pogi points for the vocation campaign
Let me offer some unsolicited advice.
First, it is good to note that every vocation story, a story no less similar than your story and mine, starts with an attraction. This kind of attraction is initial, so you must realize that it is skin deep. It is an attraction when one immediately judges the quality of life one is made to desire, and ultimately, to decide on. It is an attraction akin to the owner of the orchard in today’s gospel. He looks for the obvious. He looks for evidence that the tree he has planted and will continue to nurture, is of good variety and therefore worth its space in his little world which is his orchard - the fruit, the evidence of a life to be desired and later on to be decided upon.
Translating this in practical terms, during these days of vocation campaign, develop some pogi points. As I said, the initial attraction which is the start of all vocation stories is skin deep. It starts with the pogi points. How do you go about it then?
Pogi point number one: bring your best uniform, shine your shoes, bring your best and whitest sautana, cut your fingernails, don a nice haircut, freshen your breath by brushing your teeth more than once a day. If you are wearing a sautana wear it a little longer, move around wearing it way, way before the mass and way, way after the mass. Show it, parade it, meet people in it. Watch those buttons and be sure they’re close way up to the neck. Wear it just like you did during your investiture and make sure people see, make sure young men and boys see you in them. And so also with your uniform. This is pogi point number one.
Pogi point number two. Remember you are still attracting people and attractions are as I have said usually skin deep. Pogi point number 2 is quite deeper than the first though still not deep enough. It lies in the attitude, in your actuations, in your bearing, in your character. Pray together – that’s the biggest point in pogi point number 2. People seldom see young men praying together on their own. When people see this they will say “wow, you don’t see this often, they are really different”. That’s the point of pogi point number 2 – you are not like the rest at least at the initial meeting. You are respectful and you do the besa mano to the elders, not like the rest. You stand and pray during the ringing of the angelus bells, not like the rest. You pray before you eat, not like the rest. You are respectful in church, you genuflect, you do not talk and if you have to, you do so in a soft voice, not like the rest. You treat the parish priest with respect and admiration, you behave well and gentlemanly, you treat women with courtesy which includes a healthy and respectful distance, not like the rest. You smile a lot, you exude an aura of approachability even to young, innocent and simplistic young men, again not like the rest. Pogi point number 2 makes the initial and skin deep attraction a little bit deeper. It sets the atmosphere for the initial encounter. It will make them curious. It will set the stage for inquiry, and for persons who are too shy to approach you, these images will haunt them for quite sometime until they find the courage to inquire. And they will seldom forget. In fact they will never forget this sight – a man in sautana, a properly dressed boy in clean and well-pressed uniform, a praying young man, a boy intent in his prayers and in the mass; a boy who knows what to do during the mass; a good reader, a good server. And mind you combined with pogi point number one, pogi point number two will make you quite attractive eliciting comments like baw ka gwapo, even if you are not; baw kanugon kay mapari, even if you will not.
Second, it is good to remember that the initial attraction if it is to remain in the person and bear fruit in him must be followed up by something deeper. This is the second stage – talking, communicating. In this stage you are setting the attraction to become more or less permanent. This is a very crucial task in you vocation campaign. I call this pogi point number three. You have aroused their curiosity. They have already formed questions in their minds, questions they would like to ask, questions like who is this man, from where is he, where is he studying, what do they do there, what is being done to them that made them like this. Without saying it they are inwardly asking for answers to these questions, and you have to be ready for a reply – a down to earth reply both short and interesting. Pogi point number three is to learn to talk about your experience, your own experience. Don’t muddle their minds by talking about the CASA formation program – it is too complicated and besides CASA has a bad connotation outside. Don’t talk about the DOV or SD or IC and never talk to them about “the inner child”. You will just confuse them. Talk about your experience and make it interesting – interesting experiences like surviving Latin, winning football, riding the horse, cleaning the house, scrubbing floors, learning basketball, surviving study periods, eating lunch, serving masses, singing in the choir, watching movies together, being punished together, laughing, crying, standing up and fighting like a man, etc, etc.
Stories – people like stories. Didn’t I tell you many times before that I was attracted to enter the seminary because of the seminary cow? The cow had already been eaten but I remember, and when I do, I say, “Holy cow, I became a priest because of you.” Interesting stories – that’s pogi point number three.
It is only after these that you can talk about the priesthood and why it is important for you. This is Pogi point number 4. Talk about the priesthood but talk about it in your own way of understanding it. Don’t quote Pastores Dabo Vobis or Presbyterorum Ordinis or the Catholic Catechism, or Fr. Richard, or Msgr. Joemarie. If you do, all you would ever do is to merely impress them with your knowledge. In this day and age you would be more attractive if you touched people rather than impress people with your talent. Just talk about the priesthood that you know, the priesthood that you experience and why it is firing you up and making you dream dreams. Talk about your ambition to become one. When you were young you may have celebrated mass at home when no adult was looking, with you as the priest and your little sister as the altar server and your blanket as your sautana and the pandesal you saved during breakfast as your ostyas. Talk about your own dream to become a priest, or perhaps to become a bishop, or still perhaps to become pope. Who cares – nobody has the right to stop a young man from dreaming. Talk about your old parish priest who first defined for you what the priesthood is all about and attracted you initially to the kind of life that he lived. Talk about the priesthood that attracted you to your own call, your own understanding of the priesthood. Talk about the obstacles that blocked your way and still do. People remember stories, they are attracted to stories, they are touched by stories and sometimes they are moved to action by the stories we tell.
And so that’s it. It is not much but it is worth trying. But remember this very well, there is no greater and better campaigner for vocation than your presence in the parish. Good luck and God bless.
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