BAPTISMAL CALL

Sisters spoke about vocations at Masses throughout Diocese

BY PAT PASTERNAK
STAFF WRITER

To increase awareness of the need for religious vocations, the diocesan Vocations Awareness Council sent sisters out to parishes last weekend to speak at Masses.

According to Sister Katherine Hanley, CSJ, director of Vocations for the Albany Diocese, "the response was incredible. We had more requests than we had volunteer sisters."

She said that the Vocations Council wanted not only to underscore the message of Sunday's Gospel (Mark 1:7-11), but also to stand with "our priests at a time when the priesthood is experiencing much stress."

Message

Sister Frances MacKay, LSP, of Latham, volunteered to visit Nativity/St. Mary's parish in Stuyvesant Falls and Holy Family in Stottville.

"I spoke at four Masses," she said, reporting that everyone at the liturgies received her with a warm welcome. "It was wonderful!"

She started her talk with a question, "How many of you know the date of your Baptism?" and said that "people really responded to that."

She also told them that "this day should be a great day in your life because it was the day when we were welcomed into the Body of Christ and also called to service in His Church."

Called

Sister Nora Sweeney, DC, spoke at weekend Masses at St. Brigid's Church in Watervliet. She shared her own baptismal call with parishioners.

"God's call through Baptism has brought me to serve those who are poor," she explained. "Daily, I have been met with the lonely, depressed, those who are homeless and victims of mental illness. I experience the struggle between the powerful and the powerless, conflicts within families, and the separation and alienation of persons."

She told them that through her life as a sister of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent DePaul and through service to others, she has found "meaning in my life, a deeper prayer life and an enriching community life."

"As a married or single person, priest, sister, brother or deacon, we are [all] called to love and glorify God through our love of others and self," she said. "In whatever way God calls us, we need to fulfill that calling by being true to our baptismal commitments."