For Religious Educators: Vocation Lesson Plans

VISION Vocation Guide and the VISION Vocation Network are great resources for for encouraging youth and young adults to take time to discern their life direction. 

LESSON PLANS TO PROMOTE VOCATION AWARENESS AND PERSONAL DISCERNMENT:

VISION Vocation Guide

For teachers: Make sure to order copies of the current issue-its free and comes with a classroom poster. Order VISION bookmarks as well. Hang the poster in a prominent place.

For students:

• Read an article from the current issue of VISION Vocation Guide and write a short reflection on what you found most interesting and surprising.
• Read the articles in the Being Catholic section of the current VISION. Write about what "being Catholic" means to you.
• Browse through the community ads in the print guide or online. Design your own ad for a community of your choice . . . OR . . . Pick out an ad that really catches your attention, and tell why.

Vocation Match

For Teachers: Depending on the age of your students, you may decide to go through the Match together rather than independently to help explain the some of the terminology. You may jump to the results page at any time to get a sense of the diverse communities that participate in the Match.

For students:

• Use Vocation Match as a self-assessment/discernment tool. What did you learn about yourself? Were you surprised by the religious communities you matched with? Use the Match process as a starting point to learning more about the communities with whom you matched. 
• Pick a community with whom you matched and find 10 facts about their history and main ministries.
• Write a short report on the founder or key figure in one of the communities with whom they matched.

Quizzes

• Take our Spirituality Quiz to find your spirituality type. Have the students learn more about these major spiritural figures (Thomas, Augustine, Ignatius, and Francis) and spiritual movements.
• Take the Celibacy quiz to see how well suited you are for living the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.

Social Networks and blogs

• Visit our social network pages; like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
• Sign up for our E-Vocation newsletter as well as our Take Five for Faith brief daily meditations.
• Check out our SpiritCitings blog. Find an interesting story and create and send an online response to the person highlighted in the blog post
• Read through our digital and print editions and check out articles online. Use these articles to find out more information on religious life, different forms/styles of prayer, etc.

Opportunities/Service/Events

• First and foremost, encourage parish and community involvement among your students: altar service, lector, choir, retreats, volunteer at school and parish fundraisers, community outreach, scouts, justice campaigns.
• Go to the VISION Calendar to search for upcoming Religious-Community sponsored events in your area.
• Contact a sister, brother, religious priest in your area and ask them to visit your class and talk about how they found their vocation. Most sisters, brothers, and priests have great "call" stories.
• Have young people come up with questions and use our Ask Alice for answers to their questions

Check out these other links for articles for more in depth information about vocations:

Pray all ways—three ways to begin

17 questions about church vocations

FAQs: Frequently asked questions about vocations

A user's guide on the ways to pray

Religious life timeline

10 great things about being Catholic