After cracking their heads during the midterm exams in the first week of the month, the seniors, juniors, sophomores and representatives from the freshmen and orientation years moved on to prepare for vocation promotion.

Fr. Nato, the seminary vocation director, assisted by the vocation committee chaired by Sem. Mark Vincent Madronero, spearheaded a series of seminar-workshops for official vocation promoters/animators and those who would like to help. On the evening of September 5, Saturday, the group (including this writer) had a session on effective presentation with Ms. Mary Ann Cruz, principal of St. Faustina Academy in Quezon City.

She discussed essential points such as the purpose of the presentation, catchy introductions, delivery, alternative plans, and ideas we would like the audience to remember. She also presented research results from McCann Erikson in October 2005 showing the views of the youth about religious vocation. The research revealed that, generally, the youth are not that open to religious vocation because they are primarily driven by their desire for family-building. They lack knowledge about the religious vocation and picture seminary life as boring and full of hardships. This translates to lack of interest in entering the convent or seminary. Thus, we were challenged to walk our talk during the vocation campaign and show the youth we will encounter that seminary life is fun. We animators are after all the number one visual aid in vocation promotion.

On September 12, the second seminar-workshop on vocation promotion took place with Frs. Dhey and Nato as “speakers with no honorarium.” They elaborated on the content of the vocation talk we promoters are to deliver. This includes our purpose, our identity as Camillian seminarians, the nature and dynamics of vocation and of Camillian spirituality, Camillian presence in the Philippines, and our personal vocation stories.

The group looks forward to the last seminar-workshops slated on October 3, which will feature simulation activities for actual vocation promotion. This will aid us in addressing our weaknesses and capitalizing on our strengths in vocation promotion.

Happy fishing come sem-break!

Let's continuously pray for a bountiful catch!