Vocational discernment can be a little like riding a school
bus: Sometimes it’s bumpy, and there are multiple
conversations (often loud ones) competing for your attention
– but there’s a safe, steady driver behind the wheel.
So it was fitting that across the diocese, around 1,200
students piled into yellow buses Feb. 11 to make the trek to
Holy Spirit Church in Annandale for the annual eighth-grade
Vocations Mass.
En route from St. Thomas More Cathedral School in Arlington,
students played hand-clapping games, chatted and sang a few
rounds of the ubiquitous “Let it Go” from the movie “Frozen.”
Yet in typical middle school fashion, they moved from the
playful to the serious in seconds, reflecting on the Mass and
their future.
“I’m not 100 percent sure what I want to do with my life,”
said Anamaria Mingo during the bus ride. “But I hope God has
something planned for us … something to help the
world.”
Helping students internalize that God has a plan for each of
them is the primary goal of the Mass and a message dear to
Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde’s heart, said Father Joel D.
Jaffe, Arlington diocesan vocations director. Father Jaffe
and Father John M. O’Donohue, Holy Spirit pastor, were among
the concelebrants at the Mass.
“The effort of bringing the students together and taking time
off school tells how important they are to the bishop and to
the diocese,” said Father Jaffe. “It gives them dignity and
tells them this is as important as a day in school, as
everything we do.”
Although the annual Mass, which was canceled last year due to
snow, was attended by students from nearly 90 percent of
diocesan elementary schools, Father Jaffe said the bishop
keeps all eighth-graders in the Arlington Diocese, including
home-schoolers and public school students, in his prayers.
During the Mass, celebrated on the feast of Our Lady of
Lourdes, Bishop Loverde highlighted the life of St.
Bernadette in his homily.
“She was about your age when something amazing happened to
her,” the bishop told the students. The 14-year-old from
Lourdes, France, saw apparitions of the Blessed Mother and
continued to visit and pray with her – even when she was
pressured not to.
Bishop Loverde said that we can learn two important lessons
from St. Bernadette. The first is to have an active prayer
life, especially making time to pray the rosary. The second
lesson is to “be persistent at trying to be faithful to the
Lord,” he said.
As young people, you are still discerning what God has
planned for you, said the bishop.
“Each one of you is a person created by God out of love,
chosen by Him to be holy and given different gifts and
talents that He would like you to use in building up His
kingdom.”
For some, he said, God’s plan will include the sacrament of
marriage; for others it will be the priesthood or the
consecrated life as a religious brother or sister.
“But whatever your specific vocation is, know that when we
follow St. Bernadette’s model of eagerness in prayer and
persistence in being faithful, we will more readily follow
whatever path God has chosen for us.
“Because when you do what God has asked, you will really be
fulfilled,” he said.
Before the closing prayer, Bishop Loverde looked out across
the sea of uniforms and told the students that each one of
them is important to him. “This (Mass) is something I look
forward to every year,” he said, adding that he remembers
being their age. “Hard to believe,” said the bishop,
laughing.
He also said they are in the midst of a special year for
vocations. Pope Francis declared a Year of Consecrated Life
be celebrated around the world from Nov. 30, 2014, through
Feb. 2, 2016.
After Mass, a number of eighth-graders said they loved how
down-to-earth and understanding the bishop was.
“I think he made the homily relevant to our lives; I think he
knows what it’s like to be us,” said St. Thomas More
eighth-grader Sylvain Chassagneux.
The Mass also helped the eighth-graders see their lives from
a different perspective.
“It made me think there were more possibilities for the
future,” said Sophia Epperly from Holy Spirit.
When Stephen Vaccaro attended the Mass as an eighth-grader
from St. Michael School in Annandale more than a decade ago,
he didn’t anticipate his future would contain a vocation to
the priesthood.
“One never knows the seeds that are being planted by raising
awareness about vocations to the priesthood and religious
life,” said Vaccaro, who is now a second-year seminarian at
the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. “By
showing these young people that such vocations are possible,
necessary and desirable, they may begin to ask God about His
plan.”
Two of Vaccaro’s brothers also are in the religious life. Father
Christopher Vaccaro is chaplain at the University of Mary
Washington in Fredericksburg, and Brian Vaccaro is
studying to be a Redemptorist priest at the Redemptorist
Formation House in the Bronx, N.Y.
Back on the bus headed to afternoon classes at St. Thomas
More, Mingo said the Mass left her feeling peaceful.
“You really don’t have to worry about choosing what to do,”
she said. “The plan is God’s.”
Scott can be reached at [email protected] or on
Twitter @KScottACH.
The Office of Vocations is supported by funds from the
Bishop’s Lenten Appeal.
Photo Captions:
Photo 1: Annemarie Cake, a St. Thomas More eighth-grader,
heads from the bus to Holy Spirit Church for the annual
Vocations Mass.
Photo 2: Margaret Paterson from St. Mary School in Alexandria
clasps a rosary during the Mass. In his homily, the bishop
encouraged students to pray the rosary regularly as a means
to discern God’s plan for their lives.
Photo 3: Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde greets students
Feb. 11 following the eighth-grade Vocations Mass at Holy
Spirit Church in Annandale.
Photo 4: St. Thomas More eighth-graders file into a bus
headed to the Vocations Mass at Holy Spirit Church in
Annandale Feb. 11. Around 1,200 students attended the annual
Mass.
Photos 5/6: Eighth-graders from St. Thomas More chat and play
games during the ride to the Vocations Mass. The lively bus
ride also included quiet reflections on the Mass and what
their future holds.
Photo 7: Students from Holy Cross Academy in Fredericksburg
listen to the bishop’s homily during the Vocations Mass.
Photo 8: Bishop Loverde celebrates the annual Vocations Mass
at Holy Spirit Church. Fr. Joel D. Jaffe, Arlington diocesan
vocations director, and Fr. John M. O’Donohue, Holy Spirit
pastor, were concelebrants.
