Fr. Searson urges youth to embrace the spirit of voluntarism

“Young people everywhere are finding it hard to start working. Even if they are qualified, another obstacle confronts them, ‘experience required,’ says Jesuit priest Father Charles Searson who is Zambia and Malawi’s National Secretary of the Apostleship of Prayer. 

In a message sent to collaborators, friends and also to Vatican Radio’s English Service for Africa, Fr. Searson continues, “With Pope Francis in the Apostleship of Prayer this month of August we pray for volunteers: ‘That volunteers may give themselves generously to the service of the needy.’  We also pray for Outreach to the marginalised, "that setting aside our very selves we may learn to be neighbours to those who find themselves on the margins of human life and society," he emphasised.

According to Fr. Searson, while volunteering is primarily for the good of the people served, it also is of great benefit to the volunteer. “Although there is no wage, the volunteer is gaining much needed work experience, grows in self-confidence, learns to be punctual, to make decisions, to work on a team and to be responsible - precisely the experience looked for by a future employer,” he stressed.

The Apostleship of Prayer (the AP) is a worldwide network of prayer that has been active in the Catholic Church since it began in 1844 in France.   Through the Apostleship of Prayer, the Pope gives his monthly prayer intentions to the entire Church. The Apostleship of Prayer is contained in the prayer called the Morning Offering. Praying the morning offering is a way of living out the word of God. If one, for example, offers their day to God as a Catholic businessman or woman they will want to work in such a way that what they do what is worthy of God.

Fr. Searson has a dedicated ministry which promotes the Apostleship of Prayer in Zambia and Malawi. He is also active in the National Pioneer Total Abstinence Association.

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