Vocation Update: Spring Insight & Wisdom Online

HNP Communications Around the Province

NEW YORK — The spring issue of the Franciscan Vocation Ministry’s quarterly publication Insight & Wisdom is now available online. The eight-page newsletter can be found under “Communications” on the Province’s Web site, as well as on the Vocation page.

Featured topics in the Spring 2009 issue:
• An Easter reflection about resurrection and discipleship by Russell Becker, OFM, director of HNP’s Franciscan Missionary Union
• “Choosing the Franciscans” featuring Linh Hoang, OFM
• A new feature on Franciscan discernment by John Maganzini, OFM
• “The Lord Gave Me Brothers” featuring reflections from Thomas Cole, OFM, Christopher Coccia, OFM, and Fred Dilger, OFM, on their vocation as brothers
• A focus on the initial formation program
• Recommended reading
• A report on the rising popularity of vocation weekends

About Insight & Wisdom
The publication is produced by Vocation Director Brian Smail, OFM, and assistant Carolyn Croke, with editing and design by Jocelyn Thomas and Rebecca Doel of HNP’s Communications Office.

Insight & Wisdom has been published for more than seven years by the Province. Issues published since 2006 are available online. The publication is aimed at men discerning a call to the Franciscan way of life. It is distributed to all HNP friars and mailed to men who have contacted the Vocation Office.

Other Vocation News

The Vocation Ministry’s “Life Shift” ad, originally seen on New York City’s subway system, can now be seen on ESPN Radio’s Web site. The ad went live on the site during the “March Madness” basketball season and just in time for the opening games of Major League Baseball. It will also appear in forthcoming issues of St. Bonaventure University’s magazine Bonaventure and VISION, a magazine focused on religious vocations.

HNP’s Vocation staff is pleased with attendance at its recent weekends.

Following a Come and See Weekend in early December attended by seven men at St. Anthony Shrine in Boston, the Vocation Office organized additional weekends. The extra gatherings were held in March at St. Francis of Assisi Friary in Manhattan and early April at St. Anthony Shrine. A total of 10 guests attended the two weekends. Five men have also participated in Franciscan Experience Weekends (FEWs) recently.

To see the “Life Shift” ad and read more about Franciscan Vocation Ministry, including biographies of “student friars” and how to contact the vocation director, visit “Join Us” on the Province’s Web site.