Formation week for New Vocation Directors

Hi there friends. Been away for a week at the Marillac Center in Leavenworth, Kansas. It has been a long and blessed week. Time for learning, sharing,and growing in our mission and regaining the spirit of what sustains us. How blessed we all are. I am sure all of us came back with the desire to recommense our desire to share the treasure our lives.

First Holy Hour for Vocations at St. John's University

Since they started having a monthly holy hour, I decided to ask if we could have tonights with a vocation undertone. How beautiful it is to gather before the Blessed Sacrament and open all our lives to be touched, called and blessed. It started off a little shaky. Rain has accompanied us all day and when we were about to commence, a heavier downpour came along. Little by little they came, students from the university, our guys in formation. We sang, prayed, and heard the reading from Isaiah, Chapter 6 about his vocation. "Whom shall I send" said the Lord. And we heard Isaiah respond, "Here I am Lord". We read a vincentan vocation prayer and thanked God for each of our vocations. Whatever it may be, may it be for God!

P.S. Today was my birthday. I have many things to thank God for,...family, friends, and for my vocation. Thank you Lord.

From the Irish Vincentian webpage about vincentian prayer

Vincentian Prayer
Our Vincentian prayer has its own particular dynamic, flowing from and leading to action.

We are called to be contemplatives in action and apostles in prayer. Like St. Vincent, the founders of almost all apostolic societies were incredibly active men and women. But were there any among them who were not also known by their contemporaries as persons of deep prayer?

Prayer and action go hand in hand in a healthy Vincentian spirituality. Divorced from action, prayer can turn to escapism – be lost in fantasy and creating illusions of holiness. Similarly, service divorced from prayer can become shallow. It can have a “driven” quality to it. It can become an addiction, an intoxicating lure. It can so dominate a person's psychology that his or her sense of worth depends on being busy.

An apostolic spirituality is at its best when it holds prayer and action in tension with one another. The person who loves God “with the set of his brow and the strength of his arms” knows how to distinguish between theoretical thoughts about an abstract God and real personal contact with the living Lord contemplated and served in his suffering people.

Meet our men in formation in Jamaica, NY

This year we have 13 men in formation at the Miraculous Medal House in Jamaica, New York.



Top row: Gilmar Gamarro, Roberto Rodríguez, Odalis Rodríguez, Mateo Morales. Francisco Serrano, David Serrano, Arnulfo Lovo.

Bottom row: Eric Sánchez, Isaac Ramirez, Leo Tiburcio, Daniel Donace, Noé García and Juan Girón.

Please keep them in your prayers. I will be posting photos of the other men who are at different stages of formation. All the best. Fr. Astor

He's got the whole world in His hands

I haven't been able to get this song out of my head all day. I know it's a old song, but the power behind it is amazing. God has the whole wide world in his hands. Loving and mercifully he holds his creation. Still animating to live in the fullness of his presence. Still giving us the freedom to choose to follow or not. God awaits and calls over and over. When will all discover there is no better place to be.