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Since 1998, of those involved with FOCUS as students or missionaries, 108 men have entered the seminary and 33 women have entered religious life. Many of our missionaries and student leaders also discovered their vocations to married life and found their spouses through their involvement with FOCUS.   FOCUS encourages young people to think and pray about what vocation God is calling them to, and to respond with generosity.   Click here to view some profiles of men and women who have chosen to pursue religious life after their time as FOCUS missionaries.

"All men are called to accept in faith the saving Gospel. The Church is sent to all peoples, all lands and cultures: "Go... and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt 28:19-20).

These words, spoken by Christ before ascending into heaven, together with the promise he made to the Apostles and their successors that he would be with them until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20), are the essence of the missionary mandate: in the person of his ministers it is Christ himself who goes ad gentes, to those who have not yet received the proclamation of the faith.

Therese Martin, a Discalced Carmelite of Lisieux, ardently desired to be a missionary. She was one, to the point that she could be proclaimed patroness of the missions. Jesus himself showed her how she could live this vocation: by fully practicing the commandment of love, she would be immersed in the very heart of the Church's mission, supporting those who proclaim the Gospel with the mysterious power of prayer and communion. Thus she achieved what the Second Vatican Council emphasized in teaching that the Church is missionary by nature (cf. Ad gentes, no. 2). Not only those who choose the missionary life but all the baptized are in some way sent ad gentes. This is why I chose this missionary Sunday to proclaim St Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face a doctor of the universal Church: a woman, a young person, a contemplative.

Therese is presented as a doctor of the Church on the day we are celebrating World Mission Sunday.  In her zealous love for evangelization, Therese had one ideal, as she herself says: "what we ask of him is to work for his glory, to love him and to make him loved" (Letter 220). The way she took to reach this ideal of life is not that of the great undertakings reserved for the few, but on the contrary, a way within everyone's reach, the "little way", a path of trust and total self-abandonment to the Lord's grace.  It is not a prosaic way, as if it were less demanding. It is in fact a demanding reality, as the Gospel always is. But it is a way in which one is imbued with a sense of trusting abandonment to divine mercy, which makes even the most rigorous spiritual commitment light.

Because of this way in which she receives everything as "grace", because she puts her relationship with Christ and her choice of love at the centre of everything, because of the place she gives to the ardent impulses of the heart on her spiritual journey, Therese of Lisieux is a saint who remains young despite the passing years, and she is held up as an eminent model and guide on the path of Christians, as we approach the third millennium.” (Joannes Paulus II, From the Vatican, on World Mission Sunday October 19, 1997)

Because of St. Therese’s contemplative life, zealous love for evangelization, and trusting abandonment to divine mercy, we hold this doctor and patroness of missions as a model for our imitation in our evangelistic work.  And, as the patroness of FOCUS, we implore her intercession and support as we go out and proclaim the Gospel on college campuses.

Saint Therese, Patroness of the Missions, be a great missionary throughout the world to the end of time.  Remind our Master of His words:  "The harvest is great, but the laborers few."  Your zeal for souls was so great; obtain a like zeal for those now working for souls, and beg God to multiply their numbers, that the millions to whom Jesus is yet unknown, may be brought to know, love and follow Him.  Amen.

Novena:  http://www.ewtn.com/therese/novena.htm

(Compiled by Sarah McAdam)

One of the original six men to found the Society of Jesus with St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis Xavier, patron of foreign missions, parish missions, and missionaries, leaves us an exceptional model of perseverance and dedication to service.   Sent to the Far East, St. Francis committed his life wholly to the gospel, working through inadequate conditions and supplies, and at times resistance, for the glory of Jesus Christ, baptizing tens of thousands.  Dying on an island off the coast of China, St. Francis, whose missionary zeal and love for souls left an indelible mark on history, remains enshrined at Goa and was canonized in 1622.  Pilgrims can pray before the remains of his right hand and forearm in Rome, the hand with which he blessed and baptized so many.

My God, I love thee: not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor because they who love thee not
Must burn eternally.
Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me
Upon the Cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.
And grief and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony;
Yea, death itself; and all for me
Who was thine enemy.
Then why, O Blessed Jesus Christ,
Should I not love thee well??
Not for the hope of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell;
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But as thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord!
Often so I love thee and will love,
And in thy praise will sing,
Solely because thou art my God,
And my eternal King.
(St. Francis Xavier +1552)

(“Poem of Love” taken from http://pweb.sophia.ac.jp/~dmccoy/xavier/prayers/prayers.html)

John Paul II has become a hero for many of us.  In a world so void of anything constant and true, he has shown as a light on a hill, a genuine shepherd feeding his flock, always to be remembered and loved.  His message was the person of Jesus Christ, and his life was dedicated to proclaiming that truth to all peoples.  His call to re-evangelize the areas that once heralded the Christian faith still rings out in the hearts and minds of the faithful.  “…everyone should keep in mind that the vital core of the new evangelization must be a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the person of Jesus Christ, that is, the preaching of his name, his teaching, his life, his promises and the Kingdom which he has gained for us by his Paschal Mystery” (from POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION ECCLESIA IN AMERICA, January 22^nd, 1999)  In our work for the New Evangelization, John Paul II, the source of immense inspiration and guidance, has become for us a patron whose intercession we now humbly implore.  “Now, the Christ whom we have contemplated and loved bids us to set out once more on our journey: ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Mt 28:19).” (from APOSTOLIC LETTER NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE)

“You who, in becoming man, chose to belong to a human family, teach families the virtues which filled with light the family home of Nazareth. May families always be united, as you and the Father are one, and may they be living witnesses to love, justice and solidarity; make them schools of respect, forgiveness and mutual help, so that the world may believe; help them to be the source of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life, and all the other forms of firm Christian commitment. Protect your Church and the Successor of Peter, to whom you, Good Shepherd, have entrusted the task of feeding your flock. Grant that the Church in America may flourish and grow richer in the fruits of holiness.

Teach us to love your Mother, Mary, as you loved her. Give us strength to proclaim your word with courage in the work of the new evangelization, so that the world may know new hope.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of America, pray for us!”

(Prayer taken from POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION ECCLESIA IN AMERICA, January 22^nd, 1999)