Does the Hat Really Matter?
by Fr. Timothy Armbruster, C.PP.S., Regional Vocation Director
I grew up wearing a hat on the farm all the time. It was usually some style of a baseball hat. It really didn’t matter to me much what logo was on the front as long as it blocked the sun. People wear hats of all kinds for many different reasons. For some it’s a sign of belonging, for others it’s a fashion statement, and for others it’s just a cover.
Just before Thanksgiving, I along with other members of our Precious Blood Vocation Team, joined 23,000 youth for NCYC 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was three days of excitement, high-energy and youth alive with the Spirit to celebrate our faith and come together as Church. If one has never been, it’s hard to describe the energy and excitement and traditions.
One NCYC tradition is the wearing and trading of hats. Each group attending wears a hat unique in some way to their local with the intention of trading them with others. During one of the morning sessions, Jesse Manibusan, our emcee for the event, welcomed the bishops. With the theme of a train, each of the bishops was given an engineer’s hat with the NCYC logo. As Jesse stood with the same engineer’s hat, he commented he almost called his mom to say, “I’m a bishop.” Then reality struck and that was the end of that thought. As one of the bishops gave the final blessing of our morning session/prayer, he made the comment, “Thank you for the hat.” For as he explained it, it was a welcoming of the bishops as one of us as NCYC’ers.
NCYC is wonderful opportunity to interact with the young church of today. However, the tradition booth and handing out prayer cards or other community insignia doesn’t always get our message out there. This year, we were part of the Inspiration Junction. We, along with NRVC and other religious communities staffed various activities throughout the theme park. This allowed us to interact with the youth in various ways and encouraged conversations. It got us away from just handing out things.
And the hat! It’s just part of NCYC and being with the youth. It was a reminder to each of us on the vocation team to meet the youth where they are. It truly was an invitation to be with the youth in their activity.
The Precious Blood Vocation Formation Conference (PBVFC) met in Ruma, IL, on September 26-28 for our annual gathering. This year our gathering was titled, “Sharing Our Story in Service and Commitment.” We invited Lori Benge, recently appointed Vocation Director of the ASC, and Tim Deveney, Director of the Volunteers for the Kansas City Province, to be our presenters. Lori, having worked with Sr. Rita, shared with us the history and development of the LifeChoice program. Tim shared with us about Emerging Young Adults and their understanding of commitment and service and where he sees the Volunteer program responding to that purpose. He also shared with us an overview of the Volunteer program, how it began, who our Volunteers are, and the ministries in which they are involved. In response to these presentations, we discussed possible ways of how we can continue to support one another in each of our ministries in reaching out to young adults who are discerning his or her vocation. We wish to further explore how to reach out to others via social media and online discernment tools. In choosing the theme, “Sharing Our Story in Service and Commitment,” we believe through telling our story and sharing our spirituality it will encourage others to further explore ministry with us. Through the Volunteer program, we hope to explore some alternate ways of commitment and service that may open some new possibilities of ministry in the future.
Traditionally, the fourth Sunday of October has been designated as Priesthood Sunday. This year that date is October 27. This day was established to bring awareness to the ministry of the Priesthood. Over the past 40 years as the number of priest and religious have declined, it has become more difficult to build meaningful relationships and continue to serve the growing number of Catholics in our community and world.