Youth and Vocations

A Summer Camp in Search of God's Calling

Last month I participated in a summer camp in Mormanno, a beautiful little village at the foot of mount Pollino. Organized by the Center for Vocations of the diocese of Cassano allo Jonio, the week-long camp was set up to help this lively group of kids reflect on their life-calling. It was a challenge, I would say, getting these young campers to think about their life-calling; a challenge that the organizers accepted and in turn used to provoke the campers to think.

When talking about vocations, it’s easy to think only about religious life and the priesthood. There are two typical reactions when the topic comes up: either you embrace the idea or you distance yourself from it. This is what happened when these young campers listened to talks about their vocation. Many of them affirmed that they weren’t at all interested in becoming a priest, a brother or a nun.

In order to dig into the authentic meaning of the word “vocation” we used the character of Pinocchio as an example. It turned out to be a useful means of self-discovery, and day after day I watched the young campers open up more fully to comprehending their personal calling.

We did not experience an extraordinary intervention of the Holy Spirit coming down upon these young people, but they did slowly begin to accept their true calling to grow. One can only grow if one is happy, and therefore these campers are called to happiness. This is their true vocation, everyone’s true vocation: to be truly happy.

This, in brief, was the message Mons. Nuncio Galantino gave the campers while meeting with them. He encouraged them to always be special and happy, to bring this knowledge to bear on their daily lives, entering each day with courage.

This message is not only true for the campers, but also for each of us, because our calling is a “supreme,” most beautiful, happiness: to be children ceaselessly loved by God. For this reason it is impossible for us to not enjoy the “taste” of each activity, each work that our hands undertake; hands that have the capacity to create something great.

Having observed the difficulty of these young campers in reflecting on their vocation, I stopped to think about their expectations with regards to us camp counselors. I believe they desire something “different,” something better from us, and before this expectation I once again sense that I am a brother of Francis of Assisi, sent directly from Assisi to testify to them about my life with Christ, even through a simple smile, a hug, a chat.

When it was time to depart the camp I felt like a pilgrim, free and light, just as Francis desired us to be. I will no longer be with these kids, I won’t have a further role in observing and guiding their growth, but I take with me the joy of having been for them more than a guide, a brother: a simple friar...

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