Artwork created by Katherine (Katie) Skrobarczyk, Montessori fifth grade. Students created their own “Good News” slogans and designed bumper stickers to showcase them.
“What is God's calling for me?”
That question can be a bit daunting for people of all ages. For students, who lead busy lives with great demands on their time, this question may not even enter the conversation. Incarnate Word Academy seeks to give students a few moments each day—through prayer—to reflect, give thanks, and maintain their dialog with God—not only to speak with God but also to listen to Him.
IWA regularly holds activities and special events to help young people to consider or discern what God's call is for them—their vocation.
“We are all given a universal call to holiness, whether it be as a priest, a single person, a religious, or a married person,” Incarnate Word Academy President Charles D. Imbergamo said. “Each of us is called to do something good for God.”
By making vocations awareness a daily part of students' lives, the daunting aspect of the topic diminishes. The goal is to assist young people to consciously consider God's calling first in order to prepare a purposeful path for the future.
First, Incarnate Word Academy students are blessed with the presence of the Incarnate Word Sisters on campus. In addition to the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament (IWBS) Convent physically located on campus, 10 IWBS Sisters and two sisters from Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity work on campus.
Students have the opportunity to see firsthand the lives of the sisters and talk to them about their experiences as religious. Sister Agueda Oviedo, IWBS, who works in campus ministries for the IWA middle level, loves being with the students. “My desk is located in Mrs. Samaniego's (theology teacher and campus ministry) class. When students have questions about religious life Mrs. Samaniego will ask me to clarify or give my personal account, which I enjoy doing,” Sister Agueda said.
Students on each level of the IWA campus, elementary, middle level and high school, regularly offer prayers for vocations. Additionally, consideration of God's calling is discussed in theology classes.
This year the elementary and middle schools are inviting families to host a statue of the Child Jesus in their homes. A vocations prayer is included with the statue as it travels from home to home. Families are asked to recite the prayer together. In hosting the Incarnate Word, every family in the IWA community can be in solidarity with each other and our diocese, to pray for vocations and to raise awareness for this intention.
IWA middle and high schools also hold annual vocations fairs in which priests and religious from various congregations in the area exhibit information about their orders and talk to attendees about their experiences.
During Vocations Awareness Week, priests and other religious are guest speakers in theology classes to share their vocational stories. Sister Elizabeth Close, IWBS, who teaches Montessori preschool to kindergarten children, shows her students that she was once just like them by sharing pictures of her childhood with her class.
IWBS Sisters host a full calendar of “Come and See” events for single women ages 17 to 30 to visit, to pray, and to reflect with the IWBS Sisters. It is an opportunity to learn the skills for discernment of one's calling. IWA juniors Jaimie Bibby and Dodie Heredia recently attended a “Come and See” event and talked about why they like to go to the retreats.
“Knowing that we are all called for something,” Bibby explained, “I think we should keep all options open and explore them—not close doors before they are opened.” Heredia said, “We always feel welcomed by the sisters. It is easy to just be yourself around them. They are very funny and fun to be around.”
Both girls agreed that to get the most from the experience a person must fully participate in the activities. “You have to read the scriptures and share your reflections,” Bibby said. “It is like Mass. If you don't listen to the liturgy and sing the songs, you won't get a whole lot from it.”
Life moves so fast for young people, that at times it seems that completing the daily tasks can take precedence over remembering why they took on the tasks in the first place. By including vocations awareness as a fundamental part of the IWA experience, students are given the opportunity to regularly consider God's call for them, and moreover, to respond to it.