The vocation.com Coffee House welcomed over 800 enthusiastic youth on Monday, August 15.   Located at the Senats Hotel, Unter Goldschmied 9 -17, about 200 meters from the Cologne Cathedral, the coffee house offered live music from the bands “Starfoam”, “Fresh”, “Cardiac Move”, and Daniel diSilva, lead singer of the band Crispin.  The weeklong dynamic program includes a mix of music, videos and vocational testimonies from priests, consecrated and religious, conveying a single message:  developing a deeper relationship with Christ and opening one’s heart to the possibility of a vocation within the Universal Church.

Tuesday’s event listing included a visit from Fr. Edward Burns, Executive Director Secretariat for Priestly Formation and Vocations for The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.   Fr. Burns gave his own vocational testimony while encouraging the youth to consider a life of service to God and others, be it as a priest or consecrated man or women,  or as lay Catholic working in a service related field. The German Life Teen Band “Spirit and Song”, “Raindown”, and renowned juggler, Paul Ponce, rounded out the entertainment while playing to an enthusiastic crowd.  Elizabeth Kelley, a World Youth Day pilgrim from the United States explains, “This vocation.com Coffee House is a great opportunity for young Catholics to have fun with friends, hear great speakers and Catholic bands, and spend time with Christ in the Eucharist.” 
 
Later in the week, Bishop König from Paderborn, Germany, Fr. Francis Bonnici from the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education and other priests, bishops, and religious from different congregations will visit the Coffee House and speak to the youth.  Throughout, the Adoration Chapel has remained nearly full as the World Youth Day pilgrims stop in to spend some quiet time with Christ. 

In three short years, www.vocation.com has established itself as a premier interactive website helping young people hear and respond to God’s will in their lives.  In April 2005, the one- millionth visitor logged onto the website which extends to 60 countries on six continents and is translated in English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German and soon Portuguese.   The site now hosts over 2,100 visitors per day and has responded to 10,000 requests for spiritual guidance, vocation-relation questions, and prayers.  7,800 registered subscribers receive its free weekly vocational newsletter ShoreLines.  Worldwide adorers logged 369,654 hours in the Adoration for Vocations campaign.

www.vocation.com  is a service of the Legionaries of Christ and Regnum Christi in collaboration with the vocation directors of several dioceses, promoting vocations to all walks of consecrated life and the priesthood, both in dioceses and in religious congregations.