Welcome
The Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations is privileged to assist men and women to follow God's call to service in the Church through a life of consecration. We operate the St. Joseph Student Debt Relief Grant Program for religious life and the St. John Vianney Student Debt Relief Grant Program for the parish priesthood. These grants eliminate the delay many young people encounter as they struggle to pay off their student debts before they can enter religious life. A grant pays candidates' student loan payments while they are in formation for either religious life or the priesthood.
News
22 More Vocations Enabled
From the 43 applications received for our 2012 grant awards we were able to issue 22 grants.
As always, we have taken a great leap of faith that our donors will continue to support this very important work (and, of course, we are always reaching out to find new donors). By issuing those 22 grants, we have committed ourselves to raise an additional $40,000 each year!
The following vocations were enabled:
- Aislinn joining the Dominican Nuns at the St. Dominic's Monastery in Linden, VA.
- Andrew entering the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius in Chicago, IL.
- Brent and Ronald entering the Dominican Friars of the Central Province.
- Sean entering the Preistly Fraternity of St. Peter (US seminary in Denton, NE).
- Cecilia and Grace entering the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville, TN.
- Elise entering the Marian Community of Reconciliation in Denver, CO.
- Deepa joining the Dominican Nuns of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, NJ.
- Ariel entering the School Sisters of St. Francis in Panhandle, TX.
- Alex entring the St. Bonaventure Province of Conventual Franciscan Friars (novitiate in Chicago, IL).
- Deirdre Marie entering the Carmelites of the Virgin of Carmel and St. Joseph in Tricio, Spain.
- Myriam joining the Trappistines at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Crozet, VA.
- Mary entering the Brooklyn Visitation Manastery.
- Victor entering the Order of Augustinian Recollects in Union City, NJ.
- Amy joining the Carmel of Jesus, Mary and Joseph in Elysburg, PA.
- Karl entering the Mount Carmel Hermitage in Christobal, TX.
- Colin joining the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest (US novitiate in Chicago, IL).
- Emily entering the Sister Adorers of the Royal Heart of Jesus in Europe.
- Kayla entering the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara (US novitiate Upper Marlboro, MD).
- Melissa entering the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles, CA.
- Alain of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in New York, NY.
Click here for our news archive ...
Watch our video,
Missing Vocations,
which portrays the joy
of our grant recipients
and the great need that remains
to help more vocations come to fruition.
Please Help
We are helping 83 men and women follow their vocations (and have helped another 45 to try their vocations). Each year we must raise the money necessary to make their student loan payments. These men and women pray each day for you, for the Church and for the world as they work to become priests, monks and brothers, and nuns and sisters.
You can read about some of these men and women on our vocation stories page.
That was the good news. The truly awful news is that we have had to turn away 87 young people who wanted to offer their lives to Christ, but could not because of their student debt! Will the Church lose these vocations?
Please help us help them by making a tax-deductible contribution.
Over at the President's Blog ...
- Visit with Br. John Pio
- Visit with Sr. Mary Isabel and other Menlo Park Dominicans
- Visits with the Servants of the Lord and the OCD Carmelites
- Visit with Sr. Angela and the Novitiate of the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles
- Visit to the El Carmelo retreat center of the Carmelite Friars
- Photo Essay of First Profession of Sr. Mary Magdalene
Milestones
(Progress of MEFV grantees)
» On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception Dominican Sr. Mary Magdalene of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary (Summit, NJ) made her first profession of vows.