Women's Discernment Events 2023

Vocation Brisbane has recently run two women’s discernment events – Quo Vadis for Women and Archbishops Dinner for Women. These events were specifically designed to empower and uplift women in Brisbane who are discerning a call to religious life or single life.

Both events were a huge success, with attendees able to ask new questions in their vocation journeys. This post will delve deeper into both events, exploring the themes, speakers, and overall impact on participants.

Quo Vadis for Women 2023

Quo Vadis for Women 2023, held on the 29th of April, there were 11 candidates discerning consecrated life gathered at the Santa Teresa Spirituality Center. It was a full-day retreat with times of personal prayer, adoration and sharing, enabling young women to ponder in the silence of their hearts where God might be calling them. Sr. Ursula O’Rourke journeyed with us throughout the day and shared on the Christian call, discernment, and consecrated life in today’s society with her personal journey as a Good Shepherd Sister.

We were also joined by Fr. Thomas McFadden who celebrated Mass and Reconciliation for us. It was inspirational in encouraging the retreatants not to be afraid to respond if God is calling them to religious life. Coincidentally, it was the feast day of St Catherine of Sienna, in which Fr Thomas highlighted her life and call of service to the Church.

During the day, we had the opportunity to visit the Carmelite monastery, meeting with 10 Carmelite Nuns from their community. They shared about their daily life, community, and prayer life, which was a surprise gift to most of these young women. They are so impressed with how they are so joyful and happy in their lives. The Sister sang a little prayer of “My Vocation is Love” like a heavenly choir for us to enjoy.

Everyone left the day desiring more in their lives, being excited to discern further with like-minded women, feeling like they were ‘in it together’ in a special unity of walking together.

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Archbishops Dinner for Women 2023

There are 12 women who are interested in discerning a religious vocation and joined Archbishop Mark Coleridge for an evening meal and informal discussion at Wynberg on Thursday, 1st June 2023.

It was a wonderful and exciting night hearing the archbishop sharing his journey of discernment to Priesthood and his vision on the call to Religious life in the Church. He encourages the women to take on the step to say “Yes” Try it out, and you will lose nothing

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If you are interested in coming to future women’s discernment events, please contact Sr Theresa Maria Dao at daot@bne.catholic.net.au for upcoming dates and more details.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Welcome to our latest edition of Vocare for 2021, titled Good News.

This year has begun with Good News as Pope Francis announced it as the “Year of Saint Joseph”. I received this Good news, with a grateful heart. In his Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde (A Father’s Heart) as well as in his message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis offers us Saint Joseph as our patron and model, to inspire us to open again the doors to Christ and let him into our hearts. Saint Joseph’s example of daily leap into the dark with trust as he said Yes to God’s call, is a prophetic sign to us, that grace offers the single, steadfast, pathway through which we too can discern and respond to our individual vocations.

Everything is grace. A Yes to grace here and now in 2021 could be a Yes to a life of adventure with God. As we leap into the future with hope, the Yes of Saint Joseph inspires us to recreate our hearts to live our vocation as a gift for others. God looks on the heart (1 Sam 16: 7). One of the greatest legacies of Saint Joseph to Christian Vocations is the Cultivation of “This selfgiving, Yes-heart of the Father,” even in the face of the unknown.

As we stand before this dramatic turn in both vocations and human history, Saint Joseph gives us the courageous heart to leap into our own amazing joyful unknown of God. It is only those who joyfully enter into the uncharted vocational space of the unknown, with the God who also wants to be wrestled with, that will receive, celebrate, and announce this Good news.

When I was growing up, I was told that Australia was the end of the world. So naturally, I neither planned nor imagined that Australia would ever form part of my leap into the heart of God. If you are reading this vocare now, it is because you have also learned or are learning “to dream” and risk abandoning yourself and projects to grace.

Through the patronage of St Joseph your leap of Yes to God, as well as mine, becomes a fountain of living water for others, “like God’s living water flowing from the Temple”. Amazingly, our leap of Yes which becomes the Good-news is not the end of the journey.

It is only the beginning.

Saint Joseph, Pray for us.

Father Stanley Orji

ISAAC FALZON

“I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH HIM WHO STRENGTHENS ME”

(PHIL 4: 13).

keeping my focus on His face

Saint Ignatius of Loyola once said, “you wish to reform the world? Reform yourself [first].” My entire discernment journey started (and will continue) with the want/need to become a better person. If I can be a better person, then I can be a better disciple.

Life has not always been smooth sailing for me; however, I should not complain in comparison to many people’s lives. By the age of fifteen, things were not going so well. I searched for meaning, purpose, and happiness in other people and material goods. This led me down a dark path; I was in serious trouble with many different people and authorities. I had developed various illnesses, and I was unhappy with who I was and who I was becoming. I continued this way of life for 12 years until I had a re-conversion experience on a mission trip in Uganda. To cut a long story short, Uganda led me to serve with Net Ministries, and Net Ministries played a part in me joining the Seminary in 2017.

The biggest challenge that I faced in my discernment journey was myself. I had lived a full and colourful life, and when I looked at those priests and Seminarians, I knew they all seemed so perfect to me. I questioned my abilities and worthiness. I thought, why me? There were many other people who I thought would be better suited to the role. But God did not call them, He called me, and I had to act. If everyone left important things up to those they thought would be better at the job, nothing would get done. God does not call the equipped; He equips the called.

As I discerned the right decision two things stood out to me. Firstly, I felt God saying to me that “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Phil 4: 13). I just needed to step out onto the water and keep my focus on His face and not the storm around me. If I believed that I could do it, if it was the work of God, and I worked hard, I could do anything, and everything would fall into place. Secondly, it was a simple decision; it was either a yes or a no, and I thought it was either a yes or no to God, so I felt that I had better say yes.

Despite all that went through my mind during my initial discernment, I have enjoyed every moment of the formation process. I have noticed that the reasons I joined the Seminary have not been the reasons I stayed in the Seminary and will most likely not be the reasons I will (potentially) be ordained. Namely, as I grow and change and my relationship with God deepens throughout this formation process, my goals, desires and dreams have deepened and changed as well.

Presently, I find and experience God the most during praise and worship and traditional liturgies. I feel God in equal amounts through listening to the likes of Emmanuel worship (‘desire’ is my favourite song) and in singing Latin or Gregorian chants. I am deeply attracted by the immense diversity, beauty, and potential that our Church, the sleeping giant, holds. I am in love with our mother Church, and I desire nothing more than to see her and the entire faithful shake with life and joy. And finally, I am very excited about my (potential) future ministry as a priest and the future of our great Church.

LAWRENCE (UCHENNA) EZEDINMA

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

My first vocation!

A soul in need reaching for meaning to life – this led me from Nigeria to Australia. I am a young man trying to discern my vocation. The idea that a career change and an exchange of culture would give meaning to my life was questioned a year after I arrived.

One Sunday at Mass, I saw a priest celebrate the liturgy with great joy despite getting around with a cane, when a voice came to me, ‘What are you waiting for?’ Young, single, Catholic, I was unable to shrug off the constant questioning.

I spent some time in the Canali Discernment Program, hoping I could get the questioning off my mind. This period was captured succinctly by the ever-visible tagline, ‘Where are you going?’ Through spiritual talks and exercises, I began to formulate my response, but it was only during a recent online meeting that the book To Save a Thousand Souls turned my ideas around: HOLINESS IS MY FIRST VOCATION. Yes, I had been putting the cart before the horse. I thought that I would become holy when I became a priest. Without first finding rest (holiness) in God, my soul remained restless. 

Holiness provides the spiritual compass to navigate the Christian journey, to respond to the question ‘Where are you going?’ with some clarity. I am coming to see holiness as perseverance in a way of life, continuously refined in the sacrament of reconciliation, refuelled in the Eucharist, and sanctified by the Paraclete.

The joy of this first vocation (holiness) will enable me to live out my secondary vocation – single life or marriage, holy orders or religious life – not as a burden, but as a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

For now, the practice of living my first vocation allows for the journey towards the second vocation to be clearer, more joyful and worthwhile.

FELICITY JONES, God's Timing is Perfect

IT WAS THROUGH THE BLESSING OF A PRIEST THAT I FIRST BEGAN TO ENCOUNTER GOD

When I reflect on my faith journey so far, I am incredibly moved by the unconditional love God has for me, and for the blessings he graced my life with to make me the person I am today. Four years ago I didn’t know this kind of love.

I could never feel God around me, encouraging me to pursue a path of holiness. It was through the blessing of a priest that I first began to encounter God and realise the plans he had for me. Fr Chukwudi Chinaka, and many priests, showed me what it was to be the hands and feet of Christ. Through their ministry, I saw the face of Christ and felt God beckoning me.

After a life-changing experience at World Youth Day Poland 2016, I couldn’t deny God’s call any longer and made the choice to always desire a life of faithfulness and to glorify God’s kingdom. I was then blessed to step into the role of Youth Coordinator of The Hive in the Ipswich Catholic Community, where we endeavour to provide opportunities for young people to encounter Christ. I also decided to study a Bachelor of Theology to deepen my understanding of the faith.

I was enjoying ministry and my faith when the question of my vocation was proposed to me: “Where do you think God is calling you?” Now that I had accepted Jesus into my life, and trusted in his will and plans for me, where was he actually calling me? Had I given God the chance to show me where he wants me to be? I decided to pursue some spiritual direction. I soon realised something: God’s timing is perfect. I didn’t need to decide then and there. I needed to be patient.

JO HAYES, An Inspiring Single Story

SMACK BANG IN THE MIDDLE OF GOD’S WILL

4KQ NEWS READER/CHANNEL 7 REPORTER

“I feel like I’m smack-bang in the middle of God’s will for my life”.

I’m a journalist, and I journal … and this was an entry in one of my prayer journals from nearly three years ago. I know I would not have written that a decade ago. In fact, probably not even five years ago …. despite being a committed catholic, and doing my best to seek God’s will for my life.

But in 2017, something changed. I started a daily practice that literally (and almost immediately) transformed every area of my life: Lectio Divina. Reading and meditating on the Word of God.

I am convinced – through lived experience - that we cannot know God’s will for our lives, unless we are spending quality time with the Lord, in His Word, every single day. It’s like oxygen for my soul and spirit. I’m like a bulldog, guarding that precious 1 to 2 hours each day. Because I know that I won’t have the God-vision, wisdom, focus and power I need to fulfill my life purpose - my vocation - if I don’t make God and His Will, my first priority in life.

Jesus tells us, “Seek first the Kingdom of heaven, and ALL THESE THINGS will be added to you as well” - Matthew 6.33.

I believe ALL THESE THINGS means the satisfaction of our heart’s greatest dreams and desires. Including an abiding sense of “the six P’s”: peace, protection, provision, prosperity, power, purpose.

I believe that our heart’s greatest dreams and desires = our vocation. Not everyone sees their career as their vocation, but I certainly do. I know to the core of my being that God put me on this earth to be a journalist/broadcaster. I got ‘the call’ at the tender age of seven (I used to make my five siblings play ‘news bulletins’ with me!).

Not only was there a STRONG desire, but my natural gifts and talents were perfectly suited to broadcast journalism: I loved (like, really loved) public speaking, I was naturally curious and empathetic, and I loved asking people questions about their lives, giving them an opportunity to tell their story.

While I’ve enjoyed a great 10 year career in journalism, it has only been in the past 3 years, as I’ve “sought first the Kingdom” in a more diligent way, becoming more receptive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, that I have seen ALL THESE THINGS come to pass in my career/ vocation/life.

Amazing ‘only God’ favour, opportunities, promotion and platform. Doors opening I could NEVER open on my own. With a deep sense of peace, joy and fulfilment, knowing there is nothing else I should be doing right now. Nothing else I WANT to be doing. And without ‘striving’! I’ve found there is a ‘supernatural ease’ that comes on us, as we align ourselves with God’s Will.

Knowing and feeling that I am smack bang in the middle of God’s Will for my life … let me tell you, there ain’t a sweeter feeling in the world!