ST SERRA VOCATIONS MINISTRY
Message from our Leadership

Dear Fellow Serrans and Followers,

When my wife, Anita, and I travel to Rhode Island, we often attend a church in Bradford, only 10 minutes from our house there. The church is St. Vincent de Paul parish. For all of the times that we have attended Mass there, I have never known much about the history of this saint….whose feast day is the 27th of this month. I decided to learn.
 
Saint Vincent de Paul, born in 1581, was a French Catholic priest who devoted himself to helping the poor. In 1622 Vincent was appointed a chaplain to galley slaves, often criminals sentenced to “work at the oar”. After working for some time in Paris among these men, he became the leader of what is now known as the Congregation of the Mission, or the "Vincentians". These priests, with vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability, were expected to dedicate themselves totally to serving people in smaller towns and villages. 
 
In addition to his commitment to the poor, Vincent was passionate about leading retreats for clergy at a time when there was a great deal of permissiveness, abuse, and ignorance among the priests. He was a pioneer in the proper training of clerics and was influential in founding a number of seminaries where young men learned the traditional ways of the church.  In that role, he instituted the Congregation of the Mission and Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul.
 
Vincent died in September of 1660 and was canonized in June of 1737. Today, there are churches, schools, charities and even a housing development built for the less fortunate…all in his name.  
 
While very few priests in today’s world will ever earn the degree of respect, admiration and veneration of someone like Vincent de Paul, every seminarian and eventual priest should strive to exemplify the values and objectives of one like Vincent. Let us pray, therefore, for those who hear and follow God’s message to seek vocations within our church, be they priestly, deaconate or religious. Give them all the strength to listen to His words and follow them to a greater mission in their lives.
 
God bless you all,
 
Thom Field
President
St. Serra Vocations Ministry
From The Editor

Welcome to the St. Serra Vocations Ministry Newsletter.

This months edition is focused on Priesthood Sunday.

Say a Prayer for your Priests.

O Jesus, I pray for your faithful and fervent priests;
for your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields;
for your tempted priests;
for your lonely and desolate priests;
for your young priests;
for your dying priests;
for the souls of your priests in purgatory.
But above all, I recommend to you the priests dearest to me:
the priest who baptized me;
the priests who absolved me from my sins;
the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way (especially …).
O Jesus, keep them all close to your heart,
and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity.
Amen.


Please contact us if you have any questions or are interested in joining Serra, or starting a Parish Vocation Ministry. You can also contact us at Serrabridge@gmail.com

Pax,

Mike Roberts
Please share the bulletin insert below.
Padre Pio a Priest !
Bishop Barron Presents | Shia LaBeouf - Padre Pio and the Friars

It is with profound sadness that we have received word from Bishop Alberto Bustamante Lopez in our sister Diocese of Sicuani, Peru, that two nuns, a seminarian and a young layman were killed yesterday in a traffic accident. Canonesses of the Cross, Sister Mercedes Rosalvina Tasayco Saravia and Sister Thalía Maritza Tuanama Córdova; Arnaldo Usca Capa, a theology seminarian, and Álvaro Enzo Rojas Olivera were killed in the accident. Please keep them and their families in your prayers.
Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace. Amen.
May their souls and the souls of all of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Mother Teresa: No Greater Love Trailer
Igniting the faithful starts with a spark.

Welcome to the Serra Promotion And Resource Kit (SPARK!) Brought to you by the U.S. Council of Serra International.SPARK is a free online collection of best-practices tools in religious vocation ministries-as curated from parishes, dioceses, and religious orders around North America. Click here to learn more about Serra Spark.
Rosary for Vocations: The Joyful Mysteries
Please pray a Rosary at least once a month for Vocations.
Did you know we have a Facebook and a Twitter page ?

The Facebook page features:

  • Daily prayer requests for a Priest, Deacon, Religious order and a seminarian.
  • Priest Anniversary Cards
  • Prayer for the Anniversary of Priests Deaths
  • Deacon anniversary cards
  • Permanent diaconate candidate prayer cards
  • Monthly prayer card for the rector of Redemptoris Mater and a monthly prayer card for the diocesan director of seminarians
  • Weekly prayer card for our vocation directors and a weekly prayer card for our permanent diaconate coordinators
  • Prayer cards for seminarian birthdays
  • Prayer cards for the Anniversary of Deacons Deaths
  • Serra News
  • Pause and Pray
  • The Daily CORE Morning and Afternoon Retreats


Serra Meets with Mother Clare, CFR, August 13, 2022
A Minute with Mike

Mike has been out sick with the virus. We ask for your prayers for our Brother Mike.
The Priests - Ave Maria (Live in Armagh)
DEACON DAVES CORNER

The Promise of Discipleship

Jesus told the crowd that anyone who wants to be His disciple needs to renounce their possessions. Too many limit His command to their material possessions which is too narrow of an understanding of what Jesus is asking of us. We have other possessions to renounce such as fear, anger, pride, anger, lust, gluttony, jealousy, and laziness. It is our unhealthy attachment to any one of these that are the barriers to our being Jesus’ disciple and it is these that He wants us to renounce, then, our material possessions become meaningless to us.   
Renunciation is a process. It is the journey of being Jesus’ disciple, which means we don’t have be perfect we simply have to try and persevere. We begin the process by asking God in Jesus name for the humility to accept the grace to be released from whatever is encumbering us. It is a prayerful plea we make every day and frequently during the day. It is a process that lasts a lifetime as the layers of each attachment are pealed back, but Christ promised that His spirit will always help us.  
To more clearly understand what Jesus has to say about discipleship, read and reread John’s Gospel chapters 14 through 17. When read through the lens of discipleship the promises, risks, and rewards of discipleship have new clarity.  
  
Let us pray for the men and women who are discerning their vocations, that they will submit to the process of renunciation, so that they can be the disciple Jesus is calling them to be.
Thank You for viewing our newsletter.

We ask that you Pray with us on our Facebook or Twitter Page and we ask that you consider becoming a vocation minister.The more volunteers we have the more we can do to help the diocese promote vocations.

Please feel free to share this with anyone you think might be considering a vocation in the church. The biggest thing you can do to influence vocations is just ask someone one simple question. Do you think that you might be a great priest, deacon, sister, nun or brother!

Please contact us if you would like to become a member. We specifically ask our clergy to recommend parishioners that may be able to help build a Vocations Team in your Parish.

Pax Christi,

The St. Serra Vocations of Bridgeport Team
St. Serra Vocations Ministry of Bridgeport