Editorial

Numbers, Visitation, Struggle
In vocation ministry we cannot enter the "market game" and seek results proportional to our investment. We must seek to struggle, even with God,
and to have our assurance challenged.
By Fr. John Bruno, RCJ

Special Section

Seminarians in the Five Continents
It would seem then that the period of crisis of priestly vocations, following the Second Vatican Council, is overcome and that the improvement is consolidated. This overall tendency still hides very different numbers in various continents.
By Professor Enrico Nenna

USA Priestly Ordination in 2010
Relevant information about the ordination class of 2010
USCCB Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations

Vocations

Ten Years of Pastoral for Vocations in Brazil
We cannot deny that a lot of vocational action has already taken place in our Church, in the diocesan teams, and Christian communities. The spirit of prayer for vocations was created in every place; yet we still encounter communities who are disheartened.
By Fr. Adalibio Barth

Third Vocational Congress in Brazil
The general objective is to deepen the theme of "Missionary Disciples" to the service of vocations, in a ministerial church, and in the building of the reign of God.
CMOC-CNNB (Episcopal Pastoral Commission of Brazil)

The Following of Jesus Christ by Women Religious
This is the first in a series of articles that will consider the enduring and foundational themes of religious life.
By Eloise Rosenblatt, RSM

Religious Life in the USA
2009 NRVC and CARA findings

Apostolic Visitation of Institutes of Women Religious
in the United States

Bible

Jacob: Vocation as Struggle
Every call is a continuous fight with God.
Blessed is the person called who in this fight accepts to lose and surrender!
By Fr. Amedeo Cencini, FDCC

Poem: Bent over Women
Jesus stood up for me and, for all those bent over by injustice,
hatred, fear, or sickness.
By Sr. Barbara Mayer, OSB

Vocation Witness

Father Don Buhr and his "Gift from God" Elijah
Father Don smiles at the dog, who parishioners have dubbed
"our leader." Father Don calls him "a real priest dog."
By Pamela Selbert

Rose-Hawthorne-the Other Cancer Saint
This cultured woman would undergo another conversion with its call
to minister to people her proper and formal society marginalized.
By Sr. Lou Ella Hickman, OSB

Spirituality

A Co-Feast of the Heart of Jesus
There is an already formed cultural disposition on Valentine's Day to understand the gift of the heart; so why not celebrate the greatest heart gift of love of all time that of Christ crucified whose heart burst asunder for us?
By Rev. Michael Wensing, STL

Psychology

When One's Will Won't
The paralysis of the will is an exceedingly common phenomenon, possibly even more prevalent in today's culture than in pre-industrial cultures.
By Bruce L. Thiessen, Ph.D.

News on Vocations

• USA:Welcome Coadjutor Archbishop Jose H. Gomez to Los Angeles
• USA: Bishops launch national website to promote vocations
• China: Recent statistics on vocations in continental China
• Japan: Vocation blog on the internet
• Haiti: Difficult situation of seminarians
• Italy: Cloistered nuns
• By Gianni Epifani, Mondo Voc Rome, and Vocations and Prayer Staff