Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 24 July 2018 -- “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Mt.9:37-38).
For this young Mission Church where we have only one local priest so far we extremely feel the need to pray and encourage our local young people to Priesthood and Religious life.
The Vocation Animation Team: Fr.Justin CICM, Fr. Enkh Joseph (first Mongolian priest), Sr. Agnes Gangmei FMA and Sr. Esperanza Maria MDC of the Catholic Prefecture in Mongolia had conducted a Vocation Camp with the theme “Come and See”, for the young boys and girls at Erdenesant Camp site on July, 17-19. Some twenty young people took part in this annual event.
We have set out from well set up and stable Cathedral Church in the city of Ulaanbaatar to Nomadic Gher in the country side. From noisy crowded city to quiet and peaceful site. The Chaste life of Jesus, Poverty and Obedience of Jesus were different topics for three different days. Fr. Stephen Kim was the main speaker.
The vocation camp was conducted in a simple recollection mood: Morning Prayer, Holy Mass - Eucharistic celebration, Talk - Meditation, time for Personal Reflection and Prayer, again joint Meditation, Holy Rosary alternated with the Taize Prayer etc.
At the end our young people have expressed their good experience: they have never experience such kind of camp. Two and three of them shared that they could never imagine they could be so happy and contented without much noise or games, only in silence, prayer and being alone praying. The beautiful natural scenery was a great help to all of them to pray.
After three days they felt that it was too short. These days passed so fast! We pray and hope that this vocation camp experience would help our young Mongolian Catholics to come to know more deeply about Jesus Christ and offer generously their life to work in His vineyard.
At present the whole Catholic Church in Mongolia is formed by few hundreds of local believers and about 70 missionaries, most of them men and women religious. Vocation culture and promotion is among the top priorites of our young Church, that celebrated last year only 25 years of history.
