How can you encourage vocations? Someone had a great idea in Albany, and posted about the experience at the blog for Our Sunday Visitor:

For the past nine months I’ve been working with eight Boy Scouts from my parish, including my own 13-year-old son, toward the completion of their Ad Altare Dei medal, a fairly rigorous religious program for Catholic Scouts that requires them to study the seven sacraments one by one. Service projects and prayers, Powerpoints and collages are all part of the “homework” that has to be done before they conclude with a weekend retreat.

I recently helped the boys with the Holy Orders chapter and thought it would be a good experience for them to attend an actual ordination. So this weekend we headed down to the newly renovated Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany to see five men ordained, including one Eagle Scout who served briefly at our parish, making it all the more personal and pertinent to the boys. As far as I’m concerned, what better group than Boy Scouts to tap for potential vocations to the priesthood. They’ve already shown their commitment to something bigger than themselves just by showing up and working their way through the not-so-easy ranks of Scouting.

Visit the OSV link to find out what happened. And give the author a merit badge for ingenuity!