St. Therese for Girls Kicks Off Trio of Youth Vocation Camps
Poor Clares behind a grill hand out a cloth badge of the Divine Mercy to a St. Therese camper during the girls’ visit to Corpus Christi Monastery on June 21. (Observer photo/Amanda Hudson)
After the 10 a.m. Mass, which was open to the public, half of the St. Therese campers headed downstairs to visit with the Poor Clare nuns while the rest moved to one side of the chapel for a visit with Bishop Malloy. (Observer photo/Amanda Hudson)
Father Keith Romke, diocesan vocations director, listens to Bishop David Malloy as they prepare for a Mass for vocations campers at the Poor Clares’ Corpus Christi Monastery on June 21. (Observer photo/Amanda Hudson)
By Amanda Hudson, News Editor
June 30, 2016

ROCKFORD—Bishop David Malloy celebrated Mass in the chapel at Corpus Christi Monastery here on June 21 for the St. Therese vocations camp.

The camp, held annually for girls and young women, includes a variety of activities — some just for fun, some to introduce campers to religious life, and some to provide time for participants to pray and begin to learn how to ask God what His dreams are for their lives.

“The idea of vocation means you and I live out … the idea that there is a whole plan within the world that God has made,” Bishop Malloy said in his homily. “God has a plan, and it’s part of our faith to work with God and say, time and time again, ‘What is it you want me to do?’”

Listing the three callings those to a single life, to marriage, and to consecrated life, he noted how important it is for young people to deepen their relationship with God in all three, and that the world needs many of them to “be positive and accepting of God’s plan for marriage.”

The vocations camp, he said, provides a special emphasis to help participants begin to discern if the consecrated life — a “particular way to draw close to Christ in a deliberate way for life” — is meant for them.

“If God is calling you to this,” Bishop Malloy said, “He will let you know (and) will give you the grace to do it, to see it through.”

The purpose of the camp, he added, “is because we want to serve God (and) we want you to be happy … We help you to think about how to find” out God’s plan. He recommended laughter, prayers to the Blessed Mother and to trust in Jesus, and concluded, “If you are sincere, He will show you.”

The bishop visited with the campers afterwards, mostly chatting about his favorite saint and some of theirs. He pointed out the saints’ trials and God’s graces, noting God’s great strength and that “somehow, God is going to take care of us.”

The St. Therese Camp is one of three vocations camps sponsored by the diocesan Office of Vocations.

The other two are coming in July: July 10-13 Jeremiah Days for boys and July 17-20 First Call for young men. For more information, contact the Vocations Office at 815-399-4300.