Every year the Pastoral team of the Romareda School in Zaragoza, directed by the Augustinian Recollects, dedicates a week especially to the promotion of vocational culture at all levels: Infant, Primary, Secondary and High School. One more year the last days of the school calendar have been celebrated, in the month of June, after concluding exams and other evaluations.
The vocation week began on Monday, June 12, with a prayer centered on the Gospel (the passage of Jesus’ call to John and Andrew to follow him) and the song proposed on the occasion of World Vocation Day: I tell you, by Marta Mesa. Likewise, the poster proposed by the Communication and Publications Commission of the Province was explained: “Listen and pace”.
Then, depending on the day, each class worked on topics related to God’s call to be happy, serve others and give meaning to our lives, adapted according to the school stage of the students.
Vocational week in Primary
On Monday, June 12, a mural was worked on in tutoring that expressed “some pillars” of the Christian life: prayer, charity and community, in such a way that each child would express through a craft their desire to live the Christian life. On Tuesday with the motto “God the Father calls us to serve”, the students of 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade of Primary School participated in a photographic exhibition on the Augustinian Recollect mission in Sierra Leone; the 4th grade students (the vast majority have already made their first communion) listened to the testimony of the Christian life of the Augustinian Recollect Antonio Villanueva and, finally, the 5th and 6th grades of Primary learned about the work of ARCORES in fulfilling the SDGs.
On Wednesday (with the motto “God the Father calls us to follow his Son”), at the heart of the week, the novices from Monteagudo, Navarra, and their teacher Carlito Gomes were invited to share with the students what it means for them to live their call to be Christians as Augustinian Recollects.
In the morning, the novices, in groups of three, visited the Primary classes. They began by showing a video describing a typical day in the Novitiate. Next, each novice or professed briefly shared how they felt called to religious life and, before the question session, the novices encouraged the different classes with dances and games that filled the students of Romareda School with surprise, joy and celebration.
On Thursday, June 15, the “I Festival of Joy” was celebrated, whose objective was to celebrate a distinctive Christian: joy -gift of the Holy Spirit- and the response to a call from God the Father: to be happy. For this reason, each Primary course performed a choreography to pray by dancing and singing to God. The 1st grade students sang to the Virgin Mary; the students of 2nd grade, to God the Father; 3rd and 4th grade, to Jesus Christ; 5th grade of Primary encouraged with a song about the Church and 6th grade of Primary sang and danced a song about God the Holy Spirit. The I Festival of Joy was a success among students and teachers, and it is desired to continue carrying out initiatives in favor of promoting the Christian vocation in childhood.
Finally, on Friday the Primary students participated in the “I Spiritual Cinema Day”, so that the 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students saw the film Ainbo: the Amazon warrior, and the other three grades, “Let’s have the party in peace”.
Vocational week in ESO and Baccalaureate
ESO and Baccalaureate students, depending on the course, carried out different activities to promote vocational culture. To this end, several basic objectives were proposed:
1) “God calls us to be happy and gives meaning to our lives”
The students listened to Diego Blanco, writer, television producer. Diego is the father of a family at Colegio Romareda in Zaragoza, Spain. He shared a talk about the meaning of life and the transcendence in the personal project. The session was entitled: “How to survive until the end of the film.”
Likewise, a series of films that highlighted the dialogue between faith and culture and testimonies of Christian lives were projected for the students: 1st and 2nd ESO: Heaven can’t wait; 3rd of ESO: Contagious Series (testimonies of Christian life) and 4th of ESO and 1st of Baccalaureate: Amen (documentary of Pope Francis conversing with young people and adolescents).
2) “God calls us to serve others”
This year there was also a volunteer exhibition that made the work of Christian associations known in a special way, motivating students (3rd, 4th ESO and 1st BTO) to dedicate part of their time to volunteering. A layman who dedicates his life to the mission of the Church presented his testimony. In this exhibition to promote volunteering among students, we had the help of the Zaragoza Volunteer Coordinator. For their part, the students of 1st and 2nd ESO learned about the work of the Augustinian Recollects in the mission of Sierra Leone.
3) “God the Father calls us to follow Jesus Christ.”
This objective to be achieved in our week was achieved with the visit of the Augustinian Recollect novices from Monteagudo, who shared their Christian testimony.
4) “God calls us to be united”
The students of 1st and 2nd of ESO participated in an escape room organized by the pastoral department and the volunteer students of 1st of Bachillerato of ARCORES. The escape room sought to promote the importance of the family and the role of prayer in its strengthening.
