Every November, National Vocations Awareness Week is celebrated throughout the country in an effort to promote vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.
Assistant Director of Campus Ministry Mr. Liam Byrne described the week as “just for exposure to see what God is calling us to because we are all called to a certain vocation and we cannot be scared to ask God what it is.”
He also wanted students to see that religious life really isn’t that different from our own lives.
“I think a lot of the stigma around religious life is that it’s boring and all they do is pray,” he said. “But, at least from my experience, religious life is a lot crazier and so much more of an adventure.”
At St. Pius X, the week began on Tuesday, November 7 with a visit from Fr. Robbie Cotta, a priest at IHM and our part-time chaplain. He spoke with freshman theology classes and told them his story of how he was led to the priesthood.
On Wednesday, three Archdiocese of Atlanta Seminarians from a seminary in Florida spent the day speaking to students from all grade levels. Jacob Butz, Sean Lee, and Juno Lee shared their journeys to seminary and their hopes for the priesthood as well as answering a variety of questions from curious students.
The day ended with the highly-anticipated student vs. priest basketball game. The student roster consisted of seniors Kyleigh Duncan, Taylor Monaghan, Claire Bingham, Kate Jannetta, Cassidy Payne, as well as juniors Parker Wood, Colin Crosby, Quentin Germann, Mike Dee, Savi Stone, and Luke Williams. Seniors Liam Mullins and Taylor Zimemrman were the managers, and Mrs. Sara Schmitt was their coach
The priests were coached and managed by former St. Pius chaplain Fr. Rey Pineda. He is the Director of Vocations at the Archdiocese, and it was his idea to have the basketball game. The priest team consisted of Fr. Robbie (Immaculate Heart of Mary); Fr. Joe Wagner (Christ the King); Fr. Nick Le (Holy Vietnamese Martyrs); Fr. Paul Nacey (St. Jude); Fr. Bob Frederick (Kennesaw State University Catholic Center); and Butz. With a running 10-minute clock, the game had several lead changes. The students were up 11-10, but Fr. Le was fouled with two seconds left. He stepped to the line for two free throws and missed both, sealing a victory for the students.
On Thursday, Fr John Klein from the Georgia Tech Catholic Center was on campus. Led by senior leader Vincent Casal, he sang songs and played guitar for boys from the Frassati Brotherhood group during lunch periods.
Finally on Friday, Salesian Sisters Amy and Elfie came to speak to students in theology classes about their call to the vocation of sisterhood. They also talked to students, answered questions, and even brought a bubble machine.
Mr. Byrne said about the week, “I would say the main goal is for students to not be afraid and to ask the Lord: ‘What do You want me to do with my life?’ Because at the end of the day, God knows our hearts the best and truly knows us.”
