e-Vangelization

The US Bishops will be releasing a new website to promote vocations to the priesthood and the religious life. The opening of the site is set to coincide with the "World Day of Prayer for Vocations," this Sunday, April 25 - "Good Shepherd Sunday." The site, For Your Vocation, is intended to be a resource for those discerning the Call, as well as for parents and educators. Here's a bit of the press release:

The site has two goals:
To help individuals hear and respond to the call by God to the priesthood or consecrated life, and

To educate all Catholics on the importance of encouraging others through prayer and activities to promote vocations.

The Vocations Website can be found at www.ForYourVocation.org. A Spanish-language site will be available this fall at www.PorTuVocacion.org.

Site elements include discernment resources for men and women, respectively, aids for promoting a vocation culture within the home, and a range of tools for educators, youth leaders and vocation directors including prayers, videos, best practices, lesson plans and vocation awareness programs.

In response to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2010 Theme for the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Witness Awakens Vocations, the site also hosts videos of priests and religious men and women giving witness to their vocations, as well as testimonies from family members.

ForYourVocation.org exemplifies the Vatican’s embrace of new communications media. In his message for the 44th World Day of Communications, Pope Benedict XVI challenges clergy to employ the “latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites)” to put the media “ever more effectively at the service of the Word.”

The launch of the site will be promoted through social media forums. Facebook users can become “eVangelizers” for the cause. By becoming an eVangelizer, one can connect others to the Website’s blog posts.

I look forward to being an "e-Vangelizer" along with this site!