Vocations Resources

Married Life

Religious Life

The Diaconate

Vocations Resources for Parishes and Families

Let’s build a culture of vocations together! We invite you to access the provided links, consider getting involved with organizations that promote and support vocations, and be creative to promote vocations in a way that resonates with your family and/or the people of your parish. Share your ideas with us! Send your photos — we may post them in our publications and on our website and social media.

#seattlevocations

Working together, we can create a culture of vocations throughout the Archdiocese of Seattle! Download our new booklet Building a Culture of Vocations (PDF) for ways to pray, invite, teach and celebrate vocations in your families and parishes.

“Preach it, brother!”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops tells us that vocations must be talked about regularly if a "vocation culture" is to take root in parishes and families. People need to hear about vocations in their home, through homilies, prayers of the faithful, and discussions in the classroom.

USCCB Vocations

Pray

Vocations Prayer

God our Father,
You call each of us
to use our gifts in the Body of Christ.

Inspire your people
with desire to know you,
the grace to understand your will,
and, with the strength of the Holy Spirit,
the courage to respond
with love and freedom.

Send workers into your great harvest
so that the Gospel is preached, the poor
are served with love, the suffering are comforted,
and your people are strengthened by the sacraments.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Monstrance for Vocations

At the Chrism Mass on Thursday, March 21, 2013, J. Peter Sartain, Archbishop of Seattle, blessed the Monstrance for Vocations.

Since that time, beginning in the Southern Deanery, the monstrance has been traveling throughout the archdiocese visiting every parish and mission to facilitate prayer for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

If you are interested in hosting the monstrance, please contact the Office of Vocations at 206-382-4276 or email.

FOR DEANS:
Are you the dean, looking for more information about how to schedule and implement the Monstrance for Vocations in your deanery? Start here! Deans Information Sheet

FOR PARISHES:
Thank you for your willingness to participate in this archdiocesan project to pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life! A folder with the following information will be provided to you with the monstrance. (This program is scheduled through the dean of each deanery.)

Parish Information Sheet
At a parish, looking for resources on how to use the Monstrance for Vocations? Start here!

Holy Hour for Vocations
Pray a Holy Hour for Vocations with this liturgy from the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship.

Stations of the Cross for Vocations
Host a Stations of the Cross for Vocations — great if you have the monstrance during Lent.

Vocation Prayers
Looking for prayers to distribute in your parish or an easy prayer to pray throughout the day?

Holy Hour for Vocations

Rosary for Vocations

Invisible Monastery

Invisible Monastery
The goal of Invisible Monastery is to organize continuous prayer for vocations, as suggested by the Vatican in 2012.

Members of Invisible Monastery:

Pledge to pray daily or weekly for vocations.
Choose their type of prayer — Mass intention, rosary, private prayer, etc.
Renew their pledge annually.
Receive a quarterly e-newsletter with prayers, resources and ideas for promoting vocations.
May receive occasional communication from the diocesan vocation director with prayer requests or other information.

“It would be good … to organize an ‘invisible monastery’ in which many persons, day and night, are committed to continuous prayer for priestly vocations.”
~ From the Holy See’s Pastoral Guidelines for Fostering Vocations to Priestly Ministry

Invite

No one discerns alone!

We can help each other by talking about vocations, in our families and our communities. If you are married, be a good example of a holy marriage. If you have children, talk to them from an early age about vocations; invite priests, seminarians, and religious men and women to your house for coffee or dinner; pray together for vocations often as a family. Ask “Who do you think God is calling you to be?”

Vocations events

Make a personal invitation

Several studies have shown that many priests and religious first thought about ministry around age 11 (sixth grade) and then had that thought reinforced during their junior year of high school. 11 and 11!

A simple and sincere comment should not be underestimated: “I see in you the qualities that would make a good priest (or religious, deacon, or married person). I encourage you to pray about it.”

Join a local Serra Club and/or the Crozier Society

These groups help in the promotion of all vocations, as well as the support of religious and seminarians in our archdiocese.

Serra Club
“To be friends to priests, sustaining their vocation and accompanying them in their ministry: with this great gift you enrich the Church! This is, above all else, what a Serran is — a special friend whom the Lord has brought into the lives of seminarians and priests.”
~ Pope Francis

Crozier Society
A community of Catholics from around the archdiocese who support the archbishop and help fund seminarian formation. Quarterly liturgies and events, annual retreats, and pilgrimages provide the opportunity to share in spiritual development and build relationships with the archbishop and each other.

Vocation promotion materials

Teach

Teach by example

Parish resources

Vocation lesson plans

Young adults

Vocation panels and guest speakers

Vocation panels
Invite individuals/couples from the various vocations to participate in a vocations panel, have someone moderate the panel and let the audience ask questions.

Guest speakers
Invite those who are currently living their vocation to come speak to your class or group about the rewards and challenges of their vocation. Contact the Office of Vocations if you are interested in scheduling a seminarian to speak.

Family activities

Celebrate

Priesthood Sunday - September 25, 2022

Priesthood Sunday, September 25, 2022, is a special day set aside to honor priesthood in the United States. It is a day to reflect upon and affirm the role of the priesthood in the life of the Church as a central one. Note: Parishes may choose to celebrate Priesthood Sunday on another Sunday when it is convenient for them. This nationwide event is coordinated and sponsored by the U.S. council of Serra International.

Priesthood Sunday resources

National Vocation Awareness Week - November 6-12, 2022

National Vocation Awareness Week, celebrated November 6-12, 2022 is an annual week-long celebration of the Catholic Church in the United States dedicated to promote vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and consecrated life through prayer and education, and to renew our prayers and support for those who are considering one of these particular vocations. NVAW began in 1976 when the U. S. bishops designated the 28th Sunday of the year for NVAW. In 1997, this celebration was moved to coincide with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which falls on January 13 in 2013. Beginning in 2014, NVAW was moved to the first full week of November.

USCCB Resources

World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life - February 2, 2023

Celebrated in parishes February 4-5.

In 1997, Pope St. John Paul II instituted a day of prayer for women and men in consecrated life. This celebration is attached to the feast of the Presentation of the Lord on February 2. This feast is also known as Candlemas Day, the day on which candles are blessed symbolizing Christ who is the light of the world. So too, those in consecrated life are called to reflect the light of Jesus Christ to all peoples. The celebration of World Day for Consecrated Life is transferred to the following Sunday in order to highlight the gift of consecrated persons for the whole Church. (USCCB, World Day for Consecrated Life)

USCCB resources

World Day of Prayer for Vocations - April 30, 2023

The purpose of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations is to publicly fulfill the Lord's instruction to "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into his harvest" (Matthew 9:38; Luke 10:2). As a climax to a prayer that is continually offered throughout the Church, it affirms the primacy of faith and grace in all that concerns vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life. While appreciating all vocations, the Church concentrates its attention this day on vocations to the ordained ministries (priesthood and diaconate), to the religious life in all its forms (male and female, contemplative and apostolic), to societies of apostolic life, to secular institutes in their diversity of services and membership, and to the missionary life, in the particular sense of mission "ad gentes."

World Day of Prayer for Vocations resources

Message from Pope Francis (2019)

Priest and deacon ordinations - May and June 2023

Profession of vows for religious

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“Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God.”

~ Romans 12:2