Vocations highlighted at Venerini Academy

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Vocations – especially parenting, teaching and religious life – were highlighted during Catholic Schools Week at Venerini Academy. Eighth-graders hosted a Mass, a religious sister told about her vocation and student council officers and members were inducted.
“You’re here because God wants you to be here in a Catholic school,” Father Edwin Montana told students in his homily at Mass Feb. 2. “It’s so cool to be part of a Catholic school. We give thanks to God for the gift of a Catholic education.”
The pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish, who helps provide pastoral services to the school, Father Montana said they also give thanks for the hard work of their principal, teachers and parents. He likened the parents to Mary and Joseph, who did what parents of their day were supposed to do when they brought baby Jesus to the temple and offered him to God. That event – the feast of the Presentation of the Lord – was celebrated by the Church Feb. 2.
Father Montana told students to think about how they are being offered to God by their parents by being brought “to a wonderful school,” to teachers who just want them to be “a good follower of Jesus Christ.”
Parents bring their children to Venerini Academy because “it is their vocation,” he said. “Vocation is a call to do something. Who calls … Mom and Dad to bring you here? … Who called Mary and Joseph to bring baby Jesus to the temple?”
“God,” responded a student.
“God - very good,” affirmed Father Montana. “God wants the best for us.
“I have received a beautiful vocation. The Sisters here have received a beautiful vocation. But also, your teachers, parents.
“If you know God is calling you to do (something), it is a vocation. What would you like to become?”
Students’ answers included a doctor, nurse, police officer, even a paleontologist.
“Tell God today that you want his will to be done in your life,” Father Montana said. He told students to say “yes,” and they thundered, “Yes.” Their voices resounded through the chapel again when asked to join in saying the “Hail Mary.”
After Mass a vocational calling for young people was highlighted as student council officers were inducted to serve as leaders in the school. They received a pin and a lighted candle and recited their pledge.
A vocation to religious life was also highlighted. Sister Angela Kavil, a Religious Venerini Sister who teaches religion at Venerini Academy, told The Catholic Free Press what she planned to share with her classes about her own vocation.
She said she was reared in a Catholic family in India, in the southern part of the state of Kerala. Her mother brought her and her siblings to Mass and her father was involved in the Church too. Like other families, they prayed the rosary and read the Bible at home.
Franciscan Sisters taught her in grades 1-7 and Carmelite nuns taught her from grade 8 through high school, she said.
“Catholic education made me think ‘Why can’t I be a missionary?’” Sister Angela said. “I really was attracted” to the sisters’ ministries of teaching, visiting families and “being with the people.” There were also many religious sisters from various congregations in her parish, she said.
When Venerini Sisters visited her high school, they met with girls interested in their congregation, including her, and followed up with a letter, she said.
“I told my parents,” Sister Angela said. “My parents were shocked, but they were OK.” They asked if she wanted to wait longer before entering the congregation, but she chose to do so right after graduating from high school, and her mother said they would support her.
“My desire was … to be a sister and to do something for the people,” Sister Angela said. “I used to read a lot of saints’ stories. … Now I am doing … what Rosa Venerini began with” - educating people to set them free. (St. Rosa Venerini, an Italian educator, founded schools in the late-17th and early-18th century. The congregation, founded later, is named for her.)
Sister Angela came to the Worcester Diocese in 2013 to support the Venerini Sisters here.
“I teach here and help the sisters in the community … teach CCD in the Indian community” in Framingham, she said. The sisters, who belong to St. Patrick Parish in Rutland, also take Communion to shut-ins and nursing home residents from the parish, she said.
“I am very grateful to be here as a visible presence, being a Venerini Sister here, that kids can know what is the religious life,” said Sister Angela, who celebrates 25 years in that life next December.

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