De La Mennais Brothers: Making Jesus Christ better known and loved by young people

Here’s a clip that I’ve been a bit slow to publicise… It was commissioned by the lovely folk at the National Catholic Office of Vocation for England and Wales (Fr. Christopher Jamison osb and Sr. Cathy Jones) to be released online in time for Vocations Sunday in April as part of a set of different resources celebrating Consecrated Life, as this is the Year of Consecrated Life. Click here for the page where all these resources can be found. It shows different aspects of my life in community and work with young people.

Preparations in our Vocations Network North-West core group  (and larger group of interested volunteers from about 20 different congregations) are stepping up for our 2-day "Living Joyfully" vocations festival event at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. See below 2 posters for the 2 days. The Friday event is aimed at young people aged 14-18 and will provide a useful complement to G.C.S.E. and A-Level R.E. work on vocation, religious commitment, religious life and the priesthood. Both days will be made up of workshop activities, games, live music, speakers,discussion groups, a question panel, and finish with a final liturgy. On the Saturday this will be the Saturday evening Mass (1st Mass of Sunday) celebrated by Archbishop Malcom McMahon. There will be about 50 Sisters, Brothers, religious order priests and diocesan priests present each day with displays around the Cathedral, as well as members of new ecclesial communities such as Chemin Neuf and Focolare, repr...

I am not alone in thinking that there is currently a generation of mature, confident, spiritually strong young adults aged roughly 18 to 30 that seems ready to follow God's call and commit to particular services in the Church (whether in lay ministry or religious life or priesthood) on a level not seen for a long time. Those of us who sense this feel that there is something quite exciting rising up in the Church, signs of new growth giving hope for the future. Since signing up on behalf of our Brothers as a participating congregation on the American VISION Vocation Match service, managed by the American National Office for Vocations, I have received a regular flow of questionnaires sent by people throughout the US, as well as from further afield, including some from near us here in the north of England. On top of this I seem to also be receiving more frequent requests for information about our congregation from people who stumble across this blog or my website (that links to th...

As a member of a group of religious Sisters, Brothers and religious Priests here in the north of England who are keen to foster a deeper culture of vocation within the Church, especially among young people, I've put up a Facebook Page  (Vocations Network North West UK) for us to share with others all the initiatives that are going on in our part of the country such as "come and see" days, vocations events, Samuel discernment groups, etc... We have a major event coming up in Liverpool on March 22nd: Although it doesn't say on the poster (oops!) we are aiming this day at 16-30 yr. olds, approximately. There are lots of religious Sisters, Brothers and Priests in our area who are keen to share with others  their passion for Christ, for his message and for their ministry and community life. They are indeed Living Joyfully the calling they have received from God in the manner described by Pope Francis in his encyclical "Evangelii Gaudium".  Hopefull...