January 7th-9th we attended the regional FOCUS Conference, which was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in St. Paul. (FOCUS stands for Fellowship of Catholic University Students). The conference theme was Answer the Call; over 1,000 college and university students from all over the upper Midwest were in attendance.
It was a wonderful opportunity to Network with young women interested in religious life. Sr. Maria Francis took part in a vocation panel, speaking about the charism of St. Jeanne Jugan and our work internationally and our fourth vow of hospitality.
Says Sr. Maria Francis, a native of New Zealand, “Sr. Emmanuel Maria and I both loved the conference. It was a great encouragement that there are young who are really searching for their call. They are open to the invitation! The vocation panel went very well; it was informal but very comfortable. Since we were the only international congregation there, I focused on that, along with our vow of hospitality.”
Sister concludes, “Today I received an invitation from Newman Center at U of M Mankato for their Vocation Fair and St Cloud State University Newman Center wants to come to the home on January 29th to do some volunteering. All this came as result of our networking during the Conference….”
Please join us in prayer for the wonderful young people we met at FOCUS!
FOCUSED on youth