The Serra Club of North Columbus hosted the annual Young Women Vocation Brunch and Luncheon in October to connect girls in grades six through 12 with religious sisters and encourage openness to consecrated vocations. The club will also host an annual luncheon for young men, which will take place Nov. 10 this year. Both events are held at the Jessing Center at the Pontifical College Josephinum.
The Serra Club is part of Serra International, a lay apostolate with councils throughout the world that support religious vocations in their respective locations. “Our mission is to support the existing vocations, meaning our priests, (deacons) and sisters,” said Tom Rhatican, president of the Serra Club of North Columbus. “We do different events for them, we have different teams that pray from them, … we do a lot for (them).”
The club also supports religious vocations by exposing potential future members to the different orders, which is how the annual boys and girls brunch and luncheons came about 25 years ago. “We’ve kind of stepped up our game, and we’ve really worked on our program,” Rhatican said, “making all of the schools and even the homeschoolers aware of the luncheons, so we’ve had a huge increase (in attendance).”
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Turnouts for the girls’ luncheon rose to such an extent in recent years that dividing the attendees and adding a brunch for younger grades became necessary. “We used to do grade eight through 12, and we were bursting at the seams,” Rhatican said. As a result, the young women’s brunch is now attended by sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders with a luncheon following directly afterward for high schoolers.
“The data shows that (roughly) 50 percent of all young women who become sisters … had an initial attraction to consecrated religious life in grade school,” Rhatican said. “We are trying to foster that opportunity to meet sisters, hear them (talk), hear their stories, talk informally. I know a lot of girls just don’t have the opportunity to meet sisters.”
At the Oct. 13 girls’ brunch and luncheon, more than 500 young women were in attendance to connect with sisters from nine different religious communities. Talks were given by Bishop Earl Fernandes and two sisters from different orders. Sister Jose Mary, a member of the Order of the Most Holy Savior of St. Bridget, located by Columbus Holy Family Church. “We do not make a decision to discern (religious life) on our own. The Lord puts it on our heart, and it is a joy,” she told the girls gathered.
This year, Rhatican said, the Serra Club anticipates a large turnout for the boys’ event. “We anticipate approximately 240 boys from all the area Catholic schools and homeschoolers,” he said.
The luncheon for boys is organized similarly, with Bishop Fernandes set to address the young men this year and an added tour of the Josephinum. “It’s a cool campus and the chapels are beautiful,” Rhatican said. “We’re trying to give the boys (a chance to) ‘picture yourself here’ kind of thing.”
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Boys will also have opportunities to connect directly with seminarians. “The thing I really like – that’s been a big success – is we’ll have 20 to 30 seminarians … from the Josephinum eat lunch with the boys,” Rhatican said. “Then, the same seminarians will take … groups of boys … on the tour through the seminary. So the seminarians play a big part in the boys’ luncheon (and it’s) always a big hit.”
In addition to Bishop Fernandes, the Columbus diocese’s priestly vocations director, Father Michael Haemmerle, will speak to the crowd of eighth through 12 graders.
For more information on the Nov. 10 boys luncheon, visit www.serracolumbus.org/north-chapter.
The Diocese of Columbus celebrates Vocations Awareness Week Nov. 1-7. To learn more, visit Live the Incredible | Columbus Catholic Vocations.
