Affirming Priests and Promoting Membership

From the Serra Club of South Suburban Minneapolis

The Serra Club of South Suburban Minneapolis has started a new program of honoring and affirming our priests in our area. A member from the affirmation committee or vocation committee arranges a date with each priest to attend one of his masses in a group.

We offer our Mass and Communion in a spiritual bouquet card in thanksgiving for his vocation. We also include a small gift card as a token of our appreciation. We usually have one member lead us as we pray over Father after Mass.

We invite Father to attend breakfast with us if he has time. Some priests say a little something about the Serra Club and acknowledge us. This program was modeled after the SW Denver Serra Club’s program.

We have found this is a good way to publicize Serra. Some newcomers have started joining us for the masses and then expressed an interest in our group. We also pass out little notices about our upcoming meeting to the daily Mass attendees. We use the fourth Friday of the month to help members set their schedule.

How to conduct this program:

Steps:

1. 1. Call the priest.
   Tell them of our program
   See which month works for them
   2. Send a follow-up letter and scout out a convenient location for breakfast (parish secretary can usually recommend this).
   3. Call or email Father a reminder we are coming.
   4. Remind Serra members to come with phone or email message.

Feel free to email jcozzens@msn.com with any questions or clarifications.

SAMPLE LETTER

Date

Fr. …………………….
St. John the Evangelist
6 Interlachen Rd.
Hopkins, MN 55434

Dear Fr. …..,

The Serra Club of South Suburban Minneapolis has started a new program of honoring and affirming our priests. We are attending a Mass celebrated by the priest and offering our Mass and Communion in a spiritual bouquet in thanksgiving for his vocation. We also present the priest with a card and small gift as a token of our appreciation.

It was good to talk to you recently. We will be at St. John the Evangelist on Friday, July 25, 2008 at your 8:00 a.m. Mass. We are hoping nothing comes up so you can have a short breakfast or coffee with us after Mass.

Our club is here to serve you and we look forward to working together in the future to promote more religious vocations. If you need to reach me, my phone is ……………… and my email is jcozzens@msn.com.

God bless,

Judy Cozzens
Vocation Chairman

Return to Top