Saturday, March 18, 2006

WASHINGTON (March 13, 2006) — Fishers of Men, an 18-minute film which is a major resource in a new vocational fulfillment and recruitment project sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, will be premiered this week.

The project, Priestly Life and Vocation Summit: Fishers of Men, is intended to renew priests’ sense of fulfillment in their vocation and to encourage them to draw on that satisfaction to invite other men to pursue the priesthood. The project was developed by the USCCB Committee on Vocations.

The film, produced by Grassroots Films of Brooklyn, NY, is a fast-paced video which shows many of the facets of a priest’s daily life. Several priests provide testimony to the importance they place on their own vocation. A dramatic re-enactment portrays how a priest can inspire a vocation through his service to someone in need of priestly ministry.

The film is part of a process of encouraging priests to step back from their daily lives and to reflect on the many positive reasons why they pursued a vocation to the priesthood, to discuss those reasons with their brother priests, and ultimately to share them with other men to invite them to consider the priesthood.

Source: New Vocations Film Encourages Priests To Be Fishers Of Men United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Grassroots Films in Brooklyn, NY is an independent outfit associated with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and also produced the short film "God in the Streets of New York City", chronicling a Eucharistic procession through the streets of Manhattan in 2005 to mark the celebration of the Year of the Eucharist, using a monstrance blessed by the Holy Father Pope John Paul II.

I had the privilege of screening the full-version of the film this weekend, and I have to say Fishers of Men is every bit as incredible -- a testimony not only to the creative and technical prowess of those involved in its creation, but to their great faith as well.

Let us pray that it will be seen (and discussed) by many a priest in our Church.

• Read about the Fishers of Men Priestly Life and Vocations Summit
• Watch a trailer of the film - Windows Media Player | Quicktime | RealPlayer (requires version 10.0 or higher)

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Against The Grain is the personal blog of Christopher Blosser - web designer and all around maintenance guy for the original Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club (Now Pope Benedict XVI).