Fr. Anthony Bozeman SSJ, a Josephite priest from New Orleans, told everyone in Conlin Auditorium to look at the person next to him and tell him that he doesn’t have swag. That is unless he has God.

 References to swag were not what students expected to hear from the priest, who was the guest speaker during the annual Vocation Awareness Day program at St. Benedict’s last month.

 “He spoke in a way that us teens would understand,” said senior Christian Pereira. “It was very up to date.”

 Fr.Bozeman was  impressed with the students. “The students are so alive in spirit. They really recognize who they are in God.”

 This year’s program was in line with the Year for Consecrated Life that Pope Francis had called the upcoming 2015 liturgical year. The program began with the whole community of St. Benedict’s, along with guests, singing along to the official song for the Year for Consecrated Life, “Wake Up the World.” Science chair and Spiritual Life team member Dennis Lansang M.D. created a slide-show with the lyrics to the song to help the students sing along.

 The program continued with a video about Fr. Bozeman’s community, the Josephites. After the video, the community sang the song “We are Called” which is frequently sung at convocation.  Fr. Bozeman said that he loved how everyone sang the song together.

(View more photos from Vocation Awareness Day)

The program continued with short gospel read by one of the guests, Fr. Justino Cornejo. After the gospel, senior Najee Evans, gave a short reflection about the idea of all the different types of vocations, and how many different vocations serve the same purpose.

 The program concluded with a vocation call. Everyone who felt the call to a religious vocation stood up and received a blessing from one of the presbyters. The guests and selected students then went to the Abbey Hospitality Center for refreshments and a chance to talk.