. Non-member price: $130. Shipping is included for domestic mail. Please email or call the NRVC office for international orders, which require additional postage. Click here for details or to order.

The NRVC Flickr page lets staff and friends of NRVC easily locate photos. This shows the "Photostream," but photos are also organized by event and by topic under the section called "Albums."

Vocation directors can reap several benefits when they use online photo-sharing sites such as Flickr.

• These easy-to-use sites make it simple to organize your photos.
• The sites can be set up so that others in your community can have access to your photos from anywhere in the world that has Internet access.
• Photo-sharing sites give you one more way to showcase your community. The "audience" for seeing pictures of your community can be global.
• If you do not want the photos to be seen by just anyone, you can easily adjust the settings to limit access.
• Sometimes the media (including the editors of VISION and HORIZON) use photo-sharing sites to find photos freely available for download. When photos are used in VISION and HORIZON, the communities making pictures available in these sites are given extra exposure among a public that cares about vocations.

Tell the editors!

If you use a photo-sharing site, please send your site's link to the NRVC publications editor, Carol Schuck Scheiber: cscheiber@nrvc.net. By making this information available, your community's photos may be used in VISION or HORIZON, with photo credit going to your community.

Check out the NRVC photo-sharing site: flickr.com/photos/nrvc

Besides Flickr, there are a number of other free photo-sharing sites; learn about them here.

How long have you been a vocation minister?

I have been directly involved in vocation ministry for five years with my community, the Presentation Sisters of Dubuque, Iowa.

What kind of team do you work with?

I am the vocation minister, and I work with our formation minister as we walk with women discerning and entering our community.

Has being a member of NRVC been helpful?

Yes, very helpful. NRVC has many resources available; I have met many great people with wonderful ideas and experience. The speakers at NRVC-sponsored convocations have been wonderful.

Tell us about your best vocation efforts.

We have a local group of vocation directors (Dubuque Area Vocation Association) that collaborates on a Sixth Grade Vocation Day for Catholic schools in our area. Four women’s communities in our area also sponsor Dubuque’s Got Sisters (another collaborative event). Both events have been very rewarding experiences.

I enjoy meeting new people and developing relationships with people from a variety of backgrounds and ages and walking the spiritual journey with them.