(ANS – Toronto) – The Salesian Community at Etobicoke in the city of Toronto has started this year 2013 a new programme in Vocations Ministry called V.I.P (Vocation in Progress). It is directed towards young men and women aged between 18 and 35, to accompany them in their journey of discernment as they seek to discover the will of God.

The programme is led by a Salesian, Fr Michael Pace together with his younger sister, Antoinette, and Fr John Puntino, the director of the Salesian community in Toronto. The group of about 10 to 20 young people have met on a Saturday each month since January.

Each V.I.P. meeting revolves around a different topic, such as prayer or the universal call to holiness. On April 6, the group gathered to discuss the vocation of marriage: members attended the parish’s 5 p.m. Saturday Mass before moving into the parish rectory for a potluck dinner. Fr. Pace then presented a PowerPoint on the Catholic teaching of marriage and its sacramental character. Usually, the group divides by gender to privately discuss the central topic, but the group decided to stay together to collectively process Pace’s presentation. At 9:30 p.m., everyone transitioned to the chapel to pray before the Blessed Sacrament for half an hour before moving back to the rectory’s dining room for dessert.

The V.I.P. evenings always contain an educational presentation on the central topic, a sense of camaraderie and enjoyment through meals and laughter shared with friends, as well as a time to pray and listen to Christ’s voice. Thus, each gathering integrates St. John Bosco’s four core elements of youth ministry: school, playground, home and church.

“When I was discerning my vocation, I did not have peers with whom I could share my faith journey. Discerning was exciting, but isolating at the same time,” said Fr Pace, the pastor at St. Benedict’s.

“My involvement with V.I.P. is very dear to my heart,” Antoniette said. “It’s the kind of group I would have loved to be part of when I was discerning my vocation. Such a group did not exist, however.”

“I’ve gained a greater awareness that we are called to holiness in all the different vocations, whether it’s marriage or the priesthood, consecrated or single life,” said Branden Gordon, 26, a substitute teacher, as he reflected on the effect of V.I.P. in his spiritual journey.

“V.I.P. is not boot camp for the priesthood or consecrated life,” said Fr Pace. “If we all focused on initiating the young to discerning God’s will, rather than seeking to recruit members for our own group, order or seminary, perhaps we will nurture a generation of young people who are vocation-allergy-free.”

Fr Pace need not look far to see vocations in many forms. One of his younger sisters is a consecrated Missionary of Charity in San Francisco, his brother and two older sisters are each married with 20 children between them, and Antoinette has discerned a call to the single life and works as her parish’s lay pastoral associate.

Published 19/04/2013