As we enter the month of November, the U.S. Catholic Church celebrates National Vocation Awareness Week Nov. 2-8 this year. The Church invites Catholics to promote vocations to ordained ministry and consecrated life through prayer, invitation, and education. As a consecrated religious woman, I am proud to be a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine, Florida who have served Floridians since 1866, even before the Diocese of St. Augustine was established.

Last month we celebrated the 375th anniversary of the founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Le Puy, France. Our Congregation always celebrates our Sister’s Jubilees around our founding date in October. On October 11 we celebrated the 60th Jubilee of Sister Suzan Foster, a native of St. Augustine. We had a lovely Mass and reception for all the consecrated religious in the Diocese of St. Augustine as part of the 2025 Jubilee Year. Bishop Erik Pohlmeier of St. Augustine was presiding celebrant and preached.

**Sister Suzan Foster, Jubilarian, reads at Oct. 11th Mass at St. Anastasia Church.**

Sister Suzan is retired from ministry in Catholic education, but she remains quite active as a member of the Congregation’s Leadership Team and as a teacher in the St. Joseph Neighborhood Center Program for young single mothers with children.

A call to consecrated life is a call to dedicate oneself to God through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. It is a call to live in community with others who share Gospel values. Apostolic religious life is about loving God and loving and serving others. Consecrated life witnesses as a countercultural sign of the reign of God in the world. We thank God for the gift of women like Sister Suzan Foster and for all the consecrated religious who serve the Church in the United States.

What have you done to promote vocations lately?

November 2-8 is National Vocation Awareness Week

Canticle of Creation Art Display at Cathedral during Season of Creation