ROCKFORD—The annual St. Therese girls’ vocation camp sponsored by the Diocesan Vocation Office welcomed several familiar faces to Bishop Lane Retreat Center June 21-24.

High school senior Eimi Certain of Somonauk was attending her fifth camp, moving for the first time into the camp retreat for girls in 12th grade through college. She called the new level a “deeper” experience for the young women.

“It is so peaceful here,” she added. “You can take a break from all the stress in your life … everyone is so joyful.”

It was the sixth camp for senior Maggie Dietz of Batavia. “This year has been my best so far,” she said of her retreat experience. “I spent more time in prayer … explored my options. This year was the most deep for me.”

Junior Anna White of Capron guessed it was camp number 5, 6 or 7 for her. “I liked hearing all the vocation stories — all so radically different,” she said. “The food was great … and I’m really excited that the bishop is coming again.” Did she have a question for him? “Maybe,” she said with a laugh.

Several girls new to the camp enjoyed it as well.

Marian Central Catholic High School senior Megan McFadden experienced the camp for the first time this year. “I knew sisters were joyful,” but the sisters at the retreat were “radiant (and) so filled with joy and peace,” she said, calling the sisters “good role models of femininity and strength.”

Seventh grader Zeiri Cante of Janesville, Wisconsin, admitted she was “nervous at first” about attending her first vocation camp. Wondering if it would be boring and a matter of sitting and praying all day, she was happy to fit in quickly and be excited about each new day of camp.

“I very much enjoyed the sisters,” she concluded.

One of the sisters described as joyful by several campers was Sister Joachima Celinska, a Dominican sister from Immaculate Conception Province and a first-timer at the camp.

“We have played Frisbee, water games, basketball, heard talks, a bonfire, Mass, adoration, and had a lot of fun sharing our vocation stories,” Sister Joachima said. Noting the beauty of the girls’ faith, she said, “Definitely if they want me back, I’ll come!”

It was also the first camp for Rosie Pfundstein, grade seven, of Rockford who particularly enjoyed the skits and also thought that having Bishop David Malloy come to say Mass and answer questions was “really, really awesome.”

The bishop and Father Keith Romke, vocations director, celebrated the closing Mass on June 24, backed by the greenery outside the windows of the youth building at Bishop Lane Retreat Center. It was the feast of the birth of St. John the Baptist, and Bishop Malloy brought that great saint into his homily about asking God, “Where do you want me?”

“Every day you are doing things that build and prepare (you) for the future,” the bishop said, noting that people nowadays can be like St. John was long ago: not knowing where the future will lead, but living and rejoicing in the presence of Christ.

Reflecting on the first reading, Bishop Malloy noted that “God says I knew you in the womb, I have a plan for you … something that I want you to do.”

“God doesn’t know us as (just) faces in the crowd,” the bishop said.

Knowing that God “has some place where you (will) have peace of heart in His plan,” Bishop Malloy said, makes the process of discovering a vocation to religious life or to “the great sacrament of marriage … a little bit less worrisome.”

That bottom-line question of “where do you (God) want me?” he added, is also easier to ask when we remember that God cares about each individual.

“God is not guessing (about his plan for you),” he said. “He’s not throwing a plan together (for you) at the last minute.”

After the Mass, the bishop spoke briefly about the importance for the campers to be “getting a sense of how normal all this (religious life) can be.” He then spent several minutes answering questions from campers and sisters alike.

Those questions began with a camper who wondered if dreaming about a particular vocation means it is the vocation for you. The bishop spoke of a couple of saints’ experiences, cautioned about trusting what might be simply a “moment of enthusiasm,” and noted that calls can come in all kinds of ways over time.

Asked where to start reading the Bible, he suggested taking the Bible in “little, bite-sized pieces,” perhaps reading the Gospels first, the book of Genesis, the letters of St. Paul, and the Gospels’ Passion stories on Fridays. He also recommended reading a page or story, then closing the book to think about what was read and to “let God speak to your heart.”

Responding to another question, Bishop Malloy shared how the upcoming Year of Mercy is meant to help raise understanding about the mercy that “is here all the time and won’t end at the end of (that) year (of mercy).” He also spoke to a question about loneliness, calling it a “reminder that this world is not” our final home and something to “help us understand (and value our) friendship with Jesus.”

The bishop, however, when asked, refused to identify his favorite pectoral cross, noting that several bishops had gifted him with such crosses, including Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta who had given him the cross he wore that day.

The final question was if he had any prayer intention for them. Bishop Malloy asked the girls to pray for their peers — known and not known. He asked them to “joyfully live your witness,” to share the faith at right moments, but especially “to pray for their conversion of hearts.”