Vocations
Committee Minutes
April 21, 2008
Present: Steve
Hill, Fr. Mark Ressler, Jim Rhomberg, Sheila Wetjen, Ron Wetjen
Absent: None
The meeting was opened at 7 PM with prayer and reflection by Ron. Minutes from the last meeting were reviewed and approved.
New Business:
Ron reviewed vocations events of the past few months. Fr. Bob Gross said
he would be happy to speak to our parish masses next year during National
Vocations Awareness Week. He declined to in January because of obligations
to his own parishes. Fr. Mark spoke about vocations at all the masses
and did a fine job as everyone attested to.
Steve reviewed the updates to the parish website. The information on the website is good but some work needs to be done on the ability to access information regarding vocations. It was noted Fr. Mark's homilies are posted on the website and are accessed frequently.
Ron reported that each parish committee has been requested to send a representative to Hospitality Sunday on May 4 to introduce themselves and mingle with new parishioners. Jim will attend after the 8:30 AM mass and Steve after the 11 AM mass.
The group discussed World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Fr. Mark noted that there is a monthly mass for vocations offered.
Committee members reviewed briefly the Pastoral Planning meetings presented by Jackie Witter. Various Pastoral Council members are developing specific strategies, goals and objectives.
The group brainstormed possible future events for the cause of vocations: Jim will work on getting a banner put up on the school promoting vocations. Ron will contact the new Vocations Director, Fr. David Schatz. We will try to arrange a time to get together with him over dinner in June and discuss approaches to promoting vocations. Steve will contact Fr. Scott Bullock and will work with Mark Bodensteiner to plan an event for the fall for the youth of the parish, possibly involving the seminarians. We may work with other parishes that may already have something planned, as well.
Fr. Mark reported an event was recently held for students from Mazzucelli at Divine Word College to promote vocations. Ron will discuss with Fr. Schatz the possibility of contacting local motherhouses in the Archdiocese concerning vocations.
The next committee
meeting will be in June. The date will be confirmed after Ron speaks with
Fr. Schatz.
Vocations Committee
Minutes
October 30, 2007
Present: Steve Hill, Jim Rhomberg, Fr. Mark Ressler, Sheila Wetjen, Ron Wetjen Absent: None
The meeting was opened at 7 PM with prayer and reflection by Ron. Minutes from the last meeting were approved.
New Business:
Sheila reported that she had contacted the diocesan Vocations office for materials our committee might use. Nothing new is available at this time. The Call by Name effort conducted in late summer at the masses yielded just one name.
Plans for National Vocation Awareness Week (Jan 13-18, 2008) were discussed. Ron will ask Fr. Bob Gross if he would be willing to swap parishes with Fr. Mark to celebrate the masses on one of the Sundays of that week. Steve will request a brief announcement be placed in the bulletin announcing this event. A special petition for the cause of vocations will be used during the masses that weekend also. Steve will investigate if the links to vocations sites can be made more visible in the parish web page. Other ideas discussed for emphasis were reminding parishioners of the 31 Club and possibly displaying a banner advocating vocations used in the past (Jim will pursue)
The World Day for Consecrated Life will be February 3, 2008 and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations is April of 2008. Specific plans for those events will be finalized at future meetings. Additional ideas were discussed for promoting vocations on an ongoing basis: for example, working through existing groups such as the MOMS (Ministry of Mothers Sharing) group or the youth group with Mark Bodensteiner's assistance. Maybe a booklet could be created for committee chairs to use to promote vocations as part of prayer/reflection time. The need to recruit additional members for the Vocations Committee was agreed to.
The next meeting
will be held November 28 at 7 PM at the rectory.
Vocations Committee
Minutes
November 8, 2006
Present: Steve Hill, Jim Rhomberg, Fr. Mark Ressler, Mary Miller, Sheila
Wetjen, Ron Wetjen Absent:
None
The meeting was opened at 7 PM with prayer and reflection.
New Business:
Plans for National Vocation Awareness Week (January 8-11, 2007) were discussed. Fr. Mark will ask Fr. Voo from Resurrection Parish to swap parishes to celebrate the Masses on one of the Sundays of this week. Ron Wetjen will request that Fr. Voo mention the 31 Club and its purpose of praying for vocations. Fr. Voo's homily will touch on the need for vocations as well. Steve Hill will request that a Vocations prayer be placed in the bulletin for that week; and Ron and Sheila Wetjen will include an intercession for vocations as part of the liturgy preparation for that Sunday.
The World Day for Consecrated Life is on February 4, 2007. No specific plans were established for recognition of that event.
Long-range plans will be discussed at the next meeting regarding the recognition of the World Day of Prayer for Vocations on April 29.
The committee accepted Mary Miller's resignation from the committee and thanked her for her many dedicated years of service to the committee and to the cause for promoting vocations.
The next committee
meeting will be held February 21st at 7 PM in the rectory.