After hosting a successful women’s retreat called Four Women Doctors of the Church, retreat leader and office and communications manager for St. Patrick in Edina, DeAnn Brandel, was prompted during adoration by the Holy Spirit to offer a retreat this year based on vocations.
Brandel told “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley during an interview airing at 9 p.m. Sept. 27 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, “People tend to hear ‘vocations’ and they think of religious or priesthood, and yet that’s not the majority of people. … How do we display and experience the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit in our vocations? How do we practice these fruits as virtues and grow in our vocation? A lot of people stop and think, ‘Today I’m going to practice love or joy,’ but they’re always there and prevalent, and they help us grow in our sanctity.”
Brandel said a vocation is a calling from God that everybody receives. It’s how people listen to, or accept, this calling that makes it a discernment process.
“God created each one of us for a specific purpose,” Brandel said. “He gives us our own personal mission that is just for us, and if we don’t accomplish that, no one will because it was designed by God for us to do that, so he has a plan for us to be happy and that’s through our vocation. If we follow this plan, it helps us to become saints. That leads us to be with him forever in heaven.”
Brandel’s retreat this October will focus on five different vocations: singlehood, consecrated life, married with children, empty-nester and widowhood. Brandel said that empty-nester and widowhood were included because they are a result of the vocation of marriage.
“I wanted to include them because they are a reality of life and they are (a) big transition,” Brandel said. “Widowhood is not wanted, desired, but it (is) still a part of moving into a whole new phase of life. God is always calling us, even when that vocation changes. It’s a hardship, but how do we respond within that new calling?”
To hear more from Brandel about her upcoming women’s retreat centered around vocations, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. Sept. 27 and 2 p.m. Sept. 28.
The program also includes an interview with Archbishop Bernard Hebda about World Day of Migrants and Refugees and the Solidarity Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary. Also, Tim Healy and John Sullivan discuss the success of this year’s Extreme Faith Camp season.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the program can also be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
