Wednesday, 10 October 2018 09:11

Seeking Candidates for our Eucharistic Way of Life

 

The Province of the Congregation of Blessed Sacrament in Sri Lanka has entrusted us with the noble task of convincing and recruiting young men who are longing to serve the Church through our Eucharistic Way of Life. The task is quite challenging and demanding at least for two reasons. The young ones today are more attracted towards the materialism and hedonism and it’s very difficult to convince them about God’s Kingdom and its values. Secondly, those young ones who are really motivated tend to join the Diocesan seminaries, where they are recruited while they still attend schools, whereas we encourage them to join us after the schools. Students find it very difficult to wait due to financial and other difficulties. However, we know that those whom we receive into our Congregation are truly motivated and matured.

Towards this end, at present, there are about 110 Candidates in Sinhala Vocation Club and 80 in Tamil vocation club, who are aspiring to enter into SSS Way a Life. They are from Grade 7 to Advanced Level. We create regular contact with them through different means of correspondence and conduct vocation camps, which we call “Come and See”, to continue to motivate them and feed them with the charism of our Congregation. During the summer school vacation, the Scholastics also join us, visiting the homes of these students and encourage them in their studies and future entry into Seminaries. We also make use of preaching at Church feasts, novenas and other parish renewal programs to speak about our Congregation. We have also been successful in visiting Catholic schools and Sunday schools in parishes, where we introduce our way of life to the youngsters, slowly but steadily.

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While we carry out our task with much commitment and dedication, we have also invited each and every religious of our Province to be true promoters of vocations in their respective parishes and institutions. It is also paramount that everyone continues to pray for the vocations, as the Lord of the Harvest may touch the young hearts to respond to His call.

 

Fr. Chaminda Fernando, sss
Fr. Mangalathasan Gnanapragasam, sss
Vocation Directors