A young man and a priest are playing golf together. At a short par 3 the priest asks, “What are you going to use on this hole, my son?” The young man says, ‘A 9-iron, Father. How about you?’”
The priest says, “I’m going to hit a soft 7 and pray.” The young man hits his iron and puts the ball on the green. The priest tops his iron and dribbles the ball out a few yards. The young man says, “I don’t know about you, Father, but in my church when we pray we keep our heads down.”
You might be wondering to yourself: “What does a golf joke have to do with vocations?” With the help of The Catholic Messenger and the Serra Club of Davenport, we’re having a Vocation Promotion contest and the top two winners in each grade will have the opportunity to play putt-putt golf and have pizza with Bishop Martin Amos. All you have to do is to write a prayer for vocations or draw a picture about vocations. The overall winners in each grade division — grades 2-4, 5-6, 7-8 and high school — will have their prayer or artwork printed on a prayer card that will be given out in the Diocese of Davenport.
New this year: the contest is open to all students in the diocese from second grade through senior in high school and they have the option of writing a prayer for vocations or designing the artwork for a prayer card.
If you decide to write a prayer, it needs to be 100 words or less. If you write more than that you will be assessed a two-stroke penalty and you may not get any cheese on your pizza if you win.
Be sure to include your name, address, phone number, grade you are in, school and parish you attend. Use your imagination and creativity — gifts that God has given you! Send your creative ideas to The Catholic Messenger at 780 W. Central Park Ave., Davenport, IA 52804 by Friday, Feb 4. The winners will be announced the last week of February and the winner of each division will be published in The Catholic Messenger.
It’s time to get started. Just remember that we are in the business of encouraging vocations together. Thanks for helping! Together we can get the message out! And remember to keep your head down when you pray for the gift of vocations in our diocese and Church. Our prayers can — and will — make a big difference.
(Fr. Goetz is vocations director for the Davenport Diocese. Contact him at (563) 324-1912 ext. 259, or goetz@davenportdiocese.org.)
