There are many ways that you can commit your time and money at the service of the Church and all of them have their place. Our Serra Club is the only one specifically dedicated to the support of priestly and religious vocations! While we meet regularly every month, it is our dedication to building up the vocation culture that really sets us apart.
For the past 40+ years, our Serra members have been going into Catholic high school classrooms to speak to the young men and women about the need to discern God's purpose for their lives. Each year we speak to more than 300 men and women and we do our best to plant seeds that the Lord can nurture.
To celebrate the new priests and deacons of our Archdiocese, the Serra Club provides a reception in the Undercroft of the Cathedral of St. Peter in Chains following the ordination masses. By doing so, we provide opportunities for many men and women not only to receive the first blessings of these newly ordained men, but also to meet them and be inspired to seek this vocation.
The Serra Club annually provides a dinner for all the priests of the Archdiocese prior to the Chrism Mass during Holy Week. This event provides the priests a time to relax and enjoy time with their brother priests with whom they would otherwise have very little time to converse.
For the past three years, members of the Serra Club have gotten together for a mini-retreat led by the chaplain of the club. This morning retreat offers the members a chance to refresh our commitment to our apostolate and to be reminded of the great power our efforts and prayers can have so long as we persevere.
Over the past couple years, our club has established a good relationship with bulletin editors in every parish across Cincinnati and we send them a list of every religious vocational discernment event we hear about every month. This gives us the opportunity to encourage the discernment of religious vocations to nearly every Catholic in the Cincinnati area. It also helps to show our support of all the great work being done by the religious communities in and around the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
For the past 5 years, during National Vocation Awareness Week, our Club commits to praying through the entire Bible in 9 days for the increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Details about this year's novena can be found here.
We, as Serrans, know that many priests first heard their calling while serving at the altar as school children. We encourage and support the young men and women who currently are serving the Church in this way by offering them discount tickets to a Cincinnati Reds afternoon baseball game. We join them and thank them for their service and encourage them to continue to stay close to and always be willing to serve the Lord throughout their lives.