A diocese in Florida is trying an innovative approach to vocations — targeting two specific age groups in one fell swoop. Florida Catholic has details:

Church vocation directors say a crucial element of encouraging vocations is inviting young people to consider entering the priesthood or religious life. Focus 11, an annual diocesan vocations rally, ensures at least two groups of Catholic youths get at least one high-energy invitation.

Focus 11 is aimed at students in grades six (or about age 11), and grade 11. Studies show these are the times when adolescents and teens most think about their future life and work. The church believes it is the perfect time to ask them to consider their vocation: what God wants them to do in their lives.

More than 1,000 youths and teens attended this year’s Focus 11 the week of Feb. 11 at St. Lawrence Parish, Tampa. One day was dedicated to high school juniors; the other two were divided between sixth-grade students.

Feb. 12 belonged to about 550 sixth-graders, most from Pinellas County. Over the course of the day they competed for the loudest, most-spirited cheer; sang songs; watched Spiderman clips and humorous skits; and played scavenger hunts that allowed them to meet sisters, brothers and priests from about a dozen religious communities.

Keynote presenter Sister Tracey Dugas, a Daughter of St. Paul stationed in Miami, told the students her big goal as a teen was to get a job at the mall so she could “get a really good discount at The Gap.” A spiritual retreat took her in a different direction. She went from caring about clothes to caring about serving Jesus.

“I realized religion was more about having a relationship with Jesus,” she said. “Focus 11 is about your looking into the future and saying, ‘what kind of person do I want to be?’”

Diocesan schools dedicate an entire school day to the rally. The chairwoman, Poor Clare Sister Phyllis Shaughnessy, who also chairs the diocese’s Clergy and Religious Promotion Commission, said students from public schools, home-schooled children and students of Catholic schools not overseen by the diocese also attended this year.

In addition to inviting teens and preteens to consider a church vocation, Focus 11 encourages those who do not feel the call to support those who do. It isn’t easy for those contemplating the priesthood or religious life, organizers said, because society in general touts self-indulgence, affluence and prestige.

“To go to the seminary today is a lot harder than 20 years ago,” said diocesan Vocations Director Father Len Plazewski. “There’s society, peer pressure. … Guys who go to the seminary today, they really are making a heroic decision.”

Another barrier is parents who harbor negative views of a church vocation, he said. Without thinking, moms and dads say things about the priesthood they would never say about other professions, or make comments that lead children to believe they aren’t “good enough” to hand their life over to God. Some parents feel the religious life is less joyful than what one could have as a married person or parent. Others are downright hostile.

“I can say without a doubt that the No. 1 challenge in vocations is parents,” the priest said. “Even parents who might not object may say subtle things like, ‘that’s a hard life,’ as opposed to saying something (similar) about a doctor. … There’s this (image) of a priest as having a sad and lonely life.”

Check out the rest at the link. And pray, unceasingly, for more vocations.

Photo: Sister Tracey Dugas, a sister of the Daughters of St. Paul, puts a star temporary tattoo and writes “Jesus!” on the cheek of Jackie Smith, a St. Petersburg Catholic High School senior. Photo by Janet Shelton, Florida Catholic