Developing a vocation culture on a college campus

AS A CHAPLAIN AT A SECULAR UNIVERSITY on Prince Edward Island, Canada, I am quite comfortable with the language and the lens of “vocation culture”—live your baptism well and your specific vocation will become clear, whatever it might be. I hope to share here some of the ways I am present to students and accompany them in developing their awareness of God’s call in their lives.

We know from the NRVC Study of Recent Vocations to Religious Life that many of the newer members of religious institutes contemplated their calling around the time of college. “Seven in 10 (70 percent) considered religious life by the time they were 21, with half (51 percent) doing so by the time they were 17,” the study reported.

We also know that 37 percent of newer religious learned about their community “in an institution where members served.” An identical number, 37 percent, learned about religious life via campus ministry. Clearly it is important for both laity and religious engaged in campus ministry to create vocational awareness and support vocation exploration and discernment.

In my work as a campus minister, vocation is one of 12 priorities. Canadian Catholic Campus Ministry borrowed and then modified a comprehensive model of ministry, first framed by youth ministry folks. We have 12 pieces to our pie and “fostering a culture of vocations” is one. In our program planning on campus, we try to touch on each of the 12 elements. In 11 years of campus ministry, we have never hit all 12 every year. Still, I don’t feel that vocation gets left out, but rather I see it permeating everything we do. But when I say “the vocational aspect of my ministry is part of everything,” it can seem empty, in the same way that we say “when everyone does it, no one really does it.” The challenge is to show specifically what the vocational culture looks like on my campus. Following are ways we deliberately foster this culture.

Accompaniment in many forms

I get to accompany the 60 percent of Catholic young adults who are involved in faith related groups and activities outside of attending Mass. These are students who might not attend liturgies every week but want to take part in volunteer service work, attend a prayer service, demonstrate on behalf of a social justice cause, and so on. I walk with them as they get to know their own passions and interests, an important vocational step.

Our Catholic Student Association at the university goes on an annual weekend retreat. Students are involved in the planning, and a popular topic is often prayer and vocation. My role is to tap into a network of discerners and young religious to offer input. “How did you know?” is a big question students ask the younger religious. “Why do you stay?” is more my speed. We try to offer witness talks for the four lifestyle vocations: marriage, ordained life, consecrated life, and single life. Single life as a vocation (as distinct from those who are single while looking) is a challenge for us.

Another challenge in campus ministry is that our students graduate! I have learned one year is not the same as the next. One year, our annual weekend retreat group wanted silence, even more silence than we had initially put in the schedule. The following year we almost had a mutiny when I suggested a prayer time leading to a silent break. Flexibility is important.

We also host a Lenten Busy Student Retreat, offering students the experience of spiritual direction and prayer with scripture. Our retreat directors are amazed that some of our Catholic young adults have never prayed with scripture. Many of them have a Bible from a Teen Encounter retreat our diocese hosts. They know devotional prayers. But a personal relationship with Jesus—knowing they are unconditionally loved by God—we encounter less frequently. Having a deep relationship with God is the foundation of every Christian vocation. Furthermore, some of our retreat directors are members of religious communities, giving students that all-important direct contact with religious.

Another part of my role in accompanying students on their faith journeys is to translate from English to English. An evening on “decision-making” drew a great cross section of students from various faiths and no faith. When I had presented the same material saying the evening would focus on “discernment,” far fewer people attended. For them, “discernment” is a heavy topic and more specific to religious life. But the vocabulary of decision-making is far more accessible and attractive.

A big part of accompaniment is listening. Campus ministers such as myself often are there for students during pivotal moments of decision. We listen. When appropriate, we provide accurate information and pastoral advice. Here are some examples.

• After one World Youth Day a student came back having met a religious community that is not in our diocese. She met with me, and I connected her with a spiritual director. She maintained contact with the community and joined them last fall as a postulant.

• A man in our diocese was applying for the seminary. While I was not directly involved in his discernment, he came to talk when he was asked to complete the inventory for the psychological assessment. I helped him to understand what it is, why dioceses and religious communities do this, and what to expect.

• Sometimes I get to listen to women who want to discern religious life. Some feel called to religious life but are discouraged with the limited role for women in our church or the church’s limited understanding and teaching about sexuality and inclusion. I am currently meeting with a young woman, a recent Catholic, who feels called to religious life but gets discouraged. She loves Mass and Eucharistic Adoration. She appreciates the sacrament of Reconciliation. But when the Vatican issued a document in 2021 about clergy “not blessing sin,” she stopped her discernment with my community and looked to another Christian church. She is now back, having met a few religious who are feminist theologians. Our conversation continues.

• A newer member of my community is here teaching on campus. She has also met with these three discerners I’ve named above. She offers them a more recent experience of formation, an experience that is more relevant to those I meet.

ATTRACTING PEOPLE AND MAKING THE VOCATION CONNECTION

ONE UNIVERSAL truth is that if there is free food, young adults will come, especially university students. We have “Soup for the Soul” events for the full community, not just for the Catholic students. These are well attended.  I take part as “Sister Sue,” and I do the welcome. I say to them, “I hope this event not only feeds your belly but touches your heart.” I promise to pray for them. This is getting into the language of faith, the language of vocation—what touches our hearts? What moves us? What do we pray for?

Presence at events, post-college support

As a campus minister I often get invited to speak at social justice events. Most recently, that included a Peace in Palestine rally and an anti-homophobic-bullying candlelight vigil. I am on the program as “Sister Sue.” My presence conveys a message about Catholic vocation without saying a word on that topic. Events that are not planned by me or the chaplaincy center are as important as the ones we do plan. Our students have such varied interests and passions. Can I support their quest for meaning? Yes, by showing up! Standing in silence, speaking at the podium, even sitting in the bleachers during a basketball game—religious life can be there.

During their time as students, I can be present and accompany these young adults. However, I see a gap in the transition moments in the lives of young adults. Graduation is one. We have created a welcoming, nurturing environment here on campus. We accompany student Christian leaders in their development and strive every day to make our world a better place. And then they graduate. Whoosh … they’re gone. Some even ask to come back for our liturgies and retreats as they cannot find their niche in our local parishes.

In an effort to respond to that gap, my religious community sponsored a supportive housing project called Visitation Place. Our idea was to have University of Prince Edward Island graduates live in the other half of a duplex where our CND community lives and occasionally share with the sisters in meals, prayer, service, and outreach. I discussed the project idea with students as it was taking shape, and their response was positive. Graduates from the local area already had housing with their families, so the graduates who came and stayed at Visitation Place were mainly from Nigeria and Kenya, along with a few locals. The local pastor agreed to preside at a weekly 6:30 p.m. Mass, and the women invited friends back to the house afterward. We spread the word about this house through word of mouth, and once established, the young women used social media to publicize the young adult events and activities that emerged.

Not only were we sisters part of the home these young graduates formed, we became their community, their support network. Visitation Place was their space and became their church! We launched this project in 2017, and it was an exciting time. Today four of the six women are now married, and two have begun their young families. They are living their Catholic vocations vibrantly and sharing that vibrancy with the church.

Visitation Place offered these women and their friends a place to shape an environment that suited their needs. They formed relationships in the parish, serving in various ways: lector, Eucharistic minister, finance committee member, and hospitality committee member. We created the space, and they stepped in and stepped up. Yes, longstanding parishioners even stepped aside to allow the parish leadership of these young women to take root.

Visitation Place lasted long enough to maintain its creative energy, prayerful roots, and social outreach. The pandemic shifted that energy. After four years, the project reached completion, and the women remain involved in the parish. By staying connected to the church after graduation, these young people have a better chance of long-term commitment to the church in whatever vocation they follow.

From starting Visitation Place to listening to students in discernment, these are just some of the ways we walk alongside our young adults to help them grow in their faith and their understanding of God’s call. When I take stock of the many activities of our chaplaincy center, I admit that sometimes I don’t know whether we do enough. Part of my massive job description is a written annual report and follow up interview with our bishop. I told him one year that I was having trouble making my report sound Catholic enough. He reminded me that everything I do is Catholic enough. And today I might add everything is vocation culture enough.

Sister Susan Kidd, C.N.D. belongs to the Congregation of Notre Dame Sisters. She has been active in vocation ministry in one form or another for decades. Since 2010 she has been a campus minister at the University of Prince Edward Island, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

This article is based on the author’s presentation for the 2022 webinar series: “Religious Life Today: Learn it! Love it! Live it!”  Find this presentation in video form, as well as the rest of the series, at nrvc.net/webinars.

Related articles

“Accompanying college students,” by Sister Nicole Trahan, F.M.I., HORIZON, Winter 2022.

“Talking to college students: two ways to build relationships,” by Sister Paula Jameson, I.H.M. and Sister Regina Marie Fronmuller, O.S.U., HORIZON, Winter 2018.