You are not going to have all the answers, until you take that next step.

A fear of not having all the answers is stopping a lot of young women from seeking a beautiful vocation as a religious sister, says an Franciscan sister from Illinois in a new video.

“That’s where the fear is,” explains Sr. Michael, of the Daughters of St. Francis of Assisi. “The person is hesitating to take that next step because they don’t have all the answers. You are not going to have all the answers, until you take that next step. And then the answers will come.”

In a candid, unscripted video interview, Sr. Michael, Vicar Provincial of the congregation, provides fresh insight on overcoming reluctance in pursuing a vocation, but on the spiritual benefits of living in a community dedicated to following Christ through the life of St. Francis.

“Let me tell you what it’s like to be in a community of sisters,” Sr. Michael explains in a surprisingly-popular 10-minute video, which has been viewed nearly two thousand times in its first week. “It’s a mystery at first because you realize that there is a spiritual bond with each one of them…. We all come from different parts of the world and different parts of the country. Yet we all have that bond, that common bond…. That bond follows us into eternity.”

The video also features an interview with the congregation’s bishop, Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky, Bishop of Peoria, who says, ”I am very happy to say I have great admiration for the zeal of the Daughters of St. Francis of Assisi.”

The Sisters’ provincial motherhouse is in Lacon, IL, and the congregation has its general house in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. They have been operating St. Joseph Nursing Home in Lacon since 1964.

The video, “Living the Radical Love of St. Francis,” can be seen on the Lacon Franciscan Sisters’ website.

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“This is the first social network we know of for religious vocations,” Banet said. “We invite others to go to it, at Spouse of Christ, and to sign up for a profile.” Although the website is not complete, Banet encourages others to look it over and get the feel of it.

“We will have articles on religious life from many women’s communities,” Banet said. “Members will be able to comment on others’ posts, and in many ways it will function like Facebook. The difference is that this will be a watershed of articles, aids, and links to religious communities, and will be exclusively devoted to women religious vocations.”

TreeFrogClick is the creator of Great Catholic Websites as well.

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1. The Mystery Emailer

Vocations directors often sign their letters, “Sr. Mary Michael,” with no indication which community the email is coming from. What if the candidate is getting emails from other vocation directors?

Here’s what I suggest:

Put your community name automatically in the closing of your email.

This can be done in programs such as Outlook, so that as soon as you begin to write your email, the closing appears in the email. Five clicks in Outlook will take you to the screen to set this up. See the short YouTube tutorial: “How to Create an Email Signature in Outlook.”

Example:

Sincerely,
Sr. Mary Michael
Sisters of the Stigmata
Holy Hill, WI

2. Who’s this Gmail Person?

Another problem is that the vocation director’s email address often does not indicate which community they are from. “SrMaryMichael@gmail.com” does not mean much, but SrMaryMichael@sistersofthestigmata.com tells you exactly which community the email is coming from.

This will help:

Make your email address contain your website name.

Having your website name in your email immediately identifies you. You can get one or more such emails if you have a web address, at no ongoing fee. To get SrMaryMichael@sistersofthestigmata.com, contact your webmaster. If I am your webmaster, I will be happy to help you.

Website Need a Facelift?

Do you need to add a few pictures to your website, or a new page, or is it time for a complete site redesign?

What we at TreeFrogClick can do for you:

• Add/change pictures to website
• Redesign website
• Add a blog to your website
• Set up a Facebook page and instruct you on how to use it
• Set up an enewsletter with a company such as Constant Contact and show you how to use it
• Make a short vocations video for YouTube

Take a look at what we can do for you on this website and contact Kevin J. Banet at 708-393-4098 or email him.

Why can't I just have fun?

During a homily today the priest said that children are born into the world like unknowing pagans, and that Catholic families must teach their children the faith through various means. That makes sense according to my experience.

One day when I was teaching my son, then five, about the importance of praying to God and loving Jesus, he surprisingly responded, “But I just want to have fun.”

Yes, have fun. But what you really seek is happiness, I told him. And you can be truly happy only if you follow God. So you might as well love God and find out all about Him.

Pictures and statues in the home as well as regular prayers together are good ways to pass along the faith to our children. The media, including religious movies and websites are important, too. When a child uses educational TV, video games, and websites, many of them are helpful, but so woefully lacking in the spiritual dimension that you wonder, “what planet are these producers coming from?” Christianity is the missing link in the picture — the elephant in the room that everyone ignores.

The PBS show, The Book of Virtues, comes close, but one would hope that Christianity would make a stronger presence in the media today. What can you do to bring the balance of Christianity into today’s media?

He got the award because he stood up to the tidal wave of pressure on Capitol Hill to pass the recent health care bill. Even though President Obama himself phoned him in an attempt to make him cave in and vote for the measure, Lipinski said he “had no struggle” on this issue because “I knew where I had to be.” The congressman from the southwest suburbs acknowledge his Catholic upbringing and discussed the importance of the life issues at the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast. Read more and hear his speech at Great Catholic Homilies.

That’s one reason why we started to offer free podcasts and videos of good homilies — check them out at GreatCatholicHomilies.com. Our podcasts can either be listened to right while you’re at your computer, or they can be downloaded and listened to later on your MP3 player. Personally, I’m not one to walk around with the little device wired to my ear, but I do like to listen to such audios in my office, or in the car at times.

We not only offer audio podcasts, but we’ve matched the homilies to religious images to produce video homilies. So you hear great teaching while seeing pictures that reinforce the teaching. Our first video homily was launched recently on the website, as well as on a number of video sharing sites, and it was watched more than one thousand times in the first two days! That was far beyond our expectations. It is good to see that there is such a hunger for the Gospel. See the homily at “Satan — the silent character in the drama of Easter.”

— Kevin J. Banet, Editor, GreatCatholicWebsites.com

Media expert Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell

A woman who had been an agnostic said she was converted through a “wave of grace” while watching the funeral of Pope John Paul II years ago on EWTN. That was the testimony of Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, a teacher who has worked at the Vatican Press Office. Dr. Mitchell met the woman at St. Peter’s in Rome, and the story shows how great an impact the media has in bringing holiness right to our living rooms.

Modern media present a tremendous opportunity to spread the Gospel, Dr. Mitchell said April 10 at the Institute on Religious Life’s annual meeting in Mundelein, IL. Good art, music and literature are all important, since beauty has a way of evangelizing, she said.

Dr. Mitchell, who has a doctorate in social communications from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, said that modern media has a way of reaching through barriers. “If the public square shuts Christ down, the mass media can reach his home within his four walls,” she emphasized.

When asked a question after her talk about religious communities, she said that people like to see the life of prayer of these groups.

We at Great Catholic Websites have promoting the charism of religious communities through websites and videos for years. We look forward to helping your community.