From June 4 to 14, about 800 students from first-grade elementary to freshman year were active protagonists and witnesses of various activities to become aware of the Christian vocation and train in vocational culture.
The week began with a prayer to highlight God’s calling. The Gospel story of Jesus’ call to Zaccaeus was shared with the song proposed by JMOV+VN 2024 titled “To be a mission.” Then, the students listened to an explanation as to what the word vocation means and a general presentation of the week’s activities followed.
The motto proposed for the vocational week at the Romareda School, directed by the Augustinian Recollects, was the same used on the World Day of Prayer for the Vocations: God calls you.
Every day of the week, an activity was offered that highlighted the call to a vocation. The key phrases were: “God calls you to be happy,” “God calls you to know his Son,” “God calls you to follow his Son,” “God calls you to serve,” and “God calls you to announce his Son.”
The junior high students had an activity to learn about God’s call to live and to know the plan he has prepared for each of us.
Highlighting the call to happiness, a movie was shown in all the educational stages of the School with the name Spiritual Film Day. The first-year high school students saw and commented on the movie “Sound of Freedom”, while each junior high grade saw different videos such as “The Pope Answers”, “The Contagious Witness”, “Heaven Can’t Wait”, and “The Shack”.
The elementary school students saw several biblical stories from the Superbook series: Ruth, Job, Joshua, David, Daniel, Gideon, and the miracles of Jesus.
A very beautiful activity for the elementary students consisted of celebrating God’s call to be happy in what was called the 2nd º festival of joy, in which each grade during weeks prepared a Christian song to praise God by dancing and singing. The selected songs belong to the “Little Heroes” collection, which highlights the virtues of different Old Testament personalities. An atmosphere of community, friendship, joy, and praise was created.
First and second-grade students were taken to a photographic exhibition of the Augustinian Recollect mission in Sierra Leone, and the rest of the students learned about the Augustinian Recollect mission in China.
Likewise, elementary and junior high students were visited by the Augustinian Recollect novices from Monteagudo (Navarre), who highlighted, through icebreakers and other activities, the call to know Jesus and to follow him. This same message was carried by lay missionaries who collaborated with the Pontifical Mission Societies of the Archdiocese of Zaragoza to all the junior high students over two days.
The call to announce Jesus was left to the testimonies of lay missionaries. We thank Pititia Servera, a doctor by profession who has been a lay missionary in several countries around the world for more than twenty years, to Jorge Viejo, an Aragonese firefighter who shared his missionary experience in Honduras, and Sister Leonor Flores, a Comboni missionary in several countries, including Eritrea in times of war.
Regarding the call to serve others, it was in charge of Nacho Cipres, a committed Christian who encouraged the 1st year high school students to dedicate part of their time to serving others, specifically in non-profit organizations.
The older middle school students saw the exhibition “Put a Face to Volunteering” in collaboration with the Aragonese Volunteer Coordinator. Students were encouraged to volunteer in more than one hundred associations in Zaragoza.
Finally, it is necessary to thank the Pastoral del Romareda team, which has animated the week to raise a vocational culture, to the students for their involvement, and to the teachers for participating and maintaining order in the activities.
