Vows and vocations

Proposing Vocations in the Local Church” was the theme chosen for this year’s World Day of Prayer for vocations that was marked by the Catholic Church last Sunday. But in a very secularised country like Britain, how many people nowadays are embracing a vocation to the priesthood or religious life each year? Susy Hodges put that question to Father Chris Jamieson, Director of the Vocations Office for the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

Father Jamieson says "the good news is that the numbers entering English and Welsh seminaries has risen year on year and the entry in September 2010 was the largest in a decade" with 56 entries. This, he continues, compares to "only 26 people" who entered in 2001. Father Jamieson believes that Pope Benedict's pastoral visit to Britain last September will "certainly have an effect of encouraging people to go to the seminary."

He says one of the biggest obstacles they face in encouraging more vocations is "the entire culture" that young people grow up in "that's not attentive to the supernatural dimension." Asked why the number of vocations has increased in recent years despite this growing secularism, Father Jamieson explains: I think it's because the Church has learnt how to live in this (secularised) culture" ... and also the Church has managed to put behind it the worst difficulties of the clerical sex abuse scandals" ... with "very robust child protection procedures" in place. All this, he says, "has helped to put the Church on a firm foundation."

But what's it really like to embrace a religious vocation with its vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and live a life consecrated to Christ? To gain more insights, Susy Hodges spoke to Sister Gabriel Davidson, a Poor Clare nun at Arundel in England.

She says if you have a vocation the rewards are greater than what you are being asked to give up: "whatever the sacrifice that God asks of you is lesser than the greater joy of being able to live a consecrated life."

Asked if she ever had doubts about her vocation or her faith, Sister Gabriel says "I think whenever one is on a spiritual journey there are moments of darkness and there are moments of great struggle and equally there are moments of joy and peace and they go hand in hand."

Listen to the report by Susy Hodges: