Vocation Office Update: January 2025

This last year has been a blessed year for our Province Vocation Office indeed. After the successful September Come & See weekend with seven attendees, the trend continued with the CFF Vocation Directors hosting a common Come & See weekend at the House of Studies in Chicago with men from around the US and Canada numbering nine attendees (three from SB Province); this was followed by another local Come & See hosted at Marytown in December, again with seven men attending. Over these months, we have seen a good number of men inquiring with our Province to further discern their vocation, and I have had the pleasure of engaging with College Campuses, Young Adult groups, and Parish and Diocesan Vocation events to promote the Order and invite young men to consider a life of prayer, fraternity, and service as Franciscans.

At the very start of this new year, I found myself in Salt Lake City, Utah, attending the ‘SEEK Conference’ hosted by FOCUS, who are responsible for running amazing Catholic Centers on college campuses around the country. Estimates suggest there were around 20,000 young people in attendance, all there to deepen their faith, engage with other likeminded people, listen to fantastic Catholic speakers, and encounter Religious Congregations and Catholic Vendors. The CFF Vocation Directors facilitated a booth at the event and had countless interactions with young men earnestly discerning where the Lord might be leading them. Even as I was flying home to Chicago, I had a providential encounter with a young man sat beside me on the plane who, once learning I was a Franciscan Friar, engaged in conversation with me for the duration of the flight and expressed a great interest in wanting to stay connected.