(Los Angeles, California) By Fr. Damien Ho, SDB, Province Vocation Team
Dear Salesian Family,
When the Church speaks about vocation today, she is inviting us to something deeper than programs or recruitment. She is calling us to cultivate a culture! In this culture, we are called to create an environment where young people can hear God’s voice, trust His invitation, and respond with freedom and joy. This begins with our witness, by living our own vocations fully and faithfully.
At the heart of it all, vocation culture begins in the family. Studies from the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) show that the family’s faith life is one of the strongest influences on a young person’s openness to their vocation. Parents who give witness to daily prayer, love, and service, give young people a concrete image of what it means to follow Christ.
As members of the Salesian Family, we share in this responsibility as well. Whenever possible, we can encourage families to be protagonists of their children’s discernment. Perhaps this may take shape by asking simple, life-giving questions such as: What gives you joy? What are you grateful for? Where do you sense God at work in your life? How might God be calling you to love and serve others? At the same time, we recognize that not every young person receives this kind of accompaniment at home. In these moments, the Salesian Family becomes an extended spiritual family. Through our presence and our patient listening, we can help young people recognize that their lives have meaning and direction. As Don Bosco reminded us, “it is not enough to love the young; they must know that they are loved.” When young people feel known and loved, they become more open to asking the deeper question of vocation, and to trusting that God’s call is for their good.
Pope Francis reminds us in Christus Vivit that authentic vocation discernment grows through accompaniment: walking with young people, listening without judgment, and helping them recognize how God is already at work in their lives (cf. Christus Vivit, §§220–226). This way of accompaniment is deeply Salesian. We do not rush discernment, nor do we impose answers. Instead, we create spaces where young people can reflect, pray, serve, and belong. All of this, is of course, the work and fruits of a Salesian oratory experience, where those called to accompany the young live their faith with joy and integrity.
In this sense, Salesian youth ministry is vocation animation. Vocation is not an added layer to our ministry; it is the fruit of it. When our schools, parishes, youth centers, and programs foster prayer, community service, and meaningful relationships, young people naturally begin to ask: What is God calling me to do with my life? Because Salesian ministry is youth ministry, all of us in the salesian family: confreres, sisters, cooperators, parents, educators, volunteers, and other lay collaborators, we all share the responsibility for nurturing this culture.
What it boils down to is this: young people are drawn to lives lived with joy. Before we invite others to discern, we must first live our own vocations with authenticity. A joyful salesian presence becomes the most convincing invitation of all. As Pope Paul VI reminded the Church, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
As a Salesian Family, may we continue to be places of welcome and trust, where young people are accompanied patiently, invited courageously, and supported generously as they seek to discover who God is calling them to be.