As I have mentioned, in the business community, a good website with a promotion program consisting of a blog and other social media tends to attract a higher-educated and more technologically-sophisticated crowd. This holds true of religious vocations, too. We at TreeFrogClick built the website for this men’s community, the Order of Mercy, and developed a video, and have advised them in their internet vocations program.

To find out more about how we can help increase vocations in your community, contact Kevin Banet at 708-393-4098, or kevin@treefrogclick.com. For tips on website publicity, go to our website at www.GreatCatholicWebsites.com.

That was part of the message of the 44th World Communications Day, issued by Pope Benedict XVI Jan. 24.

“The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity,” the Holy Father said in his letter, “The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word”,  “makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel.’ (1 Cor 9:16)

The letter was written with the Year for the Priest in mind, but the Pope mentioned all consecrated people as well:

Consecrated men and women working in the media have a special responsibility for opening the door to new forms of encounter, maintaining the quality of human interaction, and showing concern for individuals and their genuine spiritual needs. They can thus help the men and women of our digital age to sense the Lord’s presence, to grow in expectation and hope, and to draw near to the Word of God which offers salvation and fosters an integral human development.

One of the biggest changes for religious, in my mind, is that with a blog or website, the community’s message reaches out beyond those whom they meet in person, to a much wider audience - the whole world. In our Pro-Life SearchRank program, used by pregnancy centers, our news stories are read by people in Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Nigeria, India, and other places where English is spoken. When I look at the Google Analytics map of the world and see the countries lit up, showing web visits, it makes me proud that all of these people are being reached with the pro-life message. The same happens with religious communities, I’m sure.

The Pope, who now has a YouTube channel, said also in his letter,

In this way the Word can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different “highways” that form “cyberspace”, and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own.

— Kevin J. Banet
President, TreeFrogClick web services

The conference is the HERE I AM LORD weekend in St. Charles, IL. I went last year, and the youthful enthusiasm and fervor for the faith was contagious. “It’s cool to be Catholic” was the feeling I got, with the crowds, music and praying. And these are young Catholics in their teens and 20’s, growing and stepping out in their faith.

Your religious community or diocese’s ad, on the HERE I AM LORD (HIAL) website, at www.hereiamlord.net, will be seen by more than one thousand attendees and youth organizers. The ads are reasonably priced at $50 per month, with a discount for those who take out a three or four-month package leading up to the March 5-8, 2009 conference.

When your ad is clicked, visitors will be taken to your community’s website.

The HERE I AM LORD website was designed and is maintained by TreeFrogClick, the sponsor of VocationPromotion.com. Don’t have an ad? We’ll design one for a reasonable fee.

This is your target group, and you need to act before Dec. 1 to get the greatest discount.

For rates and more information, go to TreeFrogClick’s HIAL-Religious Ads.

A Time of Grace for Youth

The largest parish-based vocations conference in the country is asking for your prayers for the success of its March 5-8, 2009 event in the Chicago area.

The annual HERE I AM LORD National Conference expects 3,000 or more youth and adults for its St. Charles, IL event, and it is filled with prayer, expert Catholic speakers and top-rated Catholic musicians.

“Though marketed as a ‘vocations conference,’ HERE I AM LORD is so much more,” says conference coordinator Michelle Tack. “During the conference weekend we have programming for grade school students, Confirmation programs for high school students, and evening programs for adult formation and children of all ages.  While our guest speakers and musicians are all exceptional, what makes this conference what it is, are the priests, brothers, and sisters who attend.”

Michelle is right — I went to last year’s conference. I found that this event is a special time of grace in which Christ-centered, authentically Catholic direction is given in such an important time in the life of youth. The event is designed to bring teens and religious communities together. Experience has shown that these kinds of conferences are what are giving a real boost to vocations throughout the country.

As I’m sure Michelle has heard before, I wish such Catholic events were around when I was growing up.

Michelle is asking primarily for your prayer support, especially among  cloistered communities, many of whom have made a commitment to do so. She invites them to send a display and information on their charism. If there is a representative that they would like to send, organizers will be pleased to accommodate them and the arrangements for their stay.

Find out more at the HIAL website.
Religious Prayer Warriors
Religious registration on the St. Pat’s website.

Advertise Your Community on the
HERE I AM LORD Website

Your religious community or diocese can advertise on the HERE I AM LORD (HIAL) website for a reasonable fee. You ad will be clearly visible to the more than one thousand web visitors expected over the next few months.

When your ad is clicked, visitors will be taken to your community’s website. The HIAL website, designed by TreeFrogClick, is where conference organizers and youth come to learn about the conference.

Now is the time to advertise, since visits are expected to triple between December and the time of the event. More than one thousand unique web visitors are expected in March, based on last year’s experience.

For rates and more information, go to TreeFrogClick’s HIAL-Religious Ads.

by Kevin J. Banet, webmaster

Recently I spoke with a priest who is helping a contemplative community attract vocations.

“Why don’t they put up a website?” I asked.

“They want to print a 32-page color booklet on their community,” he said.

“But that will cost thousands of dollars - and women who are searching for religious communities are looking on the web,” I said. “A website can be changed easily, and there are no postage fees.”

I explained to him that websites, blogs, and enewsletters are where it’s at in opening your doors to vocations. Single persons are using search engines to look for religious communities, and also looking at blogs, and enewsletters.

Here’s a “how to” to use the internet to attract vocation seekers:

Website: Change content frequently, since changes are noticed by search engines, which give you a higher ranking. Get incoming links from other religious communities and related organizations. Links help search rankings, too. Or write a blog that links back to your website (see below).

Blog: Start a blog, which is a kind of journal about which you can post articles and photos. Talk about the charism of your community. Your friends will keep coming back for more news. There are many free blogs sites, such as Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, and Livejournal.com. Blogs can also be installed on your website.

Check out this Google list of Catholic vocation blogs. Some are a bit goofy (with a picture of a movie star), but many inspire one to a true spirituality and community life.

Enewsletter: Keep in touch with your contacts about your Come and See days, or about the latest events in your community. Send them from your own email program, such as Outlook, or, if the list gets too big — or if you just want to make your newsletter look better with nice graphics — use an easy-to-use commercial service, such as Constant Contact, for as low as $15/mo., and which also has a free 60-day trial. Or Enewsletters Online, which offers 100 sends per month for free.

Best wishes in “using the modern means of communications” (Vatican II).

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Quote for today: “Young people, if they know how to pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God’s call.” Pope Benedict XVI

by Kevin J. Banet, webmaster

The modern mind is muddled.

What is a religious vocation, anyway?

I came across a clear description of a religious vocation today that I thought would help those who have a vocation but don’t know what it is. Too often a vocation is thought of in terms of a career, or just a personal choice. It’s more than that.

This description appeared in the June 11 blog post of the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude, in Marbury, AL.

“Each person has their own particular vocation, the one that will bring them to holiness. But the religious vocation is a special mystery all its own. … The vocation to religious life is neither a sacrament nor does it imprint a character, yet the Church, following the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, believes that the pronouncing of vows does cause an effect in the soul of the one who does it. Even in eternity the effect remains.”

Maybe I’m partial to the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, since I received training as a Third Order Dominican, but I appreciate the sisters’ clear comparison of the Sacraments of Orders, Marriage, and that of a religious vocation. This kind of teaching is good for those seeking a religious vocation, who often don’t have a clear notion of it.

This blog, called “From Marbury’s Hilltop,” was started in September 2007, and averages about 185 visits per month — not bad. It features a large picture of two young happy sisters reaching out to a statue of the Blessed Mother. The sisters make an entry every few days, and nearly all of the topics are about the saint of the day, occasionally how they relate to the Dominican Order. There are colorful pictures of saints, and links to Catholic websites for further reading. Some of the posts are I think, too long, but otherwise, it is a good blog.

When you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can subscribe to the “feed.” When you do this, your browser — for example, Internet Explorer, tucks the name of the blog onto a drop-down menu at the top of your browser (in my IE, version 7, a little gold star). Then I can click it to check on the latest blog entry.

The blog was created on the popular, free blogsite, Blogger, which says on its home page that you can create a blog in three easy steps. Another free blogsite is WordPress.

This sisters’ blog is the kind that you would tell your friends and aspirants about to keep them connected.

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Quote of the day: “One clear sign of this radical commitment is seen in the many vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life the Church in your country is currently experiencing.”
– Pope Benedict XVI’s address to Bangladesh Bishops, June 12, 2008

by Kevin J. Banet, webmaster

It is God who calls, isn’t it?

In his World Day of Prayer for Vocations this year, Pope Benedict XVI said, “the Holy Spirit attracts some people to live the Gospel in a radical way and translate it into a style of more generous following.”

Yes, it is the Holy Spirit - plus our work. What kind of work? I know of certain religious communities that are successful in attracting vocations that have a lot of worldly wisdom and work very hard. I read a while ago that the vocation director for the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, in Ann Arbor, MI carries a Blackberry so she can quickly respond to emails sent by young women interested in the community.

How important is being tech savvy in vocations work?

I recently spoke with Patrice Touhy, executive editor of Vision Vocation Guide, of the Catholic Religious Vocation Network. This group features Vocation Guide, a popular online service that matches candidates with religious communities. I talked with her about using traditional printed brochures versus internet material.

“PDF is the number 1, quick way to get information to discerners,” she said of the popular document format. “Number 2, it saves them the cost of postage. It will save them hundreds of dollars per year.”

The internet, she said, is “the preferred way young people want to receive information. Young people are very conscious of a paperless society.” She also said, “It’s a competitive market, believe it or not. You don’t want to be the last community to respond [to inquiries].”

Is it God calling, or our technological knowledge, or both? I think it’s grace building on nature - and this is a mystery that we can’t fully understand. As one of the saints has said, we must pray as if it all depended on God, and work as if it all depended on us.

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References:

Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist

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Quote of the day: “Before the Lord, in the silence of your hearts, some of you may feel called to follow him in a more radical way in the priesthood or the consecrated life.”

- Pope Benedict XVI’s Address to Youth at the International Eucharistic Congress in Quebec, June 21, 2008

by Kevin J. Banet, webmaster

When hundreds of thousands of youth descend upon Sydney, Australia five days from now, some of them will be singing a hymn advertised on the internet by a group of Franciscan Sisters in Milwaukee.

A specially-composed modern remake of “Come Holy Ghost,” available for download at the website of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity is sure to garner some interest among those seeking vocations. And this kind of publicity is free.

The Sisters submitted a press release to several online services.  You can read their release on CathPR Wire, which offers a free press release service, subject to approval. I found the release listed in a very impressive third-place ranking on Google.com when I typed in the words “World Youth Day sisters.” These are terms that I think would be used by youth interested in the event and also in a vocation.

The press release states that the hymn “re-imagines the traditional hymn, correlating with the Pentecost theme of World Youth Day 2008.” It also says, “It’s both a benediction for youth traveling to Sydney, as well as a way for those who can’t attend to take a ‘multicultural musical journey’.”

Writing crisp, succinct and interesting copy is an important skill. The Sisters did well. First of all, they chose a timely theme, and one that concerns youth, a key audience target. They also offered something free, which is always a grabber. In this release, the Sisters describe the various elements that make up the song, with quotes of composers and a two-sentence kicker at the end explaining the community.

Another site that the Sisters sent their release to was that of a company called 24-7 Press Release. This company explains that publishers can choose the free service, or one of several paid plans that include features such as photo inclusion and RSS feeds (used in blogs), starting at $49. (The Sisters’ press release mentioned here appears to come from their free service.)

I mention 24-7 Press Release because they offer a 12-page section on press release writing tips that is also available on PDF. They also offer a section on resouces made of books and websites that can help in learning this kind of writing.

There are other free press release services as well. Check out PR Log, and I-newswire.com.

Besides single persons, your target audience will include journalists and bloggers, who are always looking for news and good copy. How do I know this? I used to be a newspaper reporter.  Where do you think the media comes up with ideas? Someone has to toot his own horn. Just think, a reporter or blogger may give extra mileage to your press release, just as I did with the Sisters’ free audio.

What can you feature in your press release? Look for a good news angle. Is your community doing something new? Can you relate your community’s life to a timely event? Is there a unique angle to the services you provide in your apostolate? Can you relate your founder’s charism with your apostolate in a fresh way? What does the silence of your cloister offer to today’s busy world? These are all gist for the mill for press releases.

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Quote of the day: “I volunteered a personal donation [of cash] since I am eager to see as many young people as possible attend this event which has the potential to change lives and open the way for young people to respond to a vocation from the Lord.”

- Fr Tim Finigan, parish priest of Our Lady of the Rosary, Blackfen, England, blogging about World Youth Day.